Juvenile Justice Special Intern

Juvenile Justice Special Intern

We continually strive for a workforce that reflects the growing diversity within the State of Illinois. A variety of employee backgrounds, perspectives, ideas and experiences are crucial to our ability to most effectively serve the public. Bilingual skills welcome.

The mission of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice is to build youth skills and strengthen families to promote community safety and positive youth outcomes. The Juvenile Justice Specialist position plays a key role in facilitating this mission, which is to build youth skills and strengthen families by promoting community safety and positive youth outcomes.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Department of Juvenile Justice is seeking a compassionate and motivated candidate to assist in the positive rehabilitation of the youth in our care. The ideal candidate for this position will possess a passion for positive change, the ability to apply a high degree of patience with residents and their families, and the ability to confidently develop and implement recommendations for positive behavior change and rehabilitation.

The Juvenile Justice Specialist plays a critical role in the maintenance and rehabilitation of the youth in our care.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Provides role-modeling behavior, facilitating appropriate communications and developing suitable problem solving and conflict resolution skills for assigned youth, supervising and monitoring the progress of youth in accordance with the individualized service plan.
• Provides youth with immediate reinforcement of appropriate interaction, limit setting, and correction of inappropriate communication and interaction.
• Works with counselors and other professional and direct support staff to provide additional assistance and support services to youth, through individualized student interaction and facilitating group programs where trained and certified to do so.
• Supervises youth in accordance with specified agency rules and standards.
• Participates in the development and implementation of an individualized service plan including, but not limited to, monitoring implementation of the plan, preparing periodic written and oral reports, attending professional staff meetings for assigned youth, and contributing to the plan in areas of specialization, goal setting, behavioral observations and management issues.
• Completes all required reports and notifies appropriate staff of issues, concerns and activities.
• Transports and supervises youth movement to and from destinations inside and/or outside the facility grounds; observes behavior and social interaction of youth and intervenes when conflicts occur and deescalates the situation.
• Administers nonprescription medications per established protocols and ensures youth have access to necessary and appropriate medical services.
• Conducts periodic inspections of facility to assure the safety and well being of youth being served.
• Receives ongoing training to develop new and updated skill and proficiency in carrying out specialized service delivery programs to targeted youth involving group or individual services.
• Provides guidance and conducts peer training for specialists and interns to familiarize them with different and more challenging assignments and to assist the training coordinator with cyclical training, instruction, and reinforcement of existing directives and procedures and new or improved work methods and techniques.
• Performs other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Requires a high school diploma or equivalent and either; (A) any bachelor's or advanced degree from an accredited college or university or (B) Verification of 2 or more years of experience providing direct care to youth in the form of residential care, coaching, case management, or mentoring.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Candidates must be over the age of 21. Requires the ability to pass an IDJJ/IDOC background check. Requires the ability to pass an IDJJ/IDOC drug screening. Requires the successful completion of a Department of Juvenile Justice Training Program. Requires the ability to speak, and…