Child Protection Specialist; Region - Eastern

Child Protection Specialist

As a Child Protection Specialist, you will play a critical role in enhancing the well-being of Montana families. You will engage directly with families facing a wide range of challenges, investigating child abuse, providing support, advocacy, and connection to vital resources. This role is both rewarding and demanding. You will navigate complex, sometimes hostile, situations that require empathy, resiliency, and a deep understanding of social systems.

While the path is not always easy, the difference you make is invaluable in Keeping Children Safe and Families Strong.

Essential Functions:

This is intended to describe the position but does not cover every function or task that may be required.

• Conducts timely assessments of reports of child maltreatment, in accordance with requirements of state and federal statutes and agency policy, using standardized safety assessment tools and decision-making guides.
• Carries a caseload and keeps all case file documentation current.
• Works collaboratively with law enforcement, other welfare professionals, and agencies.
• Prepares for and testifies in court, preliminary hearings, multi-disciplinary team meetings, family partnership meetings, and court hearings.
• Places child(ren) in out-of-home care, when necessary, and ensures that the placement is safe and complies with statutory and policy preferences and is in the best interests of the child(ren). Identifies available resources and connects families and children to these resources.
• Assures child(ren) is evaluated and assessed to determine medical and psychological needs throughout the case.
• Prepares assessments, designs case plans, evaluates the progress of participants, and makes and monitors appropriate placements.
• This role requires frequent travel and conducting in home visits and interviews, and may include out-of-state travel, which will require the willingness to have appropriate travel documents.
• While you have a standard schedule, there will be times when critical business needs will require work during evenings, weekends, or holidays. Please note that as part of your job responsibilities, you will be assigned a rotating on-call schedule.

Minimum Qualifications for this Career Opportunity

· Required bachelor's degree in social work, human services, psychology, or related degree.

· Two years of social services work experience, or directly related work experience, working with children and families in difficult and sometimes volatile situations.

Candidates that will be successful in this role possess the following knowledge, skill, and abilities on the first day of work:

• Stress Tolerance:
  Deals calmly and effectively with high stress situations (for example, tight deadlines, hostile individuals, emergency situations).
• Self-Management:
  Sets well-defined and realistic personal goals; displays a high level of initiative, effort, and commitment towards completing assignments in a timely manner; works with minimal supervision; is motivated to achieve; demonstrates responsible behavior.
• Decision Making:
  Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change.
• Advocacy:
  Develops and presents the client's, youth's, and/or customer's interests in all matters.
• Teamwork:
  Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, fosters commitment and works with others to achieve goals.
• Ability to make critical decisions, based on integration of information from multiple sources that may be discrepant, in high-stress situations.
• Ability to engage children and families, under difficult circumstances, to gather sufficient information to make accurate and precise decisions.
• Ability to remain calm when being confronted and to develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, even those who do not share the same point of view and may be violent or angry and maintain them over time.
• Ability to operate a personal computer and general office equipment as necessary to complete the essential functions of this position, including using spreadsheet, word processing, database, email, internet and other computer programs.

This position may be eligible for partial telework within the state of Montana. Specific conditions will be provided by the supervisor and must adhere to state policy.

This position supports the Child and Family Services Division Region 1 which includes the following cities:
Glasgow, Glendive Hardin, Miles City, Sidney, and Wolf Point. Work locations will vary depending on availability and community needs. This position will not be located in Billings; however Hardin is in close proximity (46 miles) to Billings and there is an established carpool from the Billings office to the Hardin Office.