Advocate Supervisor – Rural Justice Initiative

Advocate Supervisor – Rural Justice Initiative Rural Justice Initiative (RJI) Advocate Supervisor Disability Rights Texas (DRTx) is excited to announce that we are now recruiting for an RJI Advocate Supervisor as part of our new Rural Justice Initiative (RJI). The Rural Justice Initiative Advocate Supervisor is a project-funded position established as part of Disability Rights Texas’ (DRTx) participation in the Rural Justice Initiative (RJI), a collaborative effort designed to expand access to civil legal services for low-income Texans living in designated rural communities and legal-desert counties. Under the direction of the Project Supervisor, the Rural Justice Initiative (RJI) Advocate Supervisor is responsible for monitoring the quality of the casework provided by the RJI Advocates for the Texas Access to Justice Foundation Rural Justice Initiative, a five-year, multiregional initiative designed to expand access to civil legal services for low-income Texans with disabilities in designated rural and legal-desert communities. The Advocate Supervisor serves as the direct personnel supervisor for RJI Advocates assigned across geographic service regions and project-wide issue areas. The position is responsible for advocate performance management, professional development, workload monitoring, casework quality assurance, and coordination with the RJI’s multidisciplinary legal service teams and RJI staff. The Advocate Supervisor works collaboratively with assigned attorneys and the Attorney Project Supervisor to support the timely and effective delivery of legal advocacy services. Attorneys retain responsibility for legal advice, case strategy, and legal representation decisions. The Advocate Supervisor retains assigned personnel supervisory responsibilities, consistent with DRTx policies and the approved RJI governance and accountability structure. The position supports implementation of RJI project objectives and performance measures, including monitoring advocate contributions to case services, documentation requirements, and geographic service delivery goals. A discretionary limited caseload may be useful for maintaining advocacy expertise, addressing staffing gaps, or supporting complex cases, but should not undermine supervisory capacity and may be assigned as approved by the Project Supervisor. As such, the Advocate Supervisor must comply with organizational priorities, policies, and procedures in determining client services, which may include interviewing clients, reviewing records, negotiating favorable outcomes, mediating disputes, supervising referrals, and assisting attorneys with representation of clients at administrative hearings and trials. At all times, the Advocate Supervisor will follow the advice, counsel, and direction of an attorney when conducting investigations, developing case strategies, identifying case issues, and applying applicable rules, policies, and regulations. As part of RJI, community engagement, education, and training will be provided for persons with disabilities, parents, advocates, and professionals/service providers. As such, this position may be required to attend and participate in various community functions, group events, outreach activities, and similar events to promote and present information regarding the organization’s services and programs and create awareness of the RJI initiative.