Adoption Specialist​/Case Manager

Adoption Specialist - Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Recruiter

Full-time (37.5 hrs work week) – Roanoke

The Adoption Specialist – WWK Recruiter will provide case management services to children, adoptive families, and potential adoptive families using Wendy's Wonderful Kids evidence-based