Social Worker, Community Health

Organizational Background:

City Living NY (CLNY) empowers youth aging out of foster care across New York City to transition successfully by providing essential resources and in-depth support. Initially, we identify the home goods and furnishings they need to turn their first apartments into homes, and maintain contact with them for two years to ensure housing stability. These youth are also eligible for our more intensive Core Program where they work with their assigned social worker to identify their goals and receive support around a wide range of issues including educational, employment, financial, social‑emotional, and parenting.

We stay with our clients through these critical first years and provide the stability and resources so many do not have. When foster care ends, our work begins.

CLNY is expanding our social work team and is seeking a committed full‑time social worker to work directly with our clients. The ideal candidate will enjoy being an integral part of a small and growing team. In this role, you will have the opportunity to make an organizational impact by helping the social work team navigate client crises and build rapport with our youth through empathetic interventions.

Reporting to the Program Director and collaborating with a team of social workers, each social worker typically works out of our Manhattan office and travels to meet with clients in their homes and communities throughout New York City. This important role on our team offers an opportunity to help our clients achieve life‑changing outcomes. CLNY clients remain in their homes, as well as achieve employment, educational, and financial security.

CLNY social workers have a meaningful, direct, tangible impact on young adults aging out of the foster care system.

Case Management (75% of time)

• Provide ongoing case management and supportive counseling (and crisis intervention as needed) to a caseload of young adults who have recently aged out of foster care
• Conduct intakes and assessments to identify each client’s goals and needs
• Conduct assessment of physical home environment; assist clients in obtaining needed apartment goods and furniture through CLNY
• Conduct regular home and community visits with all clients.
• Meet monthly with Core Program clients to help them achieve their educational and employment goals
• Support clients to secure and maintain stable housing
• Support clients to develop daily living skills (such as budgeting and managing their household) and socio‑emotional skills (such as self‑advocacy) that lead to them living independently
• Provide referrals to appropriate outside agencies and organizations; accompany clients to appointments as needed
• Advocate to ensure clients receive relevant entitlements and benefits

Administrative (25% of time)

• Maintain detailed and up-to-date progress notes and relevant case documentation
• Actively engage in weekly team meetings
• Complete reports and statistics needed for funders as requested by Executive Director
• Attend agency and other meetings as needed
• Must be able to lift 25 lbs.
• Other duties as determined by supervisor or Executive Director

Experience

• LMSW required (within 6 months of employment)
• Two or more years working with at‑risk teens and young adults and/or in child welfare or equivalent experience preferred
• Experience navigating complex social service, educational, and other systems, with strong knowledge of services for young adults in NYC
• Experience managing, developing, coaching, and empowering individuals

Skills and Interests

• A self‑starter and creative problem solver who takes initiative and demonstrates flexibility in response to continually changing situations
• Ability to work independently, with excellent organizational skills and maintain detailed and up-to-date records
• Ability to flex hours and conduct home visits/phone contacts on evenings and/or weekends as needed to accommodate client schedules
• Candidates with lived experience in foster care, housing instability, or related systems are strongly encouraged to apply
• A genuine interest in CLNY’s mission of supporting young adults aging out of the foster care system transition successfully into adulthood