Community Outreach Manager, Eastern North America Region

The Community Outreach Manager will deploy on relief activations and oversee all responsibilities and personnel within the Community Outreach Unit. The role will focus on developing and implementing operational procedures related to Community Outreach, ensuring thorough and timely needs assessments, and ongoing relationship management with beneficiaries. In collaboration with other Community Outreach Managers, this unit will advance best practices for identifying and reaching unmet needs within disaster-affected communities, and coordinating with communal, governmental, and non-governmental partners to gather and share intel with the Activation Team. This position reports directly to the Senior Manager, East Coast Operations.

Location: Candidates must be based in any state in the continental Eastern United States and within one hour of an international airport. Travel outside the Eastern North America Region, including internationally, may be required.

The Eastern North America Region team oversees programs in the following locations:

• The Eastern US: MN, IA, MO, AR, LA, WI, IL, KY, TN, MS, MI, IN, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, WV, OH, PA, NJ, DE, MD, DC, NY, CT, RI, VT, MA, NH, ME, and Puerto Rico.
• Most of the Caribbean islands including: The Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands.
• Eastern Canada

Key Responsibilities and Duties:

Activation Management:

• Deploy, as needed, within eight hours, to a Disaster Area/Emergency Response to act as Community Outreach Lead, implementing or overseeing all responsibilities related to this Unit.
• Recruit, hire, and train personnel from the temporary roster or local community to fill any needed roles pertaining to the Community Outreach Unit.
• Manage assessment teams to establish boots on the ground in communities as soon as possible to understand disaster impacts, assess food needs, and coordinate ground support.
• Collaborate with the Distribution Lead to share ongoing information regarding recipient needs, and changes in meal requests.
• Gather feedback from beneficiaries about the quality of meals, and share this information with the Culinary Manager to inform adjustments.
• Visit distribution sites and communicate with beneficiaries to understand evolving needs and changes on the ground. Utilize findings to recommend the length of the response, including potential scale up or wind down strategies.
• Build relationships with external partners, government agencies, first responders, and community contacts to gather intel on overall food needs, feedback on WCK performance, and other concurrent mass-feeding activities.
• Collaborate with internal departments, including, but not limited to, Emergency Response, Communications, Policy, Data & GIS, Training, Development, Finance, and Human Resources, to meet the operational needs of the Community Outreach in the field.

Operations Management:

• Collaborate with Community Outreach Unit Managers and Senior Manager to brainstorm, develop and implement operational procedures associated with the Community Outreach Unit.
• Develop and grow Community Outreach best practices for ensuring quick identification of needs, accurate data capture, and ongoing relationship management with community partners.
• Ensure strong systems are maintained for guaranteeing organized and appropriate Community Outreach mechanisms.
• Represent WCK in engagements as requested by relief leadership or other departments, including presentations, conference attendance, interviews, or governmental and NGO stakeholder meetings to share experiences from the field.
• Oversee and implement special projects while not on activations in coordination with other Community Outreach Managers and WCK departments.
• Maintain ServSafe, CPR, and any other certifications mandated by the Director of Relief Operations.
• Complete expense reports within a timely manner as determined by the WCK Finance Department

Requirements

• 5+ years of management experience including managing teams
• 5+ years of relationship management
• Ability to operate in stressful, fast-paced situations and display compassion for those in crisis
• Demonstrated ability to build and cultivate connections quickly and strategically in new environments
• Organized, creative, and positive, with an eager-to-learn personality
• Demonstrated project management skills
• Excellent writing and presentation skills
• Comfortable with web and smartphone technology
• Collaborative and capable of meeting deadlines both independently and within teams
• Ability to self-manage and work independently
• Ability to take direction and constructive feedback
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally quickly and on short notice for extended periods of time
• Comfortable connecting with remote and in-person working environments
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Valid US Driver’s license
• Valid US Passport
• In order to keep our employees and the communities that we serve safe, all employees involved in Relief Activations are required to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, unless a reasonable accommodation is approved and relevant documentation is provided. To establish that a vaccination has been received, employees must present written evidence of immunization from the designated site (if any) or from another authorized healthcare provider.

Desired:

• Experience in journalism, community relations, social work, and/or hospitality is a plus
• Fluency in Spanish and/or French is a plus
• Experience working in disasters or humanitarian relief is a plus

Application & Cover Letter

This application requires a cover letter that explains your interest in this position and in working for WCK. Applications without a letter will not be considered. Please include your letter in one pdf document with your resume.

Benefits

World Central Kitchen offers competitive compensation and benefits including fully paid medical, dental, and vision plans for employees and their dependents. 403B with WCK matching 50% up to 8% employee salary deferrals. Group life and disability insurance that is 100% employer sponsored. WCK offers a Responsible/Unlimited Paid Time Off policy.

Equal Opportunity

World Central Kitchen is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse work environment. People of color and/or those with disabilities, diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions, and/or identities are encouraged to apply.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment at this time.