Client Advocate; Overnight - Synergy House

Overview

Position: Client Advocate

Program: Synergy House

Status: Full-Time, Hourly position

Available Shift: Sunday 12am-8am;
Monday 12am-8am;
Monday/Tuesday 10pm-8am;
Wednesday 9am-1pm;
Friday/Saturday 10pm-8am. Shift differential for Advocate Positions: $1 from 4pm to midnight and $2 from midnight to 8am.

Description: We have an immediate need for a Client Advocate to work days at Synergy House (our teen shelter) located at I-35 and Parvin Road in the Kansas City, Missouri North area. Competitive pay offered including newly increased shift differentials. Our teen shelter is an emergency crisis shelter for teens 12-18 years of age, providing a caring, therapeutic environment. Will also provide advocacy and crisis intervention services for our clients.

Other responsibilities include: complete intake interviews, answering hotline, safety planning and facilitating community building activities with clients.

• Completes intake and discharge paperwork for clients in shelter.
• Teaches basic life skills to clients, addressing their individualized needs. Examples include behavior management, communication skills, cooking, recreation, parenting skills and budgeting.
• Provides support for clients.
• Provides advocacy and assistance with meeting case management/treatment goals.
• Provides transportation for clients as needed.
• Dispenses medications to clients according to med tech certification guidelines.
• Maintains accurate documentation and client records.
• Performs general clerical duties, answers telephones, and answers hotline.
• Assists with training of volunteers and utilizes volunteer’s time to help meet client’s needs.
• Attends internal and/or external trainings and workshops to meet the 40 hour per year licensing requirement as long as within department budget and staff/client ratios are met.
• Completes minor maintenance duties around the facility. Completes maintenance requests and forwards them to management as needed.
• Maintains client confidentiality.
• Maintains communications with other staff members – both written and oral.
• Attends and participates in weekly staff meetings/case reviews.
• Maintains a clean environment as necessary i.e., cleaning facility areas, office area, laundering linens and completing other household tasks as needed and/or assigned.
• Unloads, sorts, and organizes donations received by the program. Records donations on the appropriate form and completes a thank you card for the donor.
• Creates menus for the program and submits grocery request to designated staff.
• Prepares and cooks meals for clients as required.
• Acts as coverage advocate on call.
• Participation in Performance and Quality Improvement activity is required by each employee.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Directly supervises 1-2 volunteers in the shelter as needed. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Associate's degree (A.

A.) or equivalent from two-year college or technical school; or six months to one year related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization.

Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.

Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form. Ability to deal with problems…