Job Information
City of Somerville Community Outreach Coordinator in Somerville, Massachusetts
Statement of Duties
The Community Outreach Coordinator supports the Mobility Division’s community engagement planning and implementation of projects and programs to ensure broad, diverse, and timely stakeholder engagement in Somerville’s efforts to become the most walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly city in the nation. The Community Outreach Coordinator will create and enhance opportunities for participatory, collaborative, and meaningful community engagement.
This position ensures that public and private investment advance Somerville’s adopted policy plans including “Somerville Climate Forward” (commitment to eliminate carbon emissions from our transportation sector); “Vision Zero Action Plan” (commitment to eliminate crashes that result in severe injuries and fatalities); “SomerVision 2040” (commitment to achieve equitable smart growth goals including 6,000 new units of housing, 1,200 new units of permanently affordable housing, 30,000 new jobs, and 125 new acres of public open space); as well as implementing the mobility goals outlined in the City’s Five-Year and Annual plans under its federal Community Development Block Grant program.
This work includes hands-on outreach activities, deploying digital engagement tools, planning public events, facilitating public meetings and focus groups, mobilizing new and existing partners, and providing regular customer service constituent response. The ability to work with stakeholder groups with varying levels of agency using cultural competence is essential for this position.
Essential Functions:
The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various type of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.
Advances the design and implementation of comprehensive and inclusive community engagement strategies to expand public participation in the Mobility Division’s planning and policy efforts, with particular emphasis on serving individuals and groups that are often underrepresented in the planning process.
Develops and administers online tools for public engagement.
Performs qualitative and quantitative analysis of diverse data sources to inform public dialogue.
Communicates complex technical information in a variety of mediums inclusively to a broad audience.
Supports developing robust relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders and maintaining a network of new and existing allies and community partners for specific planning projects.
Assists interdisciplinary staff teams of community planners working on neighborhood or street plans.
Designs and facilitates virtual, hybrid or in-person public events, meetings, and focus groups (includes forums, briefings, workshops, walking tours, and "placemaking" events).
Identifies and implements new and emerging practices in outreach.
Maintains organized and accurate records, including contact information and meeting notes for community engagement activities and events.
Coordinates interpretation and translation services for public meetings
Works to ensure that engagement opportunities are socially just and accessible, and help constituents and stakeholders feel they have a voice in their community’s future.
Performs occasional field work including multimodal turning movement counts, parking utilization counts, crosswalk compliance audits, and associated data entry and analysis tasks.
Other duties as assigned.
Recommended Minimum Qualifications
Education and Experience: Bachelor’s Degree in public policy, transportation planning, communications, or a closely related field and three (3) years’ experience; or any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the essential functions of the job. A background in urban planning, community organizing, customer service communications, or marketing is preferred. Applications demonstrating lived experience with proper knowledge of community engagement in lieu of education are strongly preferred.
Special Requirements: Language capacity in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian-Kreyol, Nepali, or any other language is highly desirable but not required.
Knowledge, Abilities, and Skill
Knowledge: Knowledge of principles and practices of web design, survey design, and data processing. Knowledge of best practices in public engagement in community planning, including the National Charrette Institute’s models is preferred.
Abilities: Ability to work effectively with diverse City departments including Communications & Constituent Engagement Department, Planning & Zoning Division, and Information Technology Department. The ability to read and interpret engineering plans is desirable. Ability to perform field data collection. Ability to formulate findings and recommendations to a broad audience of varying expertise.
Skill: Skilled public speaker; excellent customer service, planning, and design skills. Quantitative analysis skills including Microsoft Excel. Strong written and oral communication with peers, consultants, contractors, and representatives of other agencies; public speaking, facilitating, and public presentations are required; managing multiple tasks and deadlines. Multilingual capacity is desirable.
Work Environment
The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices, with occasional exposure to outside elements. Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting, but conditions are generally not unpleasant. The Coordinator may be required to work beyond normal business hours to attend evening meetings or complete work assignments. Work in the field involves regular exposure to outside elements.
Physical and Mental Requirements
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.
Physical Skills
Minimal physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing. Work requires some agility such as moving in or about construction sites or over rough terrain. There may also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment or photocopy paper (up to 30 lbs.).
Motor Skills
Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer, and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing, and sorting of papers.
Visual Skills
Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.
Hours: Full-Time
Salary: $66,244.85 annualized + benefits
Union: Non-Union
Date Posted: August 13th, 2024
City of Somerville residents are especially encouraged to apply.
The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, disability or any other protected category. Women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
Auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge, upon request. Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or apomeroy@somervillema.gov.
Pre-Employment Requirements for All Employees:
MA Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) clearance
Completition of Conflict-of-Interest Law Education training for municipal employees
Overview of Total Rewards:
4 weeks annual vacation (for non-union positions) union positions vary by contract
Medical insurance through the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) - 80% of premium costs paid by City
Dental coverage low and high plans through Cigna
Vision care through Vision Service Plan (VSP)
Long term disability through Sun Life
Group and voluntary life insurance through Boston Mutual
Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending through Benefit Strategies
Deferred compensation plans through a choice of three vendors
Free, confidential services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provided by E4Health
Annual cancer screening & wellness release
Somerville Retirement Pension System
Tuition reimbursement
MBTA pass program
FREE Blue Bikes membership
Eligible employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)
Benefits listed are for benefits-eligible positions and the above information is meant to be a general overview of the benefit programs offered by the City of Somerville and not a binding contract.
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