Lead Family Advocate and Child Forensic Interviewer

Holly’s House is seeking a client services Lead Family Victim’s Advocate and Child Forensic Interviewer. This position will be a dual role, working both as a Child Forensic Interviewer for some clients and a Lead Family Victim’s Advocate for other clients.

The role of the Lead Family Victim’s Advocate is to support children and families in acquiring proper resources, navigating the process of the investigation, and being a liaison for families within the multidisciplinary team response. Family Victim’s Advocates follow National Children’s Alliance (NCA) best practices to provide specialized support and services like needs assessments, warm handoffs with collaborating partners, mental health assessments and treatment referrals.

As the Child Forensic Interviewer, the chosen candidate will be responsible for conducting and coordinating child abuse forensic interviews and evaluations based upon organizational, State and NCA protocols.

The purpose of a CAC forensic interview is to obtain information from a child about abuse allegations or other trauma that will support accurate and fair decision making by the Multi-disciplinary Team (MDT) within the criminal justice, child protection, and service delivery systems. Forensic interviews are conducted in a manner that is developmentally and culturally sensitive, unbiased, fact-finding, trauma-informed and legally sound.

The Preferred candidate will hold a clinical counseling degree (Master of Social Work or Master of Clinical Mental Health Counseling). Such candidates will be trained in Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention and certified to utilize the treatment with clients under the supervision of a chosen contractor, along with student interns and contracted clinicians.

• Review, build and educate clients and staff of updated and new resources to provide to families.
• Update, add and remove resources as relevant for clients, notifying staff when changes are made, providing education for all advocates.
• Supervise and provide case supervision to other advocates, staff and partners.
• Assist in orientation of and training of new staff members.
• Develop tools to communicate with advocates during onboarding and additional training.
• Participate in the onboarding of partners by providing training for the advocacy process.
• Enter statistical data into the case tracking system.
• Assist with grant reporting and other administration.
• Provide crisis intervention via phone or in person.
• Provide a confidential, comforting, and safe front office space for victims and families. Discretion and confidentiality are required.
• Review intake surveys with clients and answer questions regarding services.
• Provide connection with partners and community services, either by phone, email or in person warm handoff.
• Oversee parent psychoeducation for resiliency and explanation or other relevant information particular to the case and family.
• Following training, interview protocols and best practice, interview children ages 17 years of age or younger or developmentally delayed at the request of law enforcement, child protection workers or prosecution.
• Develop and maintain working relationships with participating agencies and consult with the agencies on each case before interviewing the victim(s) or witness(es).
• Serve as a key member of Multi-disciplinary Teams, maintaining positive relationships with law enforcement, Department of Child Services (DCS), Prosecutor’s Offices and designees, healthcare representatives, therapists, and other team members as appropriate.
• Respond to subpoenas and testify when requested.
• Participate in supervision, professional development and on-going training activities including being trained in Child Forensic Interview techniques. Participate in peer/case reviews and present cases when requested, satisfying both organizational and national standards.
• Provide Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI) when needed for clients post-interview process.
• Maintain CFTSI certification and additional training as needed.
• Participate in clinical supervision as required.
• Participate in an on-call rotation schedule, which includes evenings, weekends and…