Current Job Openings

Great opportunity with great benefits! Up to 8 weeks of PTO! Health, dental, vision paid! Employer sponsored retirement! This is a healthy work environment with a focus on self care, collaboration and an overall team approach.

The Child Center is seeking a Family Peer Support Specialist to work with the family members and caregivers of our clients and those participating in the Crisis and Transition Services (CATS) program in navigating and feeling supported around the treatment of their child. A Family Peer Support Specialist works with families and is a parent or guardian with shared lived experience raising a child with emotional, behavioral, mental health, developmental or other health challenges. The Family Peer Support Specialist’s role is to support the family, help them to engage and actively participate in their treatment process, help to make informed decisions that drive the process, provide resources and assistance with accessing services, and empower families to advocate for themselves. The Family Peer Support Specialist uses personal and professional life experience to provide consultation and coaching to increase awareness and improve parent/caregiver-professional partnerships and maximize parent/caregiver voice, choice and involvement. Job duties will be performed in various settings including private, residential homes, and emergency rooms.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily. An emphasis is placed on knowledge and growth from lived experience over formal education systems.

• Personal experience of being the primary caregiver of a child who is consuming mental health/behavioral health/substance abuse services. Demonstrated ability to cope with child(ren)’s diagnosis.
• Must be comfortable working out in the community including private residential homes and emergency rooms (even during the pandemic following The Child Centers strict COVID and PPE guidelines).
• Experience working with children and families in a community-based program preferred. Knowledge of community resources.
• Ability to work independently and part of a team.
• Ability to work with diverse cultural, religious, racial, educational, socio-economic and alternative cultural backgrounds.
• Commitment to child safety and family stability.
• General knowledge of office machines and telephones
• Must be able to lift 25 pounds
• Must pass a criminal and abuse background check
• Must be able to drive and meet The Child Center’s driving requirements

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
State certified as a Family Peer Support Specialist (willing to train if not certified)
Multilingualism (especially in Spanish and English)

DUTIES:

• Utilizes personal and professional life experience and best practices for high fidelity wraparound, providing peer support to parents and caregivers. Referring programs may include both current clients and families coming in through our Crisis Program.
• Facilitate engagement, access and participation; maintain meaningful involvement with the parent/caregiver and their child’s planning process.
• Explore strengths, needs, culture and vision with the child and family.
• Participate in child and family team meetings to ensure access, voice and choice within the child and family team process and support the parent/caregivers connection to the child and family team.
• Encourage the family and team to bring concerns into the open.
• Model effective communication, frame and reframe a concern to facilitate collaboration, patience and strengths-based approach.
• Provide a consistent source of encouragement and hope.
• Provide non-judgmental, unconditional support to parent/caregiver and attend to language and attitudes of all team members to promote family friendliness and avoid blaming and shaming the family or anyone else on the team.
• Maintain connection to the parent/caregiver and family based on the plan and family needs and follow-through on tasks and assignments.
• Model, practice and support family/parent/caregiver to talk about sensitive issues, reframe negative concerns and manage respectful communication.
• Maintain personal and professional boundaries, appropriate to the peer role and to ensure the safety and protection of self and the families served.
• Participate in regular supervision with Peer Supervisor/Regional Director and Clinical Director.
• Able and willing to accommodate flexibility in work schedule in order to meet family needs – occasional evenings included.
• Represent core agency and program values and principles in all work settings.
• Develop and maintain constructive and positive relationships as a member of a team, demonstrating qualities of dependability, empathy, genuineness, respect as a team member and as a peer.
• Produce and maintain accurate and timely documentation according to the assigned schedule (e.g., scheduled reports, timesheets, progress notes and other paperwork as required).
• Attend staff meetings and scheduled trainings.
• Demonstrate culturally effective sensitivity and responsiveness to varying cultural characteristics and beliefs.
• Maintain strict confidentiality standards according to HIPAA.
• Maintain assigned office and community based work schedule.

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