About Safe Passage
Safe Passage is a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the aftermath and prevention of intimate partner violence. Safe Passage provides services to address survivors’ holistic needs for recovery and physical safety. Services include trauma-informed counseling and support groups for survivors, families and children, community education, and individual and policy advocacy.
Our Mission: Safe Passage is dedicated to creating a world free of domestic violence and relationship abuse. We support survivors and their families. We engage our community. We advocate for systemic change.
Safe Passage is an organization made up of survivors, women, trans folks, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people. Oppression and violence disparately impacts us and we strongly encourage people from these and other impacted communities to apply. We aspire to foster a work environment that is inclusive as well as diverse. Survivors come from all different backgrounds, and so do our employees. We encourage you to apply if you believe you have the skills and experience to thrive in this role and contribute to our mission at Safe Passage.
Position Summary
First Contact Specialists provide telephone and in-person coverage to respond to the needs of domestic violence survivors. First Contact Specialists ensure that every person who initiates contact with Safe Passage – regardless of the mode of engagement – receives warm, competent, individually-and culturally-responsive assistance consistent with agency protocols and professional best practice.
First Contact Specialists staff Safe Passage’s helpline as well as reception in the community-based office; this includes the day-to-day office functions of the office as well as providing a trauma-informed environment, resources, and referrals. The position is responsible for a variety of administrative duties.
Essential Functions
Office Reception
- Answer telephones, direct calls, greet and orient visitors and clients to the office.
- Maintain a confidential, trauma-informed, survivor-centered, and professional office environment.
- Help create a positive working environment for staff, volunteers, and interns.
- Uphold agency policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, security and confidentiality.
Counseling & Support Services
- Ensure culturally competent, gender-inclusive, individually responsive service to survivors of domestic violence, their social supports, and other members of the community.
- Employ multicultural empowerment model of service.
- Provide crisis intervention, safety planning, high-risk assessment, emotional support, information, and resources in-person and on the telephone.
- Provide reception and helpline staffing within Safe Passage’s community-based program to provide counseling/advocacy to survivors of domestic violence.
Program Administration
- Maintain clear record keeping and documentation in accordance with agency, program, and funding requirements.
- Participate in case sharing.
- Attend required program, supervision, and collaboration meetings.
- Administrative support work, including but not limited to, word processing, copying, organization, and any other projects in conjunction with staff.
- Submits information as needed for reporting to funders, board of directors, and others.
Expectations of all employees
In the performance of essential and general job responsibilities, all Safe Passage employees are expected to:
- Demonstrate commitment to Safe Passage’s mission and principles of diversity, inclusion, and empowerment.
- Represent Safe Passage in a professional and competent manner to clients, organizational partners, and other stakeholders.
- Perform quality work within deadlines.
- Work effectively as a team contributor on all assignments while contributing to a positive working environment for staff and volunteers.
- Work independently while understanding the necessity for communicating and coordinating work efforts with other employees and organizations.
Work Hours and Schedule
35 hours week, Monday through Friday 9am-5pm. First Contact Specialists work on site and remotely. This position is classified as essential staff and is a temporary position. Ideal start date is July 2026 and runs through February 2027 with the potential of being extended.
Hiring Requirements
Education: High School Diploma or GED required
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
Required
- Commitment to equality and social justice
- Experience working in a diverse, multicultural workforce
- Exceptional judgment, discretion, and professional/interpersonal boundaries
- Experience providing administrative support in an office environment
- Demonstrated understanding of domestic violence as well as its effects trauma on survivors of domestic violence
- Ability to advocate effectively on behalf of clients
- Ability to represent Safe Passage in a professional manner
- Ability to support survivors in crisis with empathy while maintaining professional boundaries
- Proficiency across the following skills: verbal and written communication, collaboration, organization, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks
Preferred:
- Bilingual (Spanish and English)
- Experience working with survivors of trauma
Tools & Technology Requirements
Tools & Technology Requirements for all staff: High level of proficiency and comfort utilizing and troubleshooting technology, including but not limited to PC systems, google suite (gmail, drive, calendar), zoom and web conferencing, electronic databases, and cloud-storage programs.
Benefits
Safe Passage is a supportive, collaborative workplace that fosters growth in its employees, both personally and professionally. We strive to hold an environment that encourages growth, creativity, and flexibility. We are advocates for livable wages, self-care and work-life balance, and our compensation package reflects this. We provide ample holiday and sick time. Benefits include health and dental insurance, and a 401(k) plan with agency match.
Safe Passage works to earn its position as a justice-centered employer of choice in Western MA. Safe Passage provides a bilingual pay premium of $1/hour for staff who possess language competency that is likely to be utilized in their position.
Application Instructions
To apply: Send resume and cover letter with the subject “First Contact Specialist” to .
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
For more information about Safe Passage and domestic violence, visit our website at
Safe Passage is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong organizational commitment to the achievement of excellence, diversity, and inclusion among staff.
Pay: $27.00 - $28.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
