Vice President of Programs & Services

About St. Francis House

St. Francis House rebuilds lives by providing refuge and pathways to stability for adults experiencing homelessness and poverty. A leader in the field of homeless services, we are the largest day shelter in Massachusetts and serve hundreds of individuals every day, 365 days a year, with a range of services and an integrated program model that provides our guests with continuous and comprehensive care.

We transform lives using a holistic approach to understanding and addressing behavioral health, housing, and employment needs. Our programs and services represent everything a person experiencing homelessness needs to find their pathway to stability.

We excel in our commitment and ability to develop relationships with individuals who come here for day refuge services, foster in them a sense of hope and belief that they can make a positive change in their lives, and then wrap the necessary services around them to ensure they are getting a stable footing for moving forward. We are a welcoming and inclusive community and we are committed to serving our guests with a deep sense of respect, honoring their dignity and self-determination.

We draw upon the passions and teamwork that come from a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming workforce. In order for us to make the greatest impact, we invest in talent from a variety of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expressions, and we are committed to fostering a workforce where all staff can reach their fullest potential.

To learn more about our work and our impact, please visit https://stfrancishouse.org/.

The Vice President of Programs & Services Opportunity

Our team is seeking a mission-driven, talented Vice President of Programs & Services (Vice President) to lead compassionate, philosophically grounded, and effective service delivery to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness. The Vice President will embody and reaffirm our philosophy of care, ensuring that all programs are integrated to provide comprehensive and high-quality services across housing, behavioral health, and income stability/workforce development. The Vice President will manage and partner with leadership in each program area to support ongoing program development, learning, and improvement within their specific services and foster collaboration across the entire program team. They will play a key role in our continued innovation and expansion through initiatives such as the development of new housing and behavioral health programs, and they will collaborate closely with the Vice President of Program Strategy & Initiatives and program staff to move projects from ideation to effective implementation.

As a member of the Executive Team, the Vice President will play a pivotal role in ensuring the overall strength of St. Francis House by guiding effective service delivery for guests, fostering a supportive and caring environment for staff, and contributing to our programmatic and financial sustainability. The Vice President reports to the President & CEO. They will manage a team of 6 direct reports and will be a motivational, knowledgeable and accessible leader to a larger team of 80+ staff as we continue to strengthen and expand.

Key Responsibilities

Executive leadership

• Serve on the Executive Leadership Team alongside other Vice Presidents and the President & CEO and act as a liaison to the Board of Directors
• Contribute program expertise to drive agency strategic priorities
• Provide insight and leadership to ensure that the organizational culture is healthy, strong and aligned with our philosophy and mission
• Illustrate commitment to the overall well-being of the agency, understanding and considering both short- and long-term implications of decisions
• Contribute to establishing financial sustainability goals and carry them forward in practice

Program Leadership

• Hold overall operational responsibility for all program areas
• Ensure that all programs and services are integrated within a holistic delivery model and aligned with our philosophy of care, theory of change, and overall strategic goals
• Embed and uphold principles and practices that support staff wellness across the program team, recognizing the unique challenges and intensity of our work and the importance of staff emotional well-being
• Uphold and advance organizational commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion as they apply to the Program & Services staff and guest experience
• Monitor and guide departmental budget creation and management in alignment with our agency-wide financial sustainability goals
• Collaborate with Human Resources and managers on onboarding processes, professional development and training needs, and staff evaluation processes for the Programs & Services staff
• Serve as a leadership liaison to the St. Francis House Board Program Committee
• Serve as the St. Francis House Compliance Officer to ensure applicable HIPAA requirements are met

New Program Development

• Partner with staff to identify key unmet and/or emerging needs of our guest population and seek out opportunities to deepen impact through responsive programs and services
• Collaborate with the President and Vice President of Program Strategy & Initiatives to develop and implement new and enhanced program opportunities
• Support funding strategies for program expansion initiatives

