Care Coordinator – Project RIO

Care Coordinator – Project RIO

Salt Lake Legal Defender Association (LDA)

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Position Type: Full-Time, Grant-based

About Project RIO & Position Overview

The Salt Lake Legal Defender Association (LDA) is seeking a compassionate, resourceful, and motivated Care Coordinator to join Project RIO, an innovative and evolving reentry and intensive case management program serving individuals experiencing homelessness, significant behavioral health challenges, and frequent involvement with the criminal justice system.

Housed within a public defender's office, Project RIO operates at the intersection of legal advocacy, behavioral health, housing, and community-based services. The program aims to reduce barriers to stability, improve access to essential resources, and decrease repeated justice-system involvement through individualized support and collaborative service coordination.

A central focus of this position is ensuring continuity of care as clients move between incarceration, court proceedings, and community living. The Care Coordinator will work directly with clients across these settings, maintaining consistent relationships, coordinating services, and helping prevent gaps in care during critical transitions. This field-based position requires collaboration with defense attorneys, correctional staff, court personnel, behavioral health providers, housing agencies, and other community partners.

As a newly established and evolving program, Project RIO offers a unique opportunity to help shape service delivery practices and strengthen connections between the criminal justice system and community resources. Roles, responsibilities, and day-to-day priorities may evolve in response to emerging client needs and program development. The successful candidate will be adaptable, collaborative, and solutions-oriented, demonstrating strong interpersonal skills, initiative, and a commitment to building meaningful relationships with individuals facing complex challenges and systemic barriers.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Intensive Case Management & Continuity of Care

• Provide individualized, person-centered case management to adults experiencing homelessness, behavioral health challenges, and frequent involvement with the criminal justice system.
• Develop, implement, and regularly review individualized service plans that address client-identified goals, needs, and barriers to stability.
• Establish and maintain consistent, supportive relationships with clients as they navigate incarceration, court proceedings, and community living.
• Coordinate services and facilitate transitions between systems to minimize disruptions in care and promote long-term stability.
• Utilize trauma-informed and evidence-informed approaches to engage clients with complex needs.

Jail, Court & Community-Based Services

• Engage with clients across correctional facilities, court settings, and community locations to provide direct services, assess needs, and coordinate appropriate interventions.
• Develop individualized reentry plans and coordinate resources to support successful transitions from incarceration into the community.
• Attend court proceedings and collaborate with defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and court personnel to support coordinated service planning.
• Present tentative service plans and provide verbal updates during court proceedings, as appropriate and in coordination with defense counsel, regarding client needs, proposed interventions, available resources, and progress toward identified goals.
• Ensure that courtroom communications and disclosures of client information are appropriately authorized, maintain confidentiality, and remain within the scope of care coordination rather than legal representation.
• Conduct community-based outreach, accompany clients to appointments when appropriate, and provide ongoing support to address barriers to engagement and stability.

Resource Navigation & Community Collaboration

• Assist clients in accessing housing, behavioral health treatment, healthcare, public benefits, identification documents, transportation, and other essential resources.
• Collaborate with housing providers, treatment agencies, correctional staff, legal professionals, and community organizations to coordinate individualized services.
• Facilitate referrals, warm handoffs, and communication between providers to strengthen service coordination and access to care.
• Advocate for client access to appropriate services and identify creative solutions to barriers within existing systems.

Documentation, Team Collaboration & Program Development

• Maintain accurate, timely, and confidential case notes, assessments, service plans, and program documentation.
• Track client engagement, services provided, referrals, and outcomes to support program evaluation and quality improvement.
• Participate in multidisciplinary case consultations, team meetings, and collaborative service planning.
• Identify service gaps and contribute to the development and improvement of program practices, procedures, and partnerships.
• Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability as program operations, priorities, and responsibilities evolve.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Social Work, Psychology, Criminal Justice, Human Services, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• Experience working with individuals experiencing homelessness, behavioral health challenges, substance use disorders, or criminal justice involvement.
• Strong interpersonal, organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently across community, correctional, and court settings while collaborating effectively with an interdisciplinary team.
• Ability to communicate professionally and confidently in courtroom settings, including presenting proposed service plans and responding to questions from judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys.
• Demonstrated commitment to trauma-informed, person-centered, and culturally responsive services.
• Ability to navigate complex systems and coordinate services among multiple providers and agencies.
• Ability to maintain professional boundaries, confidentiality, and accurate documentation.
• Possess a valid driver's license and have reliable access to a personal vehicle for work-related travel.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly throughout Salt Lake County to provide services in correctional facilities, courts, shelters, treatment facilities, and other community-based settings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in intensive case management, jail reentry, criminal justice diversion, housing navigation, or community outreach.
• Familiarity with Salt Lake County's criminal justice, behavioral health, and homeless service systems.
• Experience collaborating with defense attorneys, courts, correctional facilities, and multidisciplinary service teams.
• Experience supporting individuals with serious and persistent mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders.
• Familiarity with Coordinated Entry, public assistance programs, and community-based housing resources.
• Utah Social Service Worker (SSW) licensure or eligibility for licensure is preferred but not required.

Pay: $50,000.00 - $60,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Vision insurance

Ability to Commute:

• Salt Lake City, UT 84111 (Required)

Work Location: In person