CASEWORKER (Bilingual)

About the Role

The Caseworker is a professional staff position in the Close to Home Programs division of SCO Family of Services. The position requires an individual highly dedicated to the goals and objectives of family involvement, residential group care, and the agency at large. The caseworker should be committed to the betterment of clients and maintain a philosophy that is goal-directed, child-centered, family-focused, and neighborhood-based. Social work service provision occurs within a context that promotes the belief that clients have a sense of dignity, which must be restored and maintained, as well as a right to empowerment and self-determination. Caseworkers work in partnership with families, youth, and neighborhood residents in a demanding, highly interactive, and diversified environment that requires flexibility.

The Caseworker must be sensitive to the rights, feelings, needs, and cultural background of each client and responsive in a non-judgmental manner.

Responsibilities

• Caseworker with Child (30%)
  • Maintains ongoing qualitative social work/child and social/child care contacts in accordance with regulatory mandates.
  • Lobbies and advocates energetically for appropriate education/vocational placement for each resident.
  • Prepares cases for presentation in six-month interdisciplinary case reviews and participates actively in developing comprehensive service plans.
  • Serves as the youngster’s advocate and represents them in collaborative service planning with the Department of Mental Health and Youth Development Services, as well as the program’s Nursing and Program Management Units.
  • Facilitates case movement to place each youngster in the most appropriate and least restrictive setting for required services.
• Caseworker with Family (30%)
  • Maintains and facilitates ongoing qualitative social work/family, family/child, and sibling contacts in accordance with regulatory mandates.
  • Executes diligent efforts to locate family members of each youngster in the program.
  • Implements creative strategies for involving family members in the service planning and delivery process.
  • Lobbies energetically and facilitates the provision of family therapy and other supportive collateral services when indicated.
  • Facilitates the development of realistic, appropriate, and timely discharge plans.
  • Promotes the principles of the family-to-family initiative through partnership with direct care staff, birth parents, youth, and neighborhood residents.
  • Helps establish communities of care for youth and families by building effective relationships with significant individuals and service providers in the family’s location.
• Casework with Collateral Persons (15%)
  • Maintains regular contact and efficacious working relationships with significant others involved in service planning and provision, including child care staff, educational personnel, court and legal representatives, foster parents, medical personnel, and other caseworkers.
  • Lobbies energetically and advocates for services that empower and enhance client functioning.
  • Ensures a holistic, culturally sensitive, family-centered, and child-focused presentation of case particulars.
  • Represents the agency in neighborhood service network meetings and other forums, and participates in community educational activities.
• Record Keeping (25%)
  • Maintains accurate and up-to-date electronic and paper case records.
  • Completes and submits all necessary reports (e.g., service plans, permanency hearing reports, progress notes) in a timely fashion to ensure regulatory compliance with City and State standards.
• Performs all other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Valid NY, NJ, or CT driver’s license (required to be an SCO Authorized Driver).
• Bilingual Spanish: Fluent in speaking and writing in Spanish.
• Prior experience in Close to Home programs preferred.
• Prior experience in a residential setting preferred.
• Prior casework experience preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in social work or a related field from an accredited college or university preferred; degrees in other disciplines given full consideration.
• Familiarity with the assigned community and knowledge of the major cultural groups within the neighborhoods served.
• Desirable qualifications: residence in the community where the position is located; ability to speak the language of the major cultural groups served.
• Excellent writing skills and good basic computer skills (email, word processing, internet research).
• Maintain Safe Crisis Management (SCM) certification.

Relationships

Externally: Interacts with NYC Administration for Children’s Services, school systems, NYC Department of Correction, police precincts, courts, and community-based organizations.

Internally: Interfaces with other service programs as well as business support services.

Additional Characteristics

• Be a team player.
• Possess strong sensitivity to cultural differences present among staff and clients, including sexual orientation and identity.
• Believe in people’s ability to grow and change; forge mutually respectful partnerships with persons served and their families.
• Able to work effectively and efficiently within a demanding work environment.
• Display buy-in and adherence to the Missouri Approach, the therapeutic approach utilized by the Close to Home program.
• Ability to set limits, maintain the helping role of practitioner, and intervene appropriately.

Working Conditions

• Requires occasional flexibility in hours to accommodate family visits, service plan reviews, and crisis intervention.
• Agency vehicles are available for driving, subject to DMV check of the caseworker’s driving record.
• Work in a residential setting with youth involved in the juvenile justice system.