ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
The Baltimore City Mayor's Office leads the city's governance, policy-making, and administration. Responsible for formulating policies, managing the budget, and collaborating with city departments. The Mayor's Office aims to create a safer, more inclusive, and prosperous city by addressing key issues, fostering partnerships, and ensuring efficient service delivery. Brandon M. Scott is the 52nd Mayor of Baltimore, working to end gun violence, restore the public’s trust in government and change Baltimore for the better.
JOB DESCRIPTION
The Mayor’s Office is seeking a Project Manager who will serve as a dynamic team member and will be responsible for providing project management support for ongoing behavioral health work, particularly as it relates to requirements of our Consent Decree. This position requires managing complex, multi-stakeholder, system relationships and change efforts as well as strong communication skills, sound judgment, and a commitment to excellence, equity and serving Baltimore City residents.
Consent Decree (background context)
The City of Baltimore (the City) and the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) entered into a consent decree with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2017 to resolve the DOJ's findings that BPD had engaged in a pattern and practice of conduct that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Specifically, Paragraph 97 of the Consent Decree outlines the City’s responsibilities to identify gaps in the behavioral health service system and recommend and implement solutions.
Partnership with system stakeholders, community members, and individuals with lived and living experience is a necessary component of systems level transformational change. The Baltimore City Behavioral Health Collaborative (BCBHC), formerly known as the Collaborative Planning Implementation Committee or CPIC, has been meeting for over 15 years to foster partnership between BPD and the behavioral health system with an emphasis on police training. In 2017 the BCBHC expanded its focus and stakeholders to address and implement fundamental changes to the behavioral health system. The BCBHC is led by the Baltimore City Mayors’ Office, BPD, and Behavioral Health System Baltimore (BHSB), a non-profit organization that manages the public behavioral health system on behalf of the City and the State of Maryland Department of Health. The BCBHC regularly engages in the system transformation work needed to satisfy the requirements of Paragraph 97 of the Consent Decree and will serve as an ongoing accountability body for the City to gather input and feedback into system level change needed to address the behavioral health needs of people in Baltimore.
As required in Paragraph 97, the City conducted an assessment to identify gaps in the behavioral health system and recommend implementation strategies to address the identified gaps and published the Public Behavioral Health System Gap Analysis Report in December 2019. In response to the recommendations issued in the analysis, after collaboration between the Department of Justice, and the Consent Decree Monitoring team, and public comment periods that generated nearly 30 pages of comment and feedback – the Behavioral Health Gap Analysis Implementation Plan (GAIP) was published in Summer 2022. This plan outlined a multi-year approach to transform the behavioral health system in Baltimore City to adequately provide the resources and support that those experiencing behavioral health crises need through several critical focus areas: 911 diversion, mobile crisis team response, crisis service system integration, peer support services, and social determinants of health.
Since its publication, the GAIP has served as a road map to work across government agencies, organizations and community to address and achieve significant changes in the behavioral health system. These changes have included, but are not limited to, the creation of a 911 diversion program in partnership with BHSB, Baltimore Crisis Response Inc. (BCRI), BPD, and Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD); the implementation of Baltimore City Behavioral Health Crisis Incident Review Team to examine behavioral health crises that involve interaction with law enforcement and other emergency responders; the development of the Open Access Project to support behavioral health service providers to provide same-day or next-day appointments; significant expansion of mobile crisis teams that include certified peers; and the creation of a city-wide housing fund to increase permanent supportive housing.
As progress under the Consent Decree continued, the City, BPD, and DOJ found it necessary to outline more specific actions and outcomes that are required under Paragraph 97. However, the evolving and complex landscape of behavioral health service delivery, not only across Baltimore City but across Maryland and the United States, combined with ongoing community feedback and the generality, and outdated implementation strategies within the GAIP, demonstrated a need for a more specific agreement between the City and DOJ to satisfy the requirements of Paragraph 97 of the Consent Decree. The City, BPD, and DOJ negotiated this agreement, and in September 2023, the Monitoring Team approved and filed it with the Court.
The Monitoring Team is in the process of developing a methodology, in consultation with the City, BPD, and DOJ, by which to measure the City’s and BPD’s progress in implementing paragraph 97. That process will yield additional clarity as to what the City and BPD are required to do in order to achieve compliance with paragraph 97.
About Baltimore City Behavioral Health Collaborative:
The Behavioral Health Collaborative is a group of stakeholders in Baltimore City that work to improve accountability to the people of Baltimore and reduce unnecessary interaction with emergency personnel. They do this by ensuring a full and comprehensive range of behavioral health services are accessible and high quality. They prioritize efforts to ensure that city personnel, in particular police, fire and EMS, are just in their interactions with people living with or impacted by mental illness and substance use. They also work towards city policies being collaboratively developed and coordinating system efforts across the city.
The group includes community members, people with lived experience with mental illness and/or substance use disorder, service providers, institutional leaders and other advocates.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Coordinate, Staff, and Strategize (30%)
- Meetings Include:
- Behavioral Health Collaborative general body meetings (bi-monthly)
- Subcommittee meetings (monthly)
- Training
- Policy & Advocacy
- Data Informed Outcomes
- Ad-hoc meetings as scheduled
- Behavioral Health Collaborative leadership meetings with BHSB, BPD, BCFD and the City (monthly)
- Engage with Trauma Informed Taskforce and seek opportunities for alignment
- Meeting Tasks Include:
- Develop meeting agendas and prep materials for monthly with subcommittee co-chairs and other stakeholders as needed. Send out all prep materials for meetings.
- Record meeting minutes s, distribute minutes to BCBHC members, publish notes on website regularly
- Manage follow-up action items from all subcommittee meetings to ensure that the work of the various committees is integrated and building off of each other and reported back to the larger Collaborative for discussion and input
- Send announcements, reminders, and information to members in between meetings
- Maintain roster of participants and email distribution list, facilitate community engagement
- Support Collaborative and Subcommittee co-chairs by: conducting research, pulling together information from various sources including partners such as BHSB, BPD, and BCFD, and outside experts/consultants, and using it to inform the work; assisting co-chairs with recruitment of members
- Coordinate staff and actively participate in Behavioral Health Collaborative
- Manage Relationships with Members
- Provide orientation for new members who join the Baltimore City Behavioral Health Collaborative
- Provide support to members who are not participating in a professional capacity (e.g., consumers, family members, community members) so they feel empowered to speak up and know how to navigate the work
- Track meeting attendance
- Identify and reach out to members who are participating in a professional capacity and not attending to find out why, if there are any barriers to address, how staffing can help them become more engaged, and/or to find a replacement representative for their organization/role if needed
Monitor, Track, and Coordinate (45%)
- Monitor, track, coordinate implementation of all activities of Paragraph 97 of the Consent Decree
- Support implementation of Behavioral Health Crisis Sentinel Event Reviews
- Disseminate data collection surveys to members of the board, receive submissions, compile reporting documents for review meetings
- Take detailed notes and trac follow up items and recommendations resulting from each behavioral health review
- Engage in process of presenting recommendations from Sentinel Event Reviews to the Behavioral Health Collaborative for comment and feedback
- Provide support to manage implementation of this process wherever necessary
- Develop annual report of recommendations from Sentinel Event Reviews and progress of implementation of recommendations
- Develop the Semiannual Reports on progress of the implementation of Paragraph 97 as required by the Consent Decree
- Coordinate with the Department of Justice and the City’s Monitoring Team on feedback and edits to the Semiannual reports
- Oversee the implementation and process of the Monitoring Team’s assessment of the City’s implementation of paragraph 97
Collaborate (15%):
- Coordinate meetings with key stakeholders involved in the implementation of Paragraph 97, including but not limited to the Department of Justice, The Monitoring Team, BHSB, BPD, BCFD, and BCRI.
- Develop systems of accountability with key stakeholders to ensure transparency and continued progress of Paragraph 97 implementation.
Present (10%)
- Attend monthly consent decree hearings as a representative of the Mayor’s Office
- Develop presentations for the court on the progress of Paragraph 97 implementation for monthly and quarterly hearings
- Present on the progress of Paragraph 97 implementation to the Judge
- Provide an overview of Paragraph 97 and implementation process to key stakeholder, when necessary
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
- Experience in managing complex, multi-stakeholder, system relationships, change efforts and/or processes
- Proficient in Outlook, Microsoft, Google Drive and other similar platforms
- Self-starter, proactive and accountable to complete tasks and drive performance with minimal oversight
- Attention to detail, including administrative processes required to execute complex projects
- Solution-driven, with the ability to effectively problem-solve
- Ability to manage competing demands and priorities and work on multiple high priority projects in a fast-paced environment
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Work or education experience in public administration, social work, public health, human services, behavioral health
- Knowledge or familiarity with local government is a plus
- Track record of successful partnership work
- Understanding of and/or experience with using data to drive change
- Demonstrated ability to work with diverse constituent groups both internally and externally
BENEFITS
- Medical, dental, vision benefits and time-off offered
TIMELINE AND COMPENSATION
- Salary: $80,000
- Length of role: 1 year with goal to transition into a permanent City position
