Director of Programs (Group Track)

The Freedom Community Center (FCC) is a Black-led organization in North St. Louis that was founded to dismantle systems of oppression that inflict harm and trauma on Black communities in St. Louis City, particularly the police and the criminal punishment system. We ground ourselves in the knowledge that the Black survivors of St. Louis have the solutions to the question: What will keep us safe? We seek to build a community-based approach centered in power, healing, accountability, and repair. Given the resources to alleviate immediate economic needs, the space to facilitate communal healing, and the time to dream collectively of alternative approaches, our community of survivors will meaningfully address harm happening in St. Louis City at the individual and systemic level. We dismantle mass incarceration by modeling alternative responses to the criminal punishment system.

The current punitive approaches to violence such as police and incarceration do not prevent future violence, they create it. At FCC, we take a survivor centered approach to build solutions that interrupt violence at its root. In the place of violence, we make peace and build power. Our approach fosters accountability, healing, repair and transformation. The cornerstone of our peacemaking work is the Free Us Project which is made up of several different transformative justice processes. One of our transformative processes is a restorative justice program that seeks to intervene and work with people who are experiencing or perpetuating harm before they interact with the police or at the beginning of their interaction with the criminal punishment system. In addition, we intervene with individuals who have experienced a violent injury in order to promote repair and reduce the likelihood of retaliation or re-injury.

At FCC, we have an opportunity to seek a different path, one marked by healing, true accountability, and reparative solutions that will transform those involved so that they might participate in imagining an alternative future for themselves and our community. This work is materialized through our Free US project but also through our community organizing branch called Power Builders, where we build power within our community members. We interrupt violence both systemic and interpersonal by forging a different path toward reconciliation, transformation, healing, and freedom.

Position Summary:

The Director of Programs will bring seasoned program and administrative leadership expertise, a nuanced understanding of violence and criminal justice and a sophisticated analysis of racial oppression to lead our direct service work. Reporting directly to the Executive Director and part of the leadership team, The Director of Programs (Group Track) is charged with ensuring model fidelity and effectiveness, developing and strengthening organizational systems to support cross functional collaboration and growth, representing the organization publicly, supervising program managers, and partnering with the leadership team on overall organization building and strategy.

The scope of the work is wide-ranging, equally “on the ground” and high level, from interfacing with participants, community-based partners, behavioral health system actors, court actors and thought partnering with our Executive Director on expansion and impact, to ongoing problem solving with Program Managers on on-the-ground issues with participants.

About Group Track: 

The “Free Us’ group track is designed for adults with and without prior arrests, convictions and experience with diversion. Group Track accepts participants without a significant history of using violence. Through this program, participants will journey through our nonviolence curriculum. FCC will provide access to community health workers and credible mentors for ongoing support and assisting people in meeting their needs. Each participant will be required to attend group therapy sessions, nonviolence classes, individual therapy sessions, mentoring, community building events, and a robust restorative justice process. Our program will measure our participants’ growth in positive health and community engagement indicators. If the participant fulfills program expectations and shows growth in healthy interpersonal, relational, and community engagement, along with a commitment to non-violence, the participant will graduate from our program.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead your team in its ongoing development and refinement of the “Group Track” program model.
• Set performance outcomes, and engagement metrics to monitor progress and adjust intervention strategies.
• Remain current and serve as in-house expert on leading and promising practices for violence intervention, self-determination in case management, and restorative justice.
• Effectively manage and support the staff who directly manage our interventions and trauma support direct service programs; build capacity of direct service teams, and when necessary work directly with participants.
• Budgeting for multiple projects, including monitoring and controlling costs
• Collaborate with the Director of Operations and Finance on program evaluation, use of Salesforce for program implementation and evaluation, and larger program evaluation initiatives
• Hold relationships with and liaise with the community based partners, behavioral health system partners and court officials on matters concerning participants

Who You Are & Keys to Success (the must-haves): 

• Management Experience: Demonstrated leadership skills with management experience, successfully overseeing team operations, driving project completion, and implementing strategic initiatives to enhance organizational performance.
• A Developed Political Analysis of Abolition: Understand the harm of prisons, jail, and police and have a strong political analysis of the need for alternatives. You must understand the role pretrial detention plays in mass incarceration.
• Writing Abilities: Part of your work will be writing reports for court including participant progress reports to attorneys, judges, and other court related stakeholders.
• Data Analysis: Skilled in compiling, analyzing, and synthesizing data for use in internal program development, external evaluation and communications.You are adept at explaining key data points and disseminating
• Project Management Skills: Stays on top of multiple projects, plans backwards, anticipate obstacles, identify and involve stakeholders appropriately, and use resources wisely. You are skilled at working through multiple buckets at once.
• People skills: You must be a person who can work with a variety of people, identify self-interest,  and invite them into this movement.

If you were here right now you would be: 

• Planning for Group Track’s “Free Us” program, communicating with court and other relevant parties regarding potential program participants.
• Managing the Group track team (3-5 staff) and acting as a guide for the Group Track program process.
• Creating advocacy plans for current Group Track participants.
• Continuing case advocacy with system stakeholders to establish non-carceral solutions to participant cases.
• Lead the restorative justice process for program participants, create circle plans, and guide the team through each step of the process.

What Else You Should Know: 

This is a full-time non-exempt position based in St. Louis, MO with a hybrid work schedule. The starting salary for the position is $80,000. Freedom Community Center offers competitive health benefits, dental and vision plans, flexible PTO, and life insurance.

How to Apply: 

Interested applicants should submit a resume and cover letter to info@freedomstl.org. In the cover letter, please address the following:

Why do you want to work for Freedom Community Center?
Please share 1-2 experience(s) that highlight why you would be a strong candidate for the Director of Programs.

No faxes or phone calls, please. Applicants will be notified regarding whether or not they have been selected for an interview. Applications without cover letters will not be processed.

The Freedom Community Center is proud to be an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and actively seeks the candidacy of people of color, women, LGBTQIA people and formerly incarcerated individuals. We are committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff.