Director of Community Services

AAWL Director of Community Programs Career Opportunity

• Do you have experience leading teams and working with diverse communities in underserved areas?   
• Do you thrive building new, innovative direct service programs that have real community impact?    
• Are you passionate about re-envisioning the role of animal shelters to expand community support for pet owners to keep animals in their homes and families together?
• If you answered "yes" to these questions, we would like for you to join the Arizona Animal Welfare League in Phoenix, Arizona as our Director of Community Programs!

AAWL – Who We Are

Founded in 1971, the Arizona Animal Welfare League is the largest and oldest no-kill shelter in the state of Arizona.  We started as a small sanctuary for homeless animals and have grown over the past 50 years to become a statewide animal welfare organization providing a full range of community services from adoptions and behavioral assessments to humane education and low-cost veterinary services   

With an annual combined budget of approximately $5.8 million, AAWL is a private, shelter (w/o any government contracts) devoted to providing excellent care, protection, and loving compassion for the life of the animals entrusted to us. To achieve our mission, we manage adoption, behavior, foster, medical and volunteer programs.  Our staff includes 54 full-time staff members and 24 part-time employees. We pride ourselves in leveraging the time and talents of volunteers (over 450+ volunteers and 250+ fosters) who commit to assisting with all aspects of shelter operations. 

AAWL is investing in developing new shelter intervention and “Access to Veterinary Care” programs to help us accomplish our long-term goals to provide affordable, accessible veterinary care to underserved low-income communities near the shelter and to decrease the number of animals who enter the shelter system altogether.  As part of those shelter intervention efforts, we also plan to expand behavioral resources for both AAWL adopters and pet owners in the community to help keep pet families together. In addition to working to keep animals out of the shelter system, we also are working hard to build an inclusive and welcoming culture at AAWL that reflects the rich diversity of pet families and individuals we serve. To learn more about the work of AAWL, please visit aawl.org.

Position Overview

The Director of Community Programs is responsible for managing new and existing community programs in these key areas – Volunteers, Shelter Intervention, and Access to Vet Care.  A key responsibility of the Director of Community Programs will be to manage a growing 6-person team, including a Volunteer and Events Manager, Access to Vet Care Manager, Foster Family Coordinator, Youth & Volunteer Coordinator (vacant), Outreach Coordinator and Case Manager (vacant).  He/she/they will by directly responsible for filling these vacant positions.  The Director of Community Programs reports to the President/CEO. As a member of the AAWL Management Team, the Director of Community Programs also will be responsible for helping AAWL operationalize our core values (collaboration, integrity, empathy, and innovation) and create a positive, inclusive workplace culture by incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs into in all aspects of AAWL’s community work and being a strong communicator and collaborator across all departments.  Key areas of responsibility include:

Leadership and Program Design/Implementation

• Hire, mentor, lead and support and 6-person team, including goal setting, performance evaluation and training and development.
• Develop new community programs, including identifying targeted population, goals and objectives (for the entire program), staffing time, and community partners, and manage the budget and evaluation process for the programs.
• Work closely with the President and CEO and Finance Director to develop the annual budget for the Community Programs Department.
• Evaluate all current volunteer, foster, education and outreach programs to ensure effectiveness, develop metrics to assess impact and oversee changes in program design and administration to ensure compliance with timetables, budgets, and strategic goals.
• Oversee the execution of educational and/or community-focused events, including AAWL’s Walk to Save Animals, to ensure they align with AAWL’s strategic plan.
• Oversee the management of AAWL’s affinity groups, including The League, AAWL’s Young Professional Council, to ensure they align with AAWL’s strategic plan.
• Work with contract grant writer to develop new grant proposals that support our programmatic needs, track grant expenses and deliverables and participate in the interim/final reports to grantors.
• Represent AAWL in community meetings, including staffing Community of Practice meetings related to our Access to Vet Care Project, and speaking on behalf of AAWL.
  
  Recruiting Volunteers   
  
  
• Supervise Volunteer & Events Manager and oversee the volunteer/foster recruitment, training and development efforts to help address organizational needs.
• Embrace conflict by setting positive examples of how to interact and communicate with staff, volunteers, fosters and community members to help create a harmonious shelter environment where we empower staff, volunteers to turn conflict into something positive.
• Work collaboratively with all departments to identify organizational gaps that volunteers/fosters can fill and help develop new volunteer and foster programs that integrate volunteers/fosters into all aspects of operations, including overseeing the expansion of behavior and medical fosters and efforts to recruit, train and develop a younger pipeline of volunteers.  
• Develop new volunteer recruitment strategies that help us accomplish our long-term goals, including recruiting younger volunteers (ages 16-18) to create a pipeline for future AAWL veterinarians, veterinary technicians, or animal welfare leaders.

Shelter Intervention

• Work collaboratively with local animal welfare partners and internal AAWL departments (Adoptions, Behavior, and Intake teams) to develop new shelter intervention programs designed to reduce returns and owner/surrenders and provide pet owners with resources such as food, supplies, behavioral support and veterinary care.
• Identify, build and cultivate meaningful relationships with partner organizations, including local middle and high schools, serving community members who live in targeted zip codes near the AAWL shelter to inform students and community members about responsible pet ownership to prevent owner/surrenders.
• Identify opportunities for staff to participate in events where underserved pet owners have high behavior/vet care needs to raise awareness about AAWL programs and services.
• Engage in strategic activities that measurably increase engagement with pet owners (living in communities near the shelter) to build meaningful relationships with community members, raise awareness of AAWL services and provide shelter intervention and case management support to prevent owner/surrender.

Providing Affordable, Accessible Vet Care

• Work collaboratively with our Access to Vet Care Manager to execute grant deliverables to eliminate

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

AAWL offers compensation that is commensurate with experience and competitive with non-profit and animal welfare salaries.  The starting salary for this position is $71,700.  Benefits include 100% employer-paid medical insurance, employer-paid premiums for life insurance, generous paid vacation/sick time off, 12 paid holidays per year and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that includes that includes counseling visits, in-person/virtual capability, personal coaching sessions, and wellness app.

TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION:  

Please submit a cover letter, resume, three professional references, including their email, phone and relationship, to: anavidad@aawl.org. Please reference “Director of Community Programs” in your email. No phone calls or walk-ins.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Demonstrated interest in animal welfare issues and commitment to AAWL’s mission.
• Five (5) years of professional experience in a nonprofit environment or a related field with a history of progressive leadership. Minimum of three (3) years of supervisory experience. Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Nonprofit Management, Business Management, or a related field. Combination of relevant education and experience also considered.
• Demonstrated experience building community-based program from the ground up and then developing tools to track the implementation, progression, and evaluation of those programs.
• Experience overseeing budgets and managing teams executing grant deliverables across departments.
• Excellent writing and verbal communications skills required;
• Must be able to work both collaboratively and independently.
• Ability to publicly represent AAWL effectively to a broad range of individuals and organizations, including board members, donors, community members, coalition partners and grant funders.
• Written and spoken proficiency in Spanish is strongly preferred.   
• Strong work ethic and the ability to interact effectively with staff, volunteers and community members from divergent geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds.

REQUIREMENTS

Requires periodic sitting at a computer station with prolonged standing and walking. Use of personal computer, phone and general office equipment. Must be comfortable handling dogs and cats daily on a continuous basis. Will be exposed to disinfectant solutions and subject to bites and scratches while handling animals of questionable temperament. Requires normal range of hearing and eyesight to communicate with animals, the public, volunteers, and staff. Also requires flexibility to readily adapt to a fast-paced changing environment and the ability to work weekends and holidays.