PORTSMOUTH — When Ray Davis stepped down as Portsmouth’s prevention coordinator in 2018, he had been at that job for more than seven years.

Since then, the position has been a virtual revolving door. 

“We’ve had six coordinators in seven years,” said Rebecca Elwell, the executive director of Strategic Prevention Partnerships, a nonprofit that comprises the Newport County Prevention Coalition (NCPC), and another organization called No Wrong Door. (Davis went on to become assistant director of NCPC, which oversees five community coalitions, before retiring in 2022.)

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“Each of them brought fantastic strengths and points of view  and everybody has left for real legitimate life reasons — moving out of state, retirement, bigger career opportunities,” Elwell said, noting that the most recent Portsmouth coordinator, Cleo Allen, resigned a few weeks ago because she had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to Japan and elsewhere. 

Now the regional coalition, which moved from the Leonard Brown House at Glen Farm two years ago to a much bigger office in the Portsmouth Business Park is looking to hire a new local coordinator with staying power — and someone truly invested in the community.

“One of the things that’s been missing as a through line is a real commitment to the community itself. They were all very prevention-committed, but I’m looking for somebody who has a real passion for the community,” she said.

Although the new hire ideally would live in town, it’s not a requirement. After all, she and Polly Allen, the regional coalition’s director of prevention, were each once the Tiverton coordinator, even though they both hail from Little Compton. Both women had a real passion for Tiverton when it came to prevention efforts.

“I’m desperately looking for somebody who feels that way about Portsmouth kids,” Elwell said.

“It’s also helpful to have the connections with the people in the community, because that’s a big part of the job,” Allen added.

The original deadline to apply for the job was July 31, and “one, really terrific” application came in. “A couple days before the interview she called to let me know she had just received a job offer that she was going to take,” Elwell said.

So why the lack of applicants? 

“Maybe people just don’t know what exactly you do as a prevention coordinator,” Elwell speculated.

Added Allen, “I think prevention on its own is considered kind of a bummer. We’re ‘narcs,’ we’re the ‘say-no police.’ And that’s not who we are at all. We have a lot of fun in here just trying to find out ways to promote our kids and give them the safest surroundings they can. I think, unfortunately, we’ve been saddled with ‘prevention coalition’ and the name hasn’t really caught up with itself.”

Who should apply?

As for the job’s qualifications, Elwell said the coalition wants applicants who know the community and who have some knowledge of substance abuse prevention, although that can be taught. 

“There’s no educational requirement,” she said. “We often say ‘educated in human services’ loosely. Good communication skills, comfort in doing those outreach pieces; if it’s somebody who wants to sit at a desk, it’s probably not the right job. You’ve got to feel equally comfortable talking in the school administration realm as you do with decision-makers in local government, with the police department, and also that parent connection. That’s been a weak link for us — having a coordinator who’s really connected to the parents and the community. It helps to have children in the system, but certainly not a requirement.”

The 40-hour job has a “pretty competitive starting salary,” especially for human service work, with full health and dental benefits, 401K, reimbursement for educational opportunities, phone and mileage, and two weeks of vacation time, Elwell said.

Whoever gets the job won’t have to scrape pennies together to run a program either, she said, thanks to a five-year, $625,000 federal Drug-Free Communities (DFC) grant that the Portsmouth Prevention Coalition landed last year. 

“We have to make sure we get the right person. I would be very happy to get the new coordinator on board by Oct. 1,” she said. 

For more information, visit https://strategicprevention.org.