Bilingual Family Support Specialist

About the role

The bilingual Family Support Specialist (FSS) will serve families across the Catawba Valley Healthy Families (CVHF) service area, which includes McDowell, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, and Iredell counties. The primary geographic focus of this position will be Burke and McDowell counties, although responsibilities may extend throughout the service area as needed.

Responsibilities

• Work as part of a team to engage referred families by scheduling the Family Resilience and Opportunities for Growth (FROG) initial assessment, administer, document, and score the assessment.
• Initiate and maintain regular and long-term contact / support to assigned families through:
• Home visits lasting at least an hour
• Being on call 24/7 to families (mostly entails responding to calls and texts, occasional in-person support may be required between scheduled visits)
• Build trusting relationships by honoring diverse family structures and parenting practices.
• Develop and regularly update an individualized Family Service Plan to guide interventions that address needs identified on the FROG scale and during the course of service.
• Aid each family in setting and achieving meaningful goals.
• Support parents in learning problem-solving and coping skills and how to effectively advocate for their family.
• Provide parent education through use of Partners for a Healthy Baby, Nurturing Program, Growing Great Kids, and other supplemental curricula.
• Employ strategies to strengthen parent-child interactions and promote healthy childhood growth and development through targeted activities, observation, and the parallel process.
• Administer family screens, including intimate partner violence, depression, and child development (ASQ-3 / ASQ-SE); make appropriate referrals if needed.
• Act as a liaison between families and community agencies as needed, stay informed of available local resources that could enhance a family’s well-being.
• Aid families in scheduling and attending doctors’ appointments for pre and postnatal care, well-child checkups, immunizations, and other appointments as appropriate.
• Work as a member of the CVHF team by regularly attending CVHF staff meetings, weekly individual supervision meetings, group parent trainings, occasional community outreach events, other meetings and trainings as required.
• Attend training upon being hired and throughout employment, some of which may require travel and overnight stays, to develop professional skills.
• Perform other duties as required when assigned by supervisor.

Supervision Responsibilities

None

Qualifications

• Minimum of a High School Diploma or Equivalent, Preferred Bachelor’s degree in Child Development, Early Childhood, B-K, Human Services, Social Work, or a related child and family field and at least 1 year of experience related to the program or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Preference given to individuals with bilingual abilities (Spanish/English).
• Knowledge of infant and child development.
• Experience in working with or providing services to children and families.
• Ability to diffuse difficult situations / confrontations and establish trusting relationships.
• Knowledge of dynamics of child abuse and neglect.
• Infant Mental Health Endorsement preferred.
• Ability to work with a variety of individuals and professionals representing various disciplines related to the clients’ specific needs and embrace the concepts of family-centered and strength-based services.
• Accepting of individual differences and possess the experience and humility to work with culturally diverse families.
• Willingness to engage in building reflective capacity (e.g. Capacity for introspection, communicating awareness of self in relation to others, recognizing value of supervision, etc.)
• Proficient computer skills to allow communication, participant record documentation, accessing of and ability to interpret information.
• Must have a valid North Carolina Driver’s License and maintain insurance coverage.
• Must submit to and pass pre-employment drug screening, criminal, HCPR and driving checks.

Benefits

Children’s Hope Alliance is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Pay

TBD

Schedule

TBD