Community Partnerships Manager — Kent & Ottawa Counties
Family Thread Location: West Michigan — Hybrid Employment: Full-Time Territory: Kent & Ottawa Counties
The Opportunity
Finding help shouldn't be this hard. Across our communities, there are thousands of incredible people and organizations working every day to help families, yet the system families are forced to navigate remains fragmented and confusing. A family facing a housing crisis, job loss, food insecurity, or another difficult moment may have to call multiple organizations, fill out the same information over and over, tell their story again and again, only to find out they were never eligible or that funding was suspended. Too often, community leaders measure whether a referral was made instead of whether the family's problem was actually solved.
At Family Thread, we believe there is a better way. We are building Mira, a new kind of guide for families and the people serving them that helps turn a difficult situation into a clear path forward. Mira helps families understand their needs, navigate the help available to them, take the next step, and keep moving toward resolution, greater stability, and self-reliance. We're starting here in West Michigan, and we're looking for someone who knows this community, understands the people and organizations serving it, and wants to help us change how families get help. Our goal isn't another resource directory or referral platform. Our North Star is simple: a family moving forward toward a path of self-reliance and not community dependence.
The Role
We are looking for a Community Partnerships Manager to lead Family Thread's work across Kent and Ottawa Counties.
You will build strong relationships with schools, nonprofits, hospitals, churches, government agencies, employers, and other organizations serving families. You will introduce Mira, help organizations adopt and use it, learn where families are getting stuck, and bring those lessons back to our team so we can continue making Mira better.
This is not a role for someone who wants to spend every day behind a desk. You will be out in the community, meeting people, building relationships, attending events, and connecting organizations that should be working together. We want someone who takes ownership of the region and becomes the trusted local face of Family Thread.
What You'll Do
? Build and manage relationships with organizations serving families across Kent and Ottawa Counties.
? Introduce Mira to community organizations and grow local adoption.
? Develop partnerships with schools, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, churches, government agencies, employers, and community leaders.
? Learn where families are getting stuck and help our team understand how we can solve those gaps.
? Connect people and organizations that should be working together.
? Gather feedback from families and frontline professionals to help improve Mira.
? Represent Family Thread at meetings, community events, conferences, and partner organizations.
? Take ownership of Family Thread's success across Kent and Ottawa Counties.
Who We're Looking For
Your title matters less than the relationships you've built. You may come from nonprofit leadership, community engagement, education, healthcare, social services, government, philanthropy, workforce development, or another community-facing role.
The right person knows how to walk into a room, build trust, listen well, and get people working together. You are comfortable talking with a school liaison one day and a hospital executive or nonprofit CEO the next. You don't wait for someone to tell you what to do next. You see an opportunity, make the call, schedule the meeting, and keep pushing until something happens.
Most important, you already know this community, and this community knows you.
Requirements
? Strong existing relationships across Kent or Ottawa County, with the ability to build relationships quickly across both.
? Experience in community partnerships, nonprofit leadership, education, healthcare, social services, government, philanthropy, workforce development, or a related field.
? Strong communication, relationship-building, and follow-through skills.
? Comfortable presenting Family Thread and Mira to organizations and community leaders.
? Able to manage many relationships, meetings, follow-ups, and priorities without losing track of details.
? Comfortable learning and using new technology, including AI tools.
? Able to work independently, take initiative, and own results.
? Able to work in a hybrid environment, including time in-office, working remotely, and spending significant time in the community.
? Able to travel throughout Kent and Ottawa Counties for meetings, events, and partner visits, with occasional travel outside the region as needed.
? Reliable transportation and flexibility to attend occasional meetings or community events outside normal business hours.
We aren't looking for someone who checks every traditional box. We're looking for someone with the relationships, judgment, energy, and ownership to help us build something with enormous impact.
How We'll Measure Success
We aren't looking for someone to attend meetings. We're looking for someone who can make things happen.
Success means stronger local partnerships, more organizations using Mira (which means you need to be good at “selling” a vision and story), better collaboration across the community, and more families finding a path forward.
Our North Star is a family moving forward.
How to Apply
Please send your resume along with short answers to the following three questions:
1. Who do you know? If you started tomorrow, which 10 organizations or community leaders in Kent or Ottawa County would you contact first? Tell us who they are, your relationship with them, and why you would start there.
2. What have you done? Tell us about a time you brought people or organizations together to solve a problem in your community. What did you personally do, and what happened as a result?
3. What would you do first? Imagine your job is to make Family Thread a trusted part of how Kent and Ottawa Counties help families. What would you do in your first 90 days?
We aren't looking for a perfect plan. We want to understand how you think, who you would involve, and how you turn relationships into action.
About Family Thread
Family Thread (a subsidiary of Mckinney-Vento.org) is building a better way for families to navigate life's hardest moments. Mira helps families and the people serving them find a path forward, using technology to make help easier to find, easier to navigate, and more likely to lead somewhere.
We're starting in West Michigan with a simple goal:
Help more families move forward.
