High-Acuity Stabilization Specialist

Full-time/Benefits Eligible
Bilingual (English/Spanish) Preferred
Tuesday-Saturday 9:00am – 6:00pm*
Pay Rate: $59,227 (not negotiable)
*Flexibility is needed to be available outside of this schedule to assist with time sensitive participant needs.

Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse has begun an organizational process of transforming philosophy and practice to acknowledge the root causes of violence as being embedded in multiple, intersecting systemic oppressions (sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism/poverty, able-ism, and anti-immigrant sentiment).

These conversations directly impact the climate and culture of our organization and are tied to the climate and culture in our community related to violence as a normalized experience. We are seeking team members across the organization who understand that humanizing the experience of all people is a radical act in a non-profit system and who are willing to be a part of transforming our organizational culture to be a more antiracist multicultural institution.

We are seeking job applicants who understand it is our responsibility to ensure that our responses to domestic abuse must include the experiences of those who are most in need and who have the least amount of access to help and support and who can work in an environment that is rapidly changing.

We’re committed to making our community a safer place for everyone. Join us!

POSITION OVERVIEW
The High-Acuity Stabilization Specialist walks alongside participants during moments of intense distress or trauma activation, offering grounding support and stabilization. The Specialist coaches staff in real time on how to recognize and respond to escalating behaviors, control dynamics, and identity-based harm with compassion and safety. This role collaborates closely with the Emergency Services team and shelter leadership to support stabilization, strengthen safety planning, and prepare high-acuity survivors for transitions. This role partners closely with Case Coordinators, the other Shelter Specialists, and Shelter Directors. The Specialist also facilitates 2–3 weekly groups designed specifically to address high acuity needs.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned to meet business needs.

RESPONSIBILITIES COMMON TO ALL AGENCY EMPLOYEES

• Commits to upholding the agency’s mission, vision, community guidelines and values of safety, liberation, responsibility & repair, love, innovation, and joy. We value diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging in all that we do
• Engage in radical service to, and acceptance of, staff and participants as they are by committing to showing up with integrity and love and encouraging all to use their power to affect change
• Commits to creating and maintaining a safe, equitable, trauma-informed, and healing work environment for all participants and staff members
• Commits to a culture of understanding how our collective actions affect participants’ efforts to regain their independence and rebuild their lives
• Assess potential crisis situations responding to, and accurately documenting, in an equity-centered and trauma-informed manner while notifying appropriate personnel as soon as possible
• Follow all protocols and practices of Emerge programs, as well as all city, county, state, and federal rules
• Displays an ability to identify problems and generate a range of solutions utilizing creativity, collaboration, open communication, and critical thinking skills
• Maintains confidentiality of shelter sites and information pertaining to all staff, participants, and visitors
• Dedicated to personal development, furthering knowledge, services, and approaches to better meet needs of participants and staff
• Strives for innovation incorporating new tools, practices, and mindsets that support relationship building, rest, restoration, and healing; not only for collective liberation but also for our individual wholeness, freedom, and ability to thrive
• Attend all meetings and trainings as required

RESPONSIBILITIES COMMON TO ALL SHELTER SPECIALISTS

Participant Support & Stabilization

• Build trust-centered, culturally responsive relationships with participants
• Provide trauma-informed emotional support, grounding, and de-escalation
• Reinforce CTI-aligned goals through daily interactions without duplicating case management
• Support participant success in communal living through nonviolent communication
• Provides resource support related to their area of specialization and connects participants to tools, supports, and services that strengthen stabilization, healing, and success

Community Safety & Environment

• Maintain a safe, trauma-informed, and healing-centered shelter environment
• Interrupt identity-based harm and promote inclusive, anti-oppressive community norms
• Partners with Facilities and Operations to identify and address environmental or sensory conditions that affect participant regulation

Collaboration & Care Coordination

• Collaborate closely with Case Coordinators, ESLs, and Directors
• Share environment and stabilization trends in team huddles, Care Team, and Stabilization Team meetings
• Participate in restorative, healing-centered processes when harm occurs
• Offers in-the-moment coaching to staff to help them respond to participants in grounded, trauma-informed ways
• Participates in the after-hours rotation to support hotline and time-sensitive participant or staff needs

Documentation & Compliance

• Document interactions and environment observations in alignment with Emerge’s documentation standards
• Ensure timely, factual, survivor-centered, anti-oppressive, and strengths-based documentation
• Contribute to data that informs program adjustments and strategic planning

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

Acute Emotional & Behavioral Support

• Provide specialized, real-time support to participants experiencing significant distress, dysregulation, or acute trauma responses
• Use grounding, rapport-based engagement, and de-escalation techniques
• Develop short-term stabilization strategies aligned with CTI plans and domestic abuse education

Risk Pattern Identification

• Observe and interpret patterns indicating elevated risk or destabilization
• Communicate risks collaboratively to Case Coordinators and Shelter Leadership
• Contribute to stabilization planning by identifying known triggers, cycles, and high-risk relational dynamics

Coaching on Coercive Control, Escalation, & Identity-Based Harm

• Provide functional coaching to staff on:
  • recognizing escalating violence
  • understanding patterns of coercive control
  • responding safely
  • documenting risk in alignment with trauma-informed, anti-oppressive practices
• Help staff navigate identity-based violence and risk dynamics

High-Acuity and Crisis Response

• Partner with Case Coordinators and Specialists to reinforce stabilization skills for high-acuity participants
• Provide short, individualized grounding or emotional regulation sessions as appropriate
• Support participants through high-stress transition points such as entry, acute crises, and exits
• Supports staff in responding to participants experiencing suicidal or homicidal thoughts, self-harm behaviors, or acute substance use concerns

Housing Readiness for High-Acuity Participants

• Identify behavioral and emotional patterns that may impact long-term housing stability and communicate these to the teams
• Reinforce independent living skills, self-regulation, and confidence-building practices that support housing success
• Provide emotional support around housing-related stressors, setbacks, and system navigation.

Group Facilitation (2–3 Weekly Groups)

• Facilitate healing-centered stabilization groups focused on emotional regulation, conflict navigation, safety planning, and grounding practices

Real-time Staff Coaching

• Provide real-time coaching during elevated participant interactions or unfolding crises
• Model trauma-responsive, culturally affirming de-escalation strategies for staff at al levels
• Strengthen staff confidence and capacity in responding and supporting high-acuity participants safely and compassionately

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS – Any combination of at least 4 years of work, professional
or life experience (personal), in the following areas:

Note: Emerge recognizes that the required skills and knowledge needed to serve survivors of domestic abuse can be derived by formal professional experience as well as other life experience outside of a professional setting. Applicants will be asked to make direct connections between their work/life
experience and the required qualifications. We value the added foundation of formal education, however, any years spent in an educational institution will not count directly toward the number of years required/preferred.

• Experience providing services to individuals and/or families
• Experience of individual or organizational work to support and advocate for survivors of gender-based violence
• Knowledge of the dynamics of domestic abuse and/or sexual violence
• Demonstrate an understanding of the ways that trauma and lived experiences can effect a survivor’s ability to engage in services, and the approaches to case plan development that maximize that engagement for trauma survivors, in a nonprofit setting
• Demonstrate a trauma-informed understanding and practice in working with trauma-based reactions/behavior (particularly during escalated situations/conversations) that prioritizes remaining grounded and not reacting out of fear or punitive intention
• Demonstrate an understanding of the manifestations of trauma (e.g., co-occurring issues including substance abuse, suicidal ideation, behavioral/mental health concerns)
• Demonstrate knowledge and practice working with how gender identity, race, class, ability and sexual orientation and other cultural factors and/or identities intersect with issues of gender-based violence
• Demonstrate willingness and ability to confront racist, homophobic, transphobic behavior/comments in any setting
• Ability to build authentic relationships with team members, supervisors, and program participants through practices such as listening to gain deeper understanding, being vulnerable and engaging in giving and receiving feedback
• Ability to examine your own privilege and connections to power and/or oppressions so that you can work in service and consideration of the entire humanity of others
• Ability to function in a complex institution and systems with a focus on problem solving and adaptability
• Demonstrate understanding of how gender identity, race, class, ability and sexual orientation and other cultural factors and/or identities intersect with issues of gender-based violence and must be accounted for in operational systems used by the agency

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS – Any combination of at least 6 years of work, professional or life experience (personal), in the following areas:

• Bilingual (English/Spanish)

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to obtain appropriate fingerprint clearance through the Arizona Department of Public Safety
• Ability to obtain CPR/First Aid certification
• Valid Arizona Driver License and proof of automobile insurance (as applicable)

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Must be able to sit or stand during an 8–10-hour workday
• Must be able to lift twenty-five pounds

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Emerge staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our participants, and we work together to ensure that survivors receive the support they need. We offer a range of services, including case management, lay legal assistance, housing support, and advocacy.
• We offer ongoing training and professional development opportunities to help our staff members grow and develop in their roles.
• Overall, Emerge is a dynamic and rewarding place to work, where staff can make a real difference in the lives of others.

Emerge is an equal opportunity employer