Do you want to make a difference in the community by helping families to identify their strengths while working to overcome challenges and striving toward positive change to prevent child abuse and neglect? The Family Partnership is seeking a Family Support Specialist that will intervene in crises, provide weekly visits, and advocate for services for families at risk of or engaged in children protection. Client visits are provided in a hybrid style through a virtual platform and phone sessions as well as within the family’s home, with the interventions being family-centered and strength-based, striving to prevent engagement in the child protection system.

BENEFITS:

• $1,000 hiring bonus after 3 months of employment!
• $21.00 – $22.00  per hour
• Generous paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per year
• Strong emphasis on employee self-care and work-life balance
• Competitive medical, dental, and vision benefits
• Company-paid life insurance and long-term disability
• Agency sponsored retirement savings plan

JOB SUMMARY: The Family Support Specialist will intervene in crises, provide weekly visits, and advocate for services to families at risk of or engaged in children protection. The Family Support Specialist will use reflective practice techniques in order to engage parents and explain the home visiting services to interested parents. This position is also responsible for initiating and maintaining regular and long-term (up to five years) contact/support with families. This activity will occur primarily within the family’s home; with the interventions being family-centered and strength-based, striving to prevent engagement in the child protection system.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Engage families in long-term home visiting services, identifying their strengths and developing goals to address challenges.
• Complete Parent Surveys and enroll families in services when appropriate.
• Meet with families in the home, for at least one hour at each visit, and establish a trusting relationship.
• Assist in strengthening the parent-child relationship; provide strength-based, family-centered interventions in order to prevent or close child protection cases.
• Assist parents in improving skills to optimize the home environment and their support system.
• Increase the family’s ability to problem solve and assume the role of advocate for themselves and their children.
• Intervene in crises to provide a safe environment for families.
• Refer, advocate for, and follow-up with clients in need of additional community support and services.
• Document all interactions in the electronic health record, including but not limited to: case notes, assessments, intakes, surveys, discharge summaries, transfer summaries, and evaluations.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Education and Experience:

• Minimum of Associate’s degree in human services, social work, education, or related field.
• Minimum of two years of directly related work experience.
• Experience working with families in home and/or community settings.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills needed to engage families effectively and document the work properly.
• Ability to provide home visiting services.
• Ability to travel to clients’ homes, schools, meetings with community partners and various other locations.
• Access to reliable transportation and willingness to transport clients in own vehicle.
• The ability to meet the agency’s requirements for driving participants.
• Ability to develop and maintain positive and respectful relationships with clients.
• Ability to track and maintain data necessary for program monitoring and evaluation.
• Ability to perform assessment needed in order to conduct appropriate intervention and referrals.
• Experience working with and an understanding of communities living in poverty, communities of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals, and other vulnerable populations.
• Ability to work respectfully and communicate effectively with different cultures, groups, and languages.

Licenses and/or Certifications:

• Valid driver’s license, access to reliable transportation, and the ability to meet The Family Partnership’s driving record requirements. Please note that if the license was not issued in the state of Minnesota, you have 60 days after becoming a Minnesota resident in which to apply for your Minnesota driver’s license or permit.

The Family Partnership has a mandated vaccination policy implemented for all employees, subject to reasonable accommodation required by law. ORGANIZATION SUMMARY: For more than 140 years, The Family Partnership has built strong families, vital communities, and better futures for children. We fulfill our mission through counseling, education, and advocacy, primarily in the greater Minneapolis and St. Paul area.

We Believe: Families, no matter what their form, are the foundation of strong communities.

Our Purpose Is To: Clear the path for family success.

We Pursue This By:

• Championing the two-generation approach
• Preventing and overcoming adverse childhood experiences
• Demonstrating leadership in thought and action
• Building partnerships based on trust.

Diversity and open expression are fundamental to the work of The Family Partnership. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment where everyone can belong. Every member of our team enriches our work by exposing us to a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design, and deliver solutions. We welcome everyone to apply, especially those individuals who are underrepresented in our sector: individuals who identify as BIPOC, Indigenous or people of culture, LGBTQI+ and gender fluid or gender nonconforming, individuals with disabilities (both seen and unseen), veterans, people of any age or family status. We value the contributions of a diverse workforce, and we welcome and encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We encourage you to apply even if you feel like you don’t fit 100% of the technical requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, disability, marital status, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, familial status, genetic information or a protected veteran’s status.  Our organization has a partnership with Metropolitan Alliance of Connected Communities (MACC) to provide administrative services including management of the recruiting process. If you apply for this position, you may see references to MACC in some online materials. The Family Partnership participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. See E-Verify’s official poster at https://e-verify.uscis.gov/web/media/resourcesContents/E-Verify_Participation_Poster_ES.pdf. See E-Verify’s Right to Work poster at https://www.e-verify.gov/sites/default/files/everify/posters/IER_RightToWorkPoster%20Eng_Es.pdf.