Family First Program Associate

job description

the selected candidate will be offered a salary between $60,000.00 – $64,600.00. You must be a current employee of the administration for childen’s services to be considered for this position. These positions are only open to candidates who are permanent (not provisional) in the civil service title of child welfare specialist. The administration for children’s services (acs) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of children and families through child welfare and juvenile justice services and community supports.

Acs manages community-based supports and foster care services and provides subsidized childcare vouchers. Acs child protection staff respond to allegations of child maltreatment. In juvenile justice, acs oversees detention, placement and programs for youth in the community. The family services division (fsd) and its network of contracted providers deliver one of the largest and most diverse continuum of community-based child welfare prevention services in the nation and across new york city to improve safety, well-being, and permanency for thousands of families and children each year.

Fsd focuses on systems improvement, innovation, and strategy initiatives that require collaboration with partners to address urgent or emerging provider and family needs, city or state mandates, and high priority strategic goals of acs leadership. The office of preventive technical assistance (opta) strives to provide technical support to prevention services providers in delivering evidence-based practices. Opta supports providers with technical assistance in case practice support, referral management, and family team conferencing.

These program areas within opta work to ensure provider agencies can deliver high quality services for children and their families by supporting them through coaching, training, and case consultations as we adhere to the agency’s values, principles, and best practice standards. Opta will support prevention providers with the implementation of the family first prevention services act (ffpsa). The federal family first prevention services act (ffpsa) was enacted as part of the bipartisan budget act of 2018.

Along with several required provisions regarding foster care services, it allows states and tribes to be reimbursed via title iv‑e for prevention services for the first time. To do so, states must have approved family first prevention plans that include: the proposed definition of “candidate for foster care; which evidence-based models (as rated by the ffpsa clearinghouse) the state will implement;

the continuous quality improvement activities in place to ensure fidelity and service quality; and how the state will monitor child safety. New york state received federal approval for its family first prevention plan in august of 2022. There are 11 “well‑supported” models included in the plan, three of which are currently offered in acs’ prevention continuum. These are functional family therapy, brief strategic family therapy, and motivational interviewing.

The division of prevention services seeks two outstanding candidates for child welfare specialist – level ii to provide critical support to prevention services providers to ensure that acs can maximize title iv‑e claiming under the family first prevention services act. Under supervision with latitude for independent decision‑making, the child welfare specialist will perform the following tasks:

• provide training and technical assistance to prevention services providers on documentation of candidacy under the family first prevention services act
• review program data and samples of case record documentation to ensure compliance with family first requirements
• use state and local data systems (connections, data warehouse, promis) to review reports and program data to monitor and support with legislative requirements
• provide feedback and technical assistance to providers, both orally and in writing, regarding compliance with legislative requirements
• liaise with fsd contract management staff and staff from the division of financial services to ensure provider invoices include information required…