On-Call Child Welfare Navigator

Department: Behavioral Wellness; Program: Children and Family Services; Reports to: Program Manager; Location: MICOP Office, Oxnard; Status: Non Exempt; Hours of Work: On-Call (as needed).

About the role

Summary: The person in this position assists families involved with Children and Family Services (CFS) with culturally and linguistically appropriate services. This includes communicating with clients in their indigenous language and incorporating Indigenous perspectives as they navigate the Child Welfare System. The Child Welfare Navigator will ensure clients understand the services available through the CFS system, eliminate barriers to entry, ensure they are able to make and receive appointments, provide interpretation and cultural context, assist in service navigation, and coach and mentor clients.

Responsibilities

• Provide linguistic support to indigenous families, social workers, caregivers and service providers.
• Review case plan and documentation clients to ensure they understand.
• Provide referrals and resources to support the social workers.
• Represent and advocate for Indigenous families' rights in the community
• Provide linguistic support and services to caregivers to help stabilize and preserve the temporary out-of-home placement of the child/youth.
• Relay information and provide linguistic support to families who only speak either Mixteco.
• Collaborate with social workers on case planning and updates, including attending Child Family Team Meetings (CFTM) and other meetings to support reunification, stabilization, and permanency efforts.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent work experience.
• Direct experience working with Mixteco/Indigenous families and/or the community.

Skills

• Mission driven, desire to work and advocate for the community, and support, empower and organize the indigenous migrant community in California’s Central Coast.
• Proven ability to prioritize workload.
• Ability to adapt to new settings (field work, community homes) and provide services in various work environments.
• Ability to be collaborative but also self motivated and able to work and execute projects independently.
• Ability to track individual cases, coordinate, and organize work effectively.
• Language abilities: Trilingual Mixteco, Spanish, English speaker.
• Computer skills – MS Word and Excel
• Ability to enter accurate data into the database.
• Able to pay close attention to details.
• Excellent interpersonal and verbal skills, including the experience and ability to interact with staff, agency representatives, and especially community members.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule (meetings and activities may happen during some evenings and/or weekends).