MIDWEST PROGRAM MANAGER

Partners for Justice (PFJ) was founded to transform public defense locally and across the United States, diminishing the effect of race and wealth on legal outcomes. This means ensuring that public defenders are equipped to assist clients with the underlying drivers of legal system involvement, to address the civil and family enmeshed penalties of arrest, to secure better legal outcomes both inside and outside the courtroom, and to help more clients emerge from prosecution with their rights, life, and future protected. Since our launch in 2018, PFJ has grown rapidly and we now support public defender agencies across the country through embedded collaborative defense teams and capacity building support.

Overview:
PFJ works closely with public defender offices to help them adopt more collaborative and holistic defense practice. Our flagship program embeds trained Client Advocates in a host public defender, immediately expanding their ability to provide clients with wraparound support and navigate the enmeshed civil penalties of arrest. The Program Manager will have responsibility for a selection of public defender partnerships in the Midwest Region, specifically partners in Missouri and in Illinois. The Program Manager will help recruit and train Client Advocates, build relationships within the respective site offices, provide resources and support to the Advocates’ on-site supervisors, build a network of local partner organizations (including civil legal providers), and provide coaching and support to Advocates. This work is critical to ensure that these offices are equipped with the knowledge, capacity, and resources to implement collaborative practices in the offices that work with PFJ.

The Program Manager will report to Vichal Kumar, PFJ’s Managing Director of Capacity Building.

Program Manager Responsibilities
• Program management: The Program Manager will have shared responsibility for the success of PFJ programs in the Midwest Region and direct responsibility for one or more PFJ programs at specific partner offices. This includes ensuring that PFJ meets all programmatic objectives and goals, including recruitment, training delivery, and service provision (with support from the PFJ national team).
• Technical assistance to Midwest Region offices: Serve as primary point of contact with designated public defender partners, building meaningful, credible relationships with Advocate supervisors. Offer advice and best practices on integrating collaborative defense generally and the PFJ program specifically into office practice.
• Coach, empower and supervise PFJ Advocates: Provide one-on-one support to Advocates on personal and professional development. Ensure PFJ’s Advocate performance expectations are consistently met. Work with teams to identify and integrate best practices for the PFJ program in their office. Organize regular trainings or workshops to deliver local learning experiences that meet Advocate needs (in partnership with office supervisors).
• Partnership development: Working with Advocates and office supervisors, identify and build relationships with legal aid providers, community-based organizations, and government agencies providing services that benefit clients.
• Community awareness: Maintain knowledge of local dynamics and context that affect clients, including developments in the criminal and civil legal systems or related to poverty alleviation. Help Advocates understand the communities in which they are working.
• National resources: Help define the PFJ Advocate role and experience. Gather best practices and contribute to national resources and programming to enhance the Advocate practice and experience. Contribute to PFJ’s annual and ongoing training events.

Desired qualifications
We encourage applications from candidates with a strong affinity for or current residency in Missouri, particularly those who share lived experiences with our clients. Additional desired skills or experience include:
• Commitment to PFJ’s mission and to our vision of collaborative, client-centered representation for lowincome people involved in the criminal legal system.
• Dedication to serving racially or socioeconomically marginalized communities.
• 5 years of relevant full-time work experience; 5 years of relevant full-time work experience; JD or MSW can substitute for years of experience.
• JD or MSW preferred
• Prior work within a public defender’s office or a civil legal aid provider is a strong plus, especially an office with collaborative or client-centered practices.
• Supervising or coaching others; while direct line supervision responsibilities are preferred, this could include serving as a teaching assistant or faculty member, a resident advisor, overseeing interns, or similar.
• While we primarily work remotely, candidates should live within Missouri or be willing to relocate. Deep familiarity with Missouri is a requirement, including knowledge of the legal system, government agencies, and other institutions that low-income people regularly interact with.
• Ability to travel for two to three days approximately once per month to visit PFJ programs and to participate in team meetings (25-30%).
• Working remotely with distributed teams and/or working in a start-up environment.

The Program Manager should also model the characteristics we look for in outstanding Client Advocates:
• Creative problem-solving, with the ability to find innovative and efficient solutions to unusual obstacles.
• Proactive and takes the initiative.
• Able to handle ambiguity and thrives on working independently, with limited oversight.