Family Services Specialist II

The City of Alexandria is bordered by Washington D.C. and the Potomac River, Arlington and Fairfax counties, and Maryland. The small city has a cosmopolitan feel with 150,000 people living within its 15.75 square miles. At the Department of Community and Human Services, we provide essential safety net services to help city residents enjoy a sense of well‑being, safety and self‑sufficiency.

Our behavioral health programs provide compassionate services that support self‑determination and recovery. The beauty of our diverse and resilient people and our commitment to race and social equity, coupled with a historic district dating to 1749, charming waterfront, vibrant arts community and unique places for foodies and shopping, make the City of Alexandria a uniquely wonderful place to live, work and play.

We invite all qualified candidates to learn more and apply for our Family Services Specialist II position.

A Family Services Specialist II provides intensive, specialized, culturally competent services to children and families, with complex psychosocial diagnoses and histories of abuse/neglect, to ensure the safety and well‑being of children in foster care, while working toward permanency within State/Federal timelines. The work may involve providing independent living services to foster youth not living in a family‑like setting, while maintaining family supports.

The work may also include ongoing support services or prevention services; to support a relative or interested party, who may have stepped forward to raise the child/ren or services to prevent child abuse/neglect, if the child/ren are reunified with a prior custodian.

• Provide case management services for children/youth in foster care
• Conduct monthly face‑to‑face visits with each child/youth in foster care
• Document monthly face to face worker visits, Structured Decision‑Making tools, and mandated screens (court, and if applicable education and independent living, etc.) in OASIS.
• Secure funding for needed services through the Family Assessment and Planning Team process
• Meet with supervisor regularly to address the case direction, services, and needs
• Complete Medicaid and Title IV‑E redeterminations
• Maintain and document regular contact with foster care children/youth, community partners, parents, relatives, and providers via face‑to‑face contact, e‑mail, or phone
• Facilitate monthly treatment team meetings which focus on safety, well‑being, and permanency on each assigned foster care case
• Develop, write, and submit Foster Care Service Plans and Reviews
• Represent the Department in court proceedings to include interpreting laws, filing petitions, compiling evidence, preparing court reports, and testifying
• Provide or arrange transportation on each foster care case for visitation, appointments, school, etc.
• Use creative strategies to intervene with varied client populations
• Coordinate with peers and community partners to develop plans of service to meet the social, health and emotional needs to resolve client challenges.
• Prepare social histories, psychosocial assessments and develop treatment plans
• Provide specialized casework to assist clients in confronting and resolving emotional and environmental problems.
• Collaborate with the Family Engagement Unit to locate relatives, refer for Family Partnership Meetings, and for Family Finding
• Collaborate with the Independent Living Coordinator to ensure foster care youth receive needed life skills training and assessments
• Collaborate with public school systems to meet the educational needs of foster children/youth
• Provide continuous 24‑hour on‑call service for foster care cases, and immediate response to child protective service complaints and/or cases crises during working hours and on a 24‑hour on call rotating basis.
• Provide crisis intervention to foster children/youth or their families
• Guide case planning in accordance with local, state, and federal foster care policy. Reviews all policy changes when implemented.

Considerable knowledge of social work principles and practices; human behavior and motivational theory; laws, policies, and…