Family Support Specialist, HFA en Foothill Family

Bilingual differential for qualified candidates.

SUMMARY 

The Family Support Specialist (FSS) provides weekly family support and parent-child dyadic activities in the HFA home based program. The FSS will carry a caseload of 15 to 20 high risk/high needs prenatal women and/or women with children ages 0-5. The FSS will conduct needs/case management assessments, provide early child development curriculum to parents, case management to families, and administer developmental assessments for children and depression screenings for mothers. The FSS will support parents in learning how to appropriately respond to their child’s cues and coach parents on strategies that foster and facilitate their child’s emerging development.  

 ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Supports and promotes the mission of the Agency: Foothill Family empowers children and families on their journey to achieve personal success.
• Attends program orientation, Home Visiting Core and Assessment trainings and applies acquired skills to daily work with the child and parent.
• Conducts weekly home visits of at least 60 minutes duration for the first six months after the child’s birth and then based on family need until the child is 5 years old.  
• Ensures weekly visits provide client-centered, strengths-based information and support on topics such as bonding and attachment, positive parenting, child health and development, and a safe home environment.  
• Ensures that service components are incorporated and that parents actively participate in home visits.
• Delivers Parents as Teachers curriculum during home visits for both child development education and family centered activities to strengthen the parent-child dyad. 
• Provides assessments and individual family plans to all clients enrolled in the HFA program within 90 days of enrollment.
• Administers the Parent Survey and adheres to deadlines set forth by the County of Los Angeles Public Health Department Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Division. 
• Administers Ages and Stages-3 and Ages and Stages: a Social-Emotional questionnaire for children enrolled and administers the PHQ-9 depression screen for mothers enrolled in HFA adhering to deadlines set forth by the County of Los Angeles Public Health Department Maternal, Child, Adolescent Health Division.
• Assesses the quality of interactions between the parent-child dyad and uses innovative techniques to support healthy attachment and sustained engagement. 
• Uses positive methods to: build rapport, trust, family engagement, and maintenance of families enrolled and participating in the program, including using creative outreach to re-engage families.
• Meets with families in a setting where families feel most comfortable or if the home environment is not conducive to home visiting. 
• Drives or arranges transportation for clients, parents and children as appropriate and necessary to ensure that service needs are met.
• Drives to clients’ home, school, community or Agency offices to provide field-based services to clients and families as assigned and based on the families’ needs and availability.
• Provides care or services to minors or comes into contact with minors as part of their job duties.
• Provides services relating to the administration of public funds or benefits, including eligibility for public funds or public benefits.
• Coordinates services for families which may include breastfeeding assistance, obtaining medical insurance and accessing medical and dental care.  
• Assesses needs with families and makes internal referrals and linkage to community resources.
• Ensures children are up-to-date with immunizations. 
• Prepares and facilitates family/parent workshops, as directed by the Program Supervisor. 
• Prepares and participates in weekly administrative, clinical, and reflective supervision. Prepares and participates in weekly group supervision and presents at least one case per month to elicit feedback and best practices.
• Uses video (if family consents) as a tool for strengthening home visitation. 
• Acquires information and knowledge about the Service Planning Area 3 communities, including but not limited to Azusa, Pomona, Duarte, La Canada/Flintridge. Conducts self in a professional manner according to the policies and guidelines set forth by Foothill Family Service, Healthy Families America program, and complies with all legal federal, state, and local mandates.  
• Attends in-person meetings and events at various locations within the Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.
• Displays sensitivity to the service population’s cultural and socioeconomics characteristics.
• Performs work in a safe manner at all times and ensures employees are abiding by safety practices; takes action when employees put themselves or others at risk.
• Follows all policies, procedures and legal mandates including HIPAA, client confidentiality, releases of information, protected health information (PHI) and client files.
• Ensures performance and behaviors support the Agency’s performance quality improvement (PQI) goals and objectives.
• Reports to work on time and maintains reliable and regular attendance.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

 POSITION REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum of a high school diploma or equivalent. Bachelor’s degree in social services or related field preferred.
• Experience in working with or providing services to children and families.
• At least one year of experience working with high risk/high need clients. High risk/high need pregnant or parenting women are defined as follows: 
  1. At risk of developing maternal depression
  2. Exhibit early signs of severe mental illness
  3. Have substance use issue
  4. In or at risk of entry/re-entry into the juvenile justice system
  5. In or at risk of entry/re-entry into the criminal justice system
  6. Special needs such as deaf/hard of hearing, developmentally delay, physical disabilities
  7. Experiencing homelessness
  8. Currently or previously in the foster care system
  9. Who has been exposed to trauma
  10. Involvement with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
• An additional one year of experience providing case management or home visitation is preferred.
• An ability to establish trusting relationships.
• Knowledge of infant and early childhood development and community resources.
• Early childhood development education and/or experience preferred.  
• Ability to engage in building reflective capacity (e.g., capacity for introspection, communicating awareness of self in relation to others, recognizing value of supervision, etc.).
• Infant mental health endorsement preferred. 
• Experience with Parents as Teachers curriculum and working with an electronic record keeping software system preferred.  
• Excellent organizational skills and an ability to manage and prioritize duties are necessary to be successful in this position. 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Detailed oriented, following up on concerns, and understanding the systems which help ensure quality of service and accurate record keeping.
• Good interpersonal skills, including the ability to work cooperatively as a team member.
• Effective screening and assessment skills and intervention strategies  
• Ability to handle confidential information appropriately. 
• Demonstrated understanding and skill set to establish appropriate limits and boundaries with clients. 
• Valid CA Driver’s License and maintains insurability on the Agency’s auto liability policy (including a minimum of 2 years driving experience after receiving license) and maintains the California state required auto insurance liability limits.
• Bilingual skills in English/Spanish required.
• Provides services relating to the administration of public funds or benefits, including eligibility for public funds or public benefits.
• Must not be excluded, suspended, debarred or otherwise made ineligible on the Federal, State or County Sanctions lists.

 PHYSICAL DEMANDS  

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.