Bilingual (French) Case Manager -SOT Program

Job Description

Bilingual (French) Case Manager -SOT Program

The Marjorie Kovler Center is a Chicago-based program of Heartland Alliance International. Since 1987, the Kovler Center has been dedicated to providing survivors of torture with opportunities to heal, access justice, and rebuild their lives with dignity. Today, the Kovler Center is an expert leader in trauma-informed care for survivors of torture and serves as a trusted resource of integrated treatment and services to reach vulnerable populations – asylee, immigrant and refugee adults, children and families, unaccompanied minors, survivors of forced displacement and trafficking, and immigrant and refugee survivors of crime once in the US. The Kovler Center also trains and educates service providers locally and globally and advocates for the end of torture worldwide.

Summary of Case Management:

Kovler Center’s trauma-informed case management team works alongside participants as they stabilize and rebuild their lives. Case managers offer culturally and linguistically responsive support as they guide participants through complex health, legal, and social service systems; assist with applications for public benefits, health insurance, and work authorization; and coordinate referrals to primary and mental health care. They help survivors unfamiliar with U.S. systems schedule appointments, complete documentation, arrange transportation, and overcome barriers to accessing essential services. Beyond crisis stabilization, the team supports long-term goals around education, employment, and community integration by connecting survivors with ESL classes, job training programs, and other community resources.

Bilingual (French) Case Manager Position Summary:

The Bilingual Case Manager provides comprehensive, culturally responsive case management services to French-speaking participants and their families. This role ensures equitable access to benefits, healthcare, and community resources by delivering services directly in French and English and supporting linguistically appropriate service coordination.

This Position is a Union Position.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Maintain accurate, timely, and comprehensive case records following each client interaction, ensuring documentation is completed in accordance with agency standards and reflects services provided in French and/or English as appropriate.
• Provide direct case management services in French and English ongoing service coordination for francophone participants along with other individuals in the SOT program.
• Explain available public benefits and assistance programs; assist participants with completing applications (e.g., Medicaid, SNAP/food assistance, childcare subsidies, housing supports, financial assistance) and coordinate referrals to appropriate agencies.
• Assess participant needs across domains and facilitate referrals and care coordination for services including employment services, education programs, complementary care (e.g., massage/acupuncture), ensuring language access throughout the referral process.
• Provide French interpretation support when appropriate and collaborate with volunteer and contracted interpreters when services fall outside of capacity.
• Build and maintain relationships with community-based organizations serving immigrant and refugee communities.
• Participate in weekly supervision to review cases, identify service gaps affecting participants, and develop strategies to improve culturally and linguistically responsive programming.
• Participate in daily group activities and attend internal team meetings and external partner meetings as appropriate
• Support organizational efforts to strengthen language access policies, translated materials, and equitable service delivery.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• This position only requires an associate degree, although higher education may be valuable.
• The Case Manager should be comfortable communicating with clients, their families, team members and leadership teams.
• Position requires working in-person from 8:30-5:00.
• Full professional fluency in French and English is required. Native-level French proficiency preferred to ensure culturally and linguistically responsive service delivery.

Education and/or Experience:  May give credit towards years of experience if attained a degree higher than a Bachelor's Degree. 

Other Skills and Qualifications:

• Language Skills: Excellent oral and written communication skills.  Demonstrated competency in public speaking and strong interpersonal skills required. 
• Computer Skills: Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook/Exchange; Windows operating systems; and other software routinely used by Heartland Alliance.
• Mathematical Skills: Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide into all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. 
• Reasoning Ability: Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form.  Ability to problem solve.

• Demonstrated Commitment to Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Demonstrated commitment to anti-racism principles and the ability to apply an anti-racist lens to program design, implementation, and evaluation. Demonstrated commitment to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Cultural Humility: Demonstrates cultural humility, with a deep understanding of participant populations’ culture, traditions, and migration experience.

Competencies:  To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies.

Strategic Agility: Sets the direction and objectives of the direct reports, ability to takes action focused on driving towards accomplishing the organization's vision, Looks ahead and anticipates the need one month at a time, to begins to recognize areas requiring organizational improvement and communicates to leaders, the ability to distinguish the work their group does from the others within the organization.

Teamwork and Collaboration: Develops relationships with peers and direct reports, acknowledges the diverse perspectives of others in the group, Shares information that is pertinent to others in accomplishing their jobs, Solicits thoughts from the team.

Talent Development: Continuously seeks to learn and improve own performance, Understand skills, as well as staff's career interests/goals, Begins to deliver feedback to staff and identify development opportunities, Begins to understand career progression and expectations at each level.

Communication: Writes using concrete, specific language relevant to the purpose and audience, Demonstrates effective verbal (oral) communication skills in meetings and presentations, Utilizes one consistent style of communication, working to adapt to different audiences.

Managerial Courage: Creates an environment for a diversity of thought; Encourages employees to share their point of view, regardless of personal stance, willing to speak up when witnesses unethical, unsafe, or uncomfortable situations or reports to appropriate leadership, Promotes organizational values and exemplifies model behavior.

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here represent those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; use hands to handle or feel and reach with hands and arms.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.

Work Environment: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• The employee may be required to remain on Organization premises during breaks and/or meal periods and may be required to stay on Organization premises until their replacement arrives.

 Heartland Alliance International makes all hiring and employment decisions and operates all programs, services, and functions without regard to race, receipt of an order of protection, creed, color, age, gender, gender identity, marital or parental status, religion, ancestry, national origin, amnesty, physical or mental disability, protected veterans status, genetic information, sexual orientation, immigrant status, political affiliation or belief, use of FMLA, VESSA, military, and military family rights, ex-offender status (depending on the offense and position to be filled), unfavorable military discharge, membership in an organization whose primary purpose is the protection of civil rights or improvement of living conditions and human relations, height, weight, or HIV infection, in accord with the organization's AIDS Policy Statement of September 1987.