Village Child Care Specialist

Description

Summary Job Goal: The main responsibility of this position is to ensure the quality of care in the Youth & Child Unit’s in‑home child care provider program, by providing training support, conducting monitoring through regular home visits, and assisting providers and families to reach health and safety goals, training and advancement goals, and goals to improve the quality of care provided to the children.

This is a child contact position and subject to PL 101–30.

• Know the Health & Safety standards, and available AVCP and community resources in the Specialist’s assigned villages.
• Create a training plan for new or untrained providers, track the provider’s progress on the plan, and certify when the provider has completed sufficient training to begin or continue providing services.
• Arrange for training materials to be available at local TWD Job Center, provide training in person during the initial home visit, and make arrangements to provide First Aid/CPR and other needed training off‑site in other locations.
• Travel regularly to assigned villages and as needed in other locations to conduct home visits; conduct annual or bi‑annual home inspections for each approved child care home to ensure the minimum health and safety standards are met; review emergency procedure plans and monitor to assure continued compliance.
• Complete a monitoring checklist, document observations, set goals for improvement, make recommendations and referrals as needed, and provide a list of supplies needed in the home to the Bethel Office staff.
• Follow up on the phone or in person on a bi‑weekly basis with the provider and family to provide technical assistance and support needed to meet the goals they set.
• Work directly with the families and providers to improve quality of care by:
  • Providing training or assisting them in getting training in health, safety, hygiene, nutrition, and developmentally appropriate practices in a family child care setting.
  • Conducting vision, hearing and developmental milestone assessments and providing referrals to YKHC and the YKHC FIT program as needed.
  • Working with the YKHC FIT program if a provider or family suspects a child is developmentally delayed.
  • Providing referrals to other AVCP programs as needed such as the Benefits Division, Tribal Workforce Job Centers and the Prevention Unit.
  • Acting as a resource for parents who need child care, reviewing program policies and requirements, providing applications, directing them to the local TWD Job Center, and connecting them with a Bethel Child Care Specialist.
  • Working with the TWD Navigators as requested in the application process, collecting applications or other required documents from parents and providers, and submitting them to the Bethel Office.
• Maintain strict client confidentiality.
• Other duties as assigned.

Must have strong written, verbal, and analytical skills. Fluency in Yup’ik and English strongly preferred. Regular travel in the region is required, including riding on 4‑wheelers and walking distances around a community. Must be able to lift 20 lbs.

High school diploma or GED is required.

Preferred experience in Child Care Programs, early childhood development or elementary education, monitoring and evaluating compliance with health and safety standards and nutritional regulations, developmentally appropriate activities, and monitoring and training child care providers.

None.