Family Specialist

Join our team at FSS and enjoy comprehensive benefits including but not limited to:

• Tuition Reimbursement
• Health Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• 12 Paid Holidays
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Short & Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Employee Discounts
• 401k Plan with 3% Employer Contribution

The mission of Family Support Services is to be the leader in providing safety, stability, and quality of life for all children by working with the community to strengthen the family unit.

This position will be responsible for supporting Case Managers (CM) by working collaboratively with staff to locate, engage and recommend safe placement for children in Out of Home Care (OHC) with relatives and non-relatives (kinship). This position will use available search methods to locate relative, non-relative and other supports. This position will assist in facilitation of permanency related meetings such as Permanency Round tables, Rapid Permanency Reviews and MDT staffings as needed.

The candidate must have a strong value and belief system that children do best when placed with kin and fictive kin (relative/non-relative), which minimizes trauma for the child(ren) and enhances child well-being.

• Research current and incoming children placed in licensed homes by, but not limited to, conducting case reviews, internet searches and interviews with relatives, non-relatives, and children to identify potential connections. Complete follow-up of all individuals that have expressed interest in the child, and/or have had a positive relationship with the child.
• Conduct Home Studies and background screens on all potential placements and follow up with Case Manager on results
• Participate in a variety of staffings to include permanency round tables, rapid permanency reviews, and other MDTs.
• Pass along or gather known information to assigned Case Manager and supervisor and conduct follow-up activities as needed. Maintain accurate and complete documentation for each assigned case.
• Conduct supportive efforts, to include home visit engagement, to promote placement stabilization.
• Document all family finding efforts for each case and track success.
• Attend agency events, trainings, conferences as needed after hours or on the weekends.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Education:

Requires a bachelors degree from an accredited college or university.

Experience:

Two years of responsible experience working with relative and non-relative caregivers and/or working with High Risk children and families, preferably within the dependency or economic self-sufficiency programs.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The qualifications 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.

• Demonstrated competence and skills in positive family and youth engagement and communication
• Ability to think critically, and creatively to identify links between discovered information.
• Ability to use computers, Microsoft Office Suite, and internet with ease and exhibited proficiency.
• Ability to conduct effective phone interviews/ home assessments with prospective caregivers and providers to include foster parents, biological and adoptive parents.
• Ability to speak and conduct meetings with volunteers, caseworkers, and community groups.
• Ability to maintain an effective working relationship with others.
• Ability to write well and perform accurate assessments.
• Ability to demonstrate diligence, persistence, and positive attitude to succeed on behalf of children.
• Ability to schedule meetings in a timely manner and inform numerous individuals in a required time frame.
• Ability to keep calendars and schedule meetings accordingly.
• Ability to demonstrate use of time management and organization skills.
• Ability to write summaries to meetings that accurately reflect the details of the meeting.
• Ability to create spreadsheets in Excel.
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of…