Family Services Specialist II

Hiring Range: $66,511.12 to $89,092.12

Full Time or Part Time: Full Time

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 regulations relating to human services program areas; investigating and interviewing techniques; legal procedures as related to program area; and social, economic, and health problems. Skill in operating a personal computer and the associated software and the operation of a motor vehicle. Demonstrated ability to: communicate effectively both orally and in writing;

interview, assess needs, counsel and refer clients to other resources as needed; investigate high risk cases; testify in court proceedings; develop and present training programs and other presentations; interpret program laws, policies and regulations; develop and implement service plans in order to insure the delivery of appropriate services to the client; analyze case information to make sound…