Heart to Heart is a growing provider of services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout New Jersey. Our programs include residential services, day habilitation, individual supports, community-based services, behavioral supports, and other individualized service options.
We are committed to providing exceptional services, developing trusted relationships with families and professionals, and ensuring that individuals are connected with programs that meet their needs and preferences.
The Community Relations and Referral Manager will increase awareness of Heart to Heart’s adult intellectual and developmental disability services and develop productive relationships with support coordination agencies, families, guardians, community organizations, healthcare professionals, schools, advocates, and other referral partners throughout New Jersey.
This position is responsible for generating qualified referrals through direct relationship development, community outreach, professional networking, presentations, facility tours, and consistent referral-source engagement.
The ideal candidate has substantial knowledge of New Jersey’s Division of Developmental Disabilities service system and an established network within the IDD community. A former support coordinator, support coordination supervisor, provider-relations professional, admissions professional, family advocate, or former DDD system professional may be especially well suited for this position.
This is not a desk-based marketing role. The position requires frequent physical presence in the field, statewide travel, and occasional evening or weekend participation in conferences, fairs, family meetings, and community events.
Success in this position will be evaluated using a balanced scorecard that includes:
- In-person meetings with support coordinators and other referral partners
- New support coordination agencies and community organizations engaged
- Existing high-value relationships maintained
- Qualified referrals generated
- Referrals generated for priority or underrecognized service lines
- Presentations, tours, conferences, and community events completed
- Percentage of referral-source accounts with documented next steps
- Timeliness and accuracy of CRM documentation
- Timeliness of referral follow-up
- Number of repeat-referring professional relationships
- Progression of sourced referrals into assessment, acceptance, and service initiation
- Referral-source feedback and satisfaction
- Market intelligence and service-development opportunities identified
- Performance expectations will account for factors outside the employee’s control, including program capacity, staffing availability, clinical determinations, family decisions, funding approval, and operational start-date delays.
- Bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, human services, communications, marketing, healthcare administration, business development, or a related field preferred.
- Significant relevant experience may be considered in place of a bachelor’s degree.
- At least three years of experience in intellectual and developmental disability services, support coordination, provider relations, admissions, healthcare business development, family advocacy, or a related field preferred.
- Strong knowledge of the New Jersey DDD service system, including support coordination, person-centered planning, service referrals, and provider selection.
- Existing relationships with New Jersey support coordinators, support coordination agencies, families, advocates, or other IDD professionals strongly preferred.
- Experience developing professional relationships that produce measurable referrals or business opportunities.
- Strong public-speaking, networking, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to communicate effectively with individuals with disabilities, families, guardians, support coordinators, executives, and community professionals.
- Strong organizational skills and consistent follow-through.
- Ability to independently plan field activity and manage a statewide professional relationship portfolio.
- Experience using a CRM, referral-tracking platform, or similar system.
- Sound professional judgment and the ability to maintain confidentiality.
- Ability to understand service capacity and communicate realistic expectations to referral partners.
- Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation, and willingness to travel throughout New Jersey.
Preference may be given to candidates with experience as a:
- Former support coordinator or support coordination supervisor
- IDD admissions or provider-relations professional
- DDD services professional
- Family-support or disability advocate
- Residential, day program, or in-home services professional
- Healthcare or human-services business-development professional
Candidates must disclose any current employment, contractual relationships, or outside activities that could create an actual or perceived conflict of interest involving provider referrals or choice of service providers.
- Develop and maintain trusted relationships with support coordinators, support coordination agencies, families, guardians, advocates, transition professionals, healthcare organizations, and community partners.
- Increase awareness of Heart to Heart’s full range of adult IDD services, including residential, day, in-home, community-based, and behavioral services.
- Conduct regular in-person visits with referral sources throughout New Jersey.
- Develop a structured territory plan identifying priority counties, organizations, professionals, and relationship-development opportunities.
- Identify individuals who may be appropriate for current or developing Heart to Heart services.
- Generate qualified referrals through direct outreach, networking, presentations, tours, and ongoing professional relationships.
- Educate referral sources about Heart to Heart’s service offerings, geographic coverage, referral criteria, capacity, and admissions process.
- Conduct program tours and coordinate meetings between prospective individuals, families, support coordinators, and internal program leaders.
- Attend conferences, provider fairs, transition fairs, family events, advocacy meetings, professional gatherings, and other community events.
- Deliver presentations to support coordination agencies, schools, family groups, hospitals, professional organizations, and community partners.
- Make timely and organized introductions between referral sources and the appropriate Heart to Heart admissions or operations representative.
- Ensure that new referrals are entered accurately into the company’s CRM and assigned to the appropriate internal team.
- Maintain accurate documentation of contacts, meetings, referrals, next steps, and relationship history.
- Follow up consistently with referral sources regarding the status of referred individuals, within applicable privacy and authorization requirements.
- Maintain ongoing relationships after an initial referral and develop repeat-referring community partners.
- Reactivate referral sources and professional relationships that have become inactive.
- Identify and address misunderstandings regarding the services Heart to Heart provides.
- Increase referral awareness for service lines that may be less familiar to support coordinators and families, including in-home and community-based services.
- Track referral trends, lost opportunities, service barriers, competitor activity, and unmet community needs.
- Gather structured feedback regarding Heart to Heart’s reputation, responsiveness, service quality, and referral experience.
- Communicate operational or service-delivery concerns that may affect referral-source confidence.
- Partner with marketing leadership to improve presentations, referral materials, talking points, and community messaging.
- Coordinate with admissions and operations to ensure that outreach efforts reflect current service capacity and realistic start timelines.
- Participate in internal referral-pipeline and growth meetings.
- Perform other community-relations, admissions-development, and outreach responsibilities as assigned.
This is a full-time field-based position. Regular travel throughout New Jersey is required, with scheduling based on referral-source availability, events, presentations, and organizational priorities.
The position will primarily operate during regular business hours but will require occasional evening and weekend availability for family events, professional conferences, transition fairs, and community activities.
This is not a fully remote position.
Reports to: Director of New Jersey Business Development and Admissions, in partnership with Marketing Leadership