Learning and Evaluation

• Oversee the creation and use of evaluation systems, platforms, and reporting processes to monitor service delivery and program effectiveness
• Promote a culture of learning and development, aligned with outcome measurement and quality improvement, among Program & Services staff in support of excellence in guest service delivery
• Identify best practices and trends in fields relevant to serving individuals experiencing homelessness that could be integrated within our programs and services

External Representation

• Represent St. Francis House in Continuum of Care leadership convenings
• Work closely with the Development Department to support fundraising efforts, including guidance on program content for proposal development and donor relationship-building

Candidate Profile

Strong candidates for the Vice President of Programs & Services role will demonstrate many, though perhaps not all, of the experiences, skills, and characteristics described below:

• You offer multidisciplinary program leadership experience in social/human services settings serving vulnerable individuals, ideally with past leadership success that involves more than one of our core program areas (shelter, permanent supported housing, behavioral health, and income stability/workforce development).
• You have 10+ years of experience in senior leadership roles with well-developed skills in managing teams, budgets, and effective program planning, implementation, and quality improvement.  
• You bring a background in leveraging program evaluation to support ongoing learning and continued improvement.  
• You are sensitive to the complex needs of highly vulnerable populations and naturally exhibit and model compassion, care, and respect for the people we serve.  You look for the strengths in people and truly believe that our guests are capable of achieving greater stability. 
• You lead staff in a way that exhibits your belief in their strengths and potential, looking for opportunities to model and teach, and facilitating pathways to professional development and growth. You listen carefully and ensure that staff have the support they need to do well.   
• You are innovative and growth-oriented, with the inclination to take fresh looks at old and sometimes seemingly entrenched challenges, and you are able to support teams in embracing well-managed change as an opportunity to increase effectiveness and impact.
• You bring past success in both directly managing staff and advising supervisors/managers on how to build and support high performance and staff well-being.
• You are a systems-thinker, with strong analytical and critical thinking skills and the ability to problem-solve in situations that require balancing multiple perspectives or priorities.
• You are a skilled communicator, with strong verbal and written skills and the ability to represent St. Francis House to internal and external constituents, including partners and funders.
• You come to your work with flexibility, a sense of initiative, and openness to change, and are able to prioritize your work and deliver on commitments in dynamic and fast-paced environments.
• You demonstrate a proven commitment to equity, inclusivity, and diversity as well as an understanding of how to build, operate, and evaluate programs through an equity lens.  
• You hold a bachelors’ degree or equivalent professional experience. A master’s degree in a relevant field such as social work, social science, non-profit management, public policy, or similar area is considered a strong benefit.  

Compensation & Benefits

The salary for this role is expected to be $130,000. St. Francis House offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package to provide for our employees’ health and wellness, including:

• Health and dental insurance (St. Francis House pays 90% of the individual premium and 75% of the deductible through an HRA plan;
• Generous time off, including 4 weeks’ vacation, 13 holidays, and 12 sick days per year;
• A 403(b) plan with a 5% employer match;
• FSA plans for dependent care, medical, parking, and transit;
• Life and AD&D, short-term disability, and long-term disability insurance;
• Clinical licensure reimbursement; and
• Free breakfast and lunch.

This role is based on-site in our Downtown Boston offices.  

Contact

Koya Partners, the executive search firm that specializes in mission-driven search, has been exclusively retained for this engagement.

Please submit a compelling cover letter and resume addressed to Karen LaFrazia via https://talent-profile.diversifiedsearchgroup.com/search/v2/18940.   

Koya Partners is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, St. Francis House welcomes candidates who have lived experience of homelessness and/or recovery and those who have faced historic barriers to competitive employment – in particular BIPOC individuals, those who are multi-lingual or multi-cultural, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

About Koya Partners

Koya Partners, a part of Diversified Search Group, is a leading executive search and strategic advising firm dedicated to connecting exceptionally talented people with mission-driven clients. Our founding philosophy—The Right Person in the Right Place Can Change the World—guides our work as we partner with nonprofits & NGOs, institutions of higher education, responsible businesses, and social enterprises in local communities and around the world.

For more information about Koya Partners, visit https://diversifiedsearchgroup.com/koya-partners/.