Triple Point Family Support Specialist

Join our award-winning Team at CHSW and become part of our 125 year legacy of helping children and their families! Winner of the "Inspiring Our Next Generation" award for Seattle Met magazine’s 2015 Light a Fire awards, we're recognized as doing critical work for children in Seattle and beyond. A leader and a voice for kids since 1896, CHSW stands as a premier service provider to ensure the safety, security, and success of Washington State’s children. We develop healthy kids, create strong families, build engaged communities, and speak and advocate for children. All kids deserve a loving, nurturing home where they can learn and thrive. Your work at CHSW can help make this possible! With 11 locations throughout Washington, we boast one of the state’s most robust family service networks.

Provides a wide range of family support and advocacy services to a diverse CHSW consumer population. May also provide an assessment of individual consumer needs. May work with ESIT (Early Support for Infants and Toddlers) Program or other CHSW Family Program. Has access to protected healthcare information (PHI) or confidential identifiable information (CII), both paper and electronic, as necessary, to perform related job duties and responsibilities.

ESIT Program:

CHSW is managing an innovative pilot project to support parents whose children (ages birth to 3) are in foster or kinship care through the child welfare system. This project connects these parents whose children also have developmental delays or disabilities to a developmental evaluation and supportive services. Those services are part of a system called Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT). The Parent Engagement Specialist is an employee of and will receive supervision and mentoring from CHSW but will work out of and receive day-to-day training and guidance from staff of the Northwest Center (NWC), an agency which provides ESIT services. The Parent Engagement Specialist will bring their lived and work experience and expertise to (1) encourage and support these parents to participate in ESIT services; and (2) offer suggestions to improve ESIT systems/services for them.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: the following duties are typical for this position. Incumbents may not perform all the listed duties and/or may be required to perform additional or different duties from those set forth below to address business needs and changing business practices.

· Designs recruiting plans and actively participates in the recruitment of children and families for society service programs

· Identifies families’ strengths and social service needs in collaborating with the families and

develops plans to meet those needs

· Encourages and supports families in working toward the goals they have set

· Provides appropriate advocacy services, information and referral, emergency assistance, crisis intervention, and basic needs delivery

· Maintains up-to-date files and records

· Actively searches out appropriate community agencies and service providers for networking to provide additional needed resources to parents and gives direction on how to access them

· Advocates for the values of a diverse population within CHSW and the Community

· Performs other duties as assigned by Supervisor

Additional responsibilities for Project/Program:

· Encourage and strengthen engagement of families with ESIT developmental evaluations and services in partnership with NWC staff

· Provide suggestions to ESIT agencies about strategies, language and approaches to increase engagement and ongoing participation of parents.

· Provide one-on-one support and mentorship to parents as needed to help them access, navigate and participate in ESIT services.

· Adjust strategies used and setting of engagement to support parents in the most beneficial way while also conducting self in accordance with agency’s professional standards of conduct.

· Document activities, outputs, successes, and challenges; and assist in data collection.

· Provide observations on strengths and weaknesses in current ESIT parent engagement strategies to reduce barriers in access and relationship building, as well as processes, paperwork and parent coaching by ESIT staff.

· Provide suggestions to support equity in and improve parent engagement model for replication with additional ESIT agencies based on the learnings from this pilot.

· Must have knowledge of family support principles, conflict resolution skills, and the ability to build relationships with community organizations and their personnel

· Must have knowledge and understanding of community resources and the skills to successfully connect families with appropriate agencies and services

· Must possess strong human relations skills to communicate and work effectively within a culturally diverse work environment and community

· Basic working knowledge and experience with Microsoft Office

· Teamwork and collaboration – can learn from the diverse viewpoints of others; works cooperatively and partners with others to achieve shared objectives.

· Effective oral and written communications.

· Eager to accept supervision, mentoring and coaching.

· Respect and valuing differences – seek to understand different perspectives and cultures; sensitive to cultural norms and ways of communicating; treats others with mutual respect, dignity, fairness, patience and professionalism.

· Ability to maintain confidentiality

· Internally motivated and able to work independently to achieve assigned tasks

· A valid Washington State driver’s license and/or has reliable transportation for travel to meetings

· Proof of a one-step Mantoux TB skin test prior to start of employment. For those previously tested positive, documented proof of treatment from a doctor or a negative chest x-ray must be provided

· CPR and First Aid upon hire or within 60 days of hire

· HIV/AIDS and Blood borne Pathogens training required – can be obtained after hire

Additional minimum requirements:

· 1 year of experience as Peer Mentor/Parent Ally within a Parents for Parents program in Washington State.

· Ability to effectively engage clients in services by building trust while following ethical standards for professional boundaries.

· Innovatively seeks new ways of looking at problems; encourages diverse thinking, comes up with new ideas.

· Has reliable vehicle or means of transportation to meetings throughout King County.

Knowledge and or experience related to the Early Services for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) system (also known as early intervention or birth to three services system).

At least 2 years of experience as a Parent Ally, Parent Ally Lead or Coordinator of a Parents for Parents program.

Note: A Parent Ally is defined as a parent who has had a successful resolution of a child welfare dependency case, is transparent about that interaction, and has a commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Parents for Parents programs hire Parent Allies to provide information and support to parents to navigate the dependency systems and, whenever possible, to safely reunify with the children, as well as to understand and provide their child(ren) with resources to promote their optimal development.

To Apply Visit: https://recruiting.ultipro.com/CHI1020/JobBoard/548fb303-9b4b-c600-6802-1df2ed6c6aaa/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=8902d16d-425b-4538-9cc8-b7945d0bd1ae