Director of Residential Services
GENERAL SUMMARY
The Director of Residential Services provides leadership and strategic oversight for residential services at Covenant House New Orleans CHNO. This role ensures that services are delivered with dignity, respect, and a commitment to CHNO youth and staff well being while maintaining the highest standards of safety, quality, and accountability. The Director directly supervises the Care Center Manager and Transitional Housing Manager. The Director leads through visible presence, traumainformed decision making, and cross department collaboration, ensuring alignment with CHNOs Mission, Principles, and Core Value to provide safety, consistency, growth, and opportunity to youth experiencing homelessness.
The Director of Residential Services will be part of our Senior Leadership Team and help drive service standards, quality assurance and customer satisfaction across all CHNOs Residential Programming Services. This role involves developing, implementing, and maintaining quality assurance protocols and service standards and will be responsible for developing and overseeing quality assurance, monitoring, and improvement processes to ensure services are compliant and meet regulatory and agency standards while leading on initiatives for continuous improvement in quality and service delivery of services. The position requires strong leadership in a fast paced environment and the ability to support staff managing complex youth needs including mental health, trauma, substance use, and housing instability.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Culture, Values, and Leadership
Model accountability by setting clear expectations, honoring commitments, and ensuring decisions prioritize the physical and emotional safety of youth and staff.
Use accurate operational, financial, and safety data to inform decisions, promote transparency, and respect the lived experiences of residents and staff.
Lead with presence through visible engagement on campus, calm leadership during crises, and respectful communication at all levels.
Promote a culture of dignity and respect, ensuring all interactions recognize the inherent worth of each individual.
Collaborate across departments to align operations with program goals and resident experience.
Residential Program Oversight
Oversee 24 7 shelter including respite and emergency overnight and Transitional Housing, including onsite Rights of Passage ROP and offsite Maternal Pathways.
Ensure a safe, healthy sanctuary for all youth in CHNO programming.
Support implementation of case management, safety planning, housing support, and lifeskills programming.
Provide leadership, training, and support so services meet all relevant regulatory standards and respond effectively to challenges.
Ensure youth receive timely orientation, accurate information, and, where applicable, assignment to a Case Success Manager who coordinates with Social Workers and Clinical Services.
Conduct monthly case review meetings with Care Center and Transitional Housing Managers, Team Leaders, and Case Success Managers, and provide appropriate reports to Senior Leadership.
Develop and embed a quality assurance program across services, monitoring adherence to Covenant House service standards.
Oversee completion and approval of incident reports, including critical incidents, in line with Child Protection Policy and Procedures.
Ensure timely escalation of cases to the Department of Family and Childrens Services, Senior Leadership, and or the Site Child Protection Officer SCPO, as required.
Respond to and support the team during crises, modeling expected crisismanagement practices.
Ensure youth medication logs are consistently and accurately maintained in compliance with applicable policies and procedures.
Complete and submit all required daily, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports as scheduled.
Engage regularly with youth forums such as Youth Advisory Council, meetings, programming to gather feedback on operations and services.
Plan and execute youth engagement activities and support groups.
Monitor and ensure accurate data entry and reporting in required systems, including Efforts to Outcomes, HMIS, and other city state federal systems.
Develop and maintain positive, strategic relationships with internal and external partners and stakeholders.
Strategic Planning and Program Development
Contribute to organizational strategic planning related to youth homelessness services.
Identify service gaps and support new initiatives or program enhancements.
Use data and outcomes to drive program improvements.
Support program evaluation requirements.
Maintain professional and technical knowledge through trainings, publications, and participation in policy and procedure development.
Grant Compliance and Reporting
Oversee compliance of all grantfunded programs, ensuring adherence to requirements, timelines, and regulations.
Participate in grant audits and site visits, providing documentation and responding to inquiries.
Maintain a clear understanding of grant terms, conditions, and deliverables to align services with funder expectations.
Partner with leadership to ensure grant activities are executed as planned and within approved budgets.
Collaborate with staff to ensure grant goals and objectives are met and accurately reported.
Monitor and track program expenditures in alignment with grant budgets.
Work with finance and leadership on budget forecasting and adjustments.
Prepare personal work expense reports to ensure efficient use of funds for CHNO operations.
Provide quarterly reconciliation between financial and physical inventories.
Program Model Training and Management
Ensure staff understand and are proficient in CHNOs Program Model and traumainformed, holistic, youthcentered care.
Facilitate or support training on core program components, including case management, youth empowerment, conflict resolution, and engagement techniques.
Support consistent integration of the program model into daily practice and ensure staff confidence in applying it.
New Hire Onboarding and Staff Development
In partnership with People and Culture, conduct interviewing, hiring, supervision, and performance reviews for direct reports.
Lead onboarding and training for new hires, ensuring readiness to implement the program model and traumainformed care.
Provide ongoing training on best practices with youth experiencing homelessness, including housingfirst principles, case management, deescalation, and crisis intervention.
Foster a culture of professional growth through development opportunities and regular performance feedback.
Collaboration and Accountability
Actively contribute to departmental, crossdepartmental, leadership, and allstaff meetings to ensure clear communication and followthrough on priorities.
Collaborate with all CHNO teams to align operational systems.
Prepare and deliver clear, datainformed presentations on facilities, capital projects, safety, and operational performance.
Engage constructively with community partners, vendors, contractors, public agencies, and neighborhood stakeholders.
Promote a culture of mutual respect and teamwork among staff.
Security and Safety Management
Coordinate staff training on safety protocols in collaboration with the Sr. Director of Facilities and Operations.
Participate in quarterly safety audits and organizational emergency preparedness activities.