Children's Therapeutic and Program Specialist

As the Children's Therapeutic and Program Specialist for the NWSN, you will be responsible for assisting with a wide range of duties pertaining to the programming, supportive services, research, education,

and policy initiatives of the NWSN and other initiatives of the NWSN on behalf of children and youth and the shelters and safe haven programs that serve them. Such responsibilities will include without limitation:

(1) Researching best practices, supportive services, programs and resources to support children and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness via our Network and beyond, including tools for early assessment of strengths and needs, resources and linkages to address special needs, effective therapeutic interventions, specialized supportive services and enriching programs;

(2) Assist in developing programming to advance trauma-informed standards of care, best practices, and guidelines and resources for safe, supportive shelter and effective service delivery for children and youth, including by way of example and not in limitation, trauma informed shelter environments, early screening and effective therapeutic interventions, resource coordination and linkages, supportive services, and specialized educational and enrichment programming;

(3) Assist in providing technical assistance and helpful resources on each and all of the foregoing, including fielding inquiries from shelters and safe haven programs, distribution of information to the Network, identifying helpful resources and contributing to the NWSN’s resource library pertaining to children and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness and effective supportive services and programs for shelters and safe haven programs;

(4) Assist in developing educational offerings, workshops, info-session, conference presentations and materials, web-based content, newsletters, news and advisory alerts for the NWSN, the Network and the general public pertaining to children and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and effective supportive services and programs; and contributing regularly to the NWSN’s “Forum” for information exchange to assist shelters and safe haven programs in shared learning;

(5) Conducting ongoing outreach to other experts in the field and wide ranging research on: the intersections of gender based violence, mental health, trauma, substance use and homelessness impacting children and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness; the needs of sheltered children and youth, including persons with developmental and social and emotional challenges; trauma informed environments, standards of care, best practices, and guidelines for effective service delivery, therapeutic supports and programming;

innovation across the fields of shelter, supportive services and programming for children and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness; and other relevant topics and subject matters;

(6) Assist in carrying out the NWSN’s initiative to advance safe, trauma-informed, educational and enriching environments in the Network’s shelters and safe haven programs, in collaboration with and supporting the NWSN’s volunteers;

(7) Assist in hosting the national conferences and working symposiums of the NWSN, preparation of educational offerings, programs and presentations both within and beyond the conferences pertaining to experiencing homelessness and effective supportive services and programs, overseeing the NWSN team of staff and volunteers, and managing the full range of logistics for the conferences and symposiums conducted by the NWSN pertinent to specialization;

(8) Assist in developing and maintaining a robust, informative, accurate and up to date web-based platform pertaining to children and youth experiencing or at risk…