School Mental Health Specialist

About the role

The School Mental Health Specialist role is dedicated to building community-level support in suicide prevention across Washington State, supporting systems-wide school mental health transformation through a guided process of strategic assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. This position will support Forefront’s School Based programs and our partnership with the JED Foundation to scale JED High School in Washington state.

Responsibilities

• Recruit and manage a consulting portfolio of 30-40 high schools across the state of Washington, developed over the course of 3 years.
• Guide schools through the full cycle of JED’s PK-12 programs with an emphasis on collaboration through consultation.
• Leverage school mental health expertise, provide direct technical assistance to schools/districts on best practices in mental health practices, programming, and policies in the PK-12 sector.
• Analyze and synthesize data from a variety of sources to inform development of feedback reports, strategic plans, and other support resources for school/district partners, and help partners to draw meaningful conclusions from data.
• Lead collaboration with school/district personnel to develop a data-informed strategic plan to improve their practices, procedures, and policies around school mental health.
• Support and suicide prevention, including the related fields encompassing student support.
• Aid in the curation and development of mental health support and suicide prevention activities, materials, presentations, and other related resources for school/district professional development, community meetings, etc.
• Recommend evidence-based strategies and creative solutions to meet individual school/district challenges throughout multi-year project execution.
• Leverage expertise to assist with other school mental health and related consulting projects, as assigned.
• Motivate and advise schools/districts in completion of baseline assessment protocols, surveys, and other program activities and data collection methods.
• Lead school/district partners through a continuous evaluation process to review progress and measure effectiveness.
• Utilize Salesforce and comply with other JED procedures to record and track program metrics for quality assurance and evaluation.
• Build and maintain positive and effective working relationships with school and district leaders to ensure success throughout the duration of program engagement.
• Monitor school/district progress throughout the engagement lifecycle.
• Oversee project timelines and ensure schools/districts are meeting program milestones in a timely manner.

Qualifications

• Minimum of master’s level training in psychology, social work, school counseling, or related field required.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience working with adolescents in educational, healthcare, or community settings is required.
• Self-driven and results-oriented with a positive outlook and strong problem-solving skills.
• Strong research, analytical, and critical thinking abilities, and the ability to analyze and apply data to draw meaningful conclusions.
• Excellent verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Strong written communication with experience in drafting report-style formats.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills, including the ability and initiative to establish new partnerships.
• Strong commitment to the mission and vision of Forefront and promoting access to comprehensive suicide prevention efforts across Washington state.