On-call Participant Support Specialist

PURPOSE. DIGNITY. ACTION.

On-Call Participant Support Specialist

PURPOSE. DIGNITY. ACTION. (PDA) 

PDA strives to build robust support for non-punitive, community-based solutions to many public safety issues. With neighborhood and public partners and in partnership with community members actively seeking to move past experiences of harm and injury, we design and deliver widely supported initiatives that promote safety, restoration, and racial equity.                                                  

Who We Are 

Formed in 1969 as The Defender Association to provide high-quality legal defense for civil rights activists in Seattle, in 2013, we began to concentrate exclusively on alternative public safety models when King County created an in-house public defense program. PDA remained independent to carry on the work of our Racial Disparity Project, which had helped to design LEAD, the nation’s first pre-booking diversion model for drug-related offenses. In 2021, we adopted a Co-Executive Director structure, recognizing the value of power-sharing, multiple voices, and perspectives at the leadership level. Our multicultural team of lawyers, organizers, project managers, social workers, direct service providers, and administrative staff blends professional and technical skills with lived experience of the systems we’re working to change.  

CoLEAD Background 
CoLEAD developed from the LEAD framework to provide intensive case management in non-congregate shelter facilities for people who are at high risk of exposure to the criminal legal system; all participants experience substance use disorder and high barriers to housing and establishing a lawful income source. CoLEAD connects hundreds of participants to primary care, prevents overdoses (no participant has died of an overdose since we launched in Spring 2020), establishes permanent housing plans, and provides legal system coordination under the LEAD model. While our services are low-barrier, our case management team implements recovery supports aligned with the SAMHSA recovery framework, including health care (physical and behavioral), connection, and addressing recovery obstacles that can impede stabilization and hope for progress.

Position Description:

The On-Call Participant Support position provides flexible, as-needed on-call support in CoLEAD temporary lodging sites. On-Call Participant Support staff do not carry a caseload and do not have a set schedule. Instead, they focus on meeting the day-to-day needs of program participants (PTs), supporting safe and stable lodging environments, and assisting with daily operations, engagement, and PT and facility wellbeing.  
 
On-Call Participant Support staff work as part of a multidisciplinary care team and provide participant-centered, trauma-responsive, and harm-reduction-based support. This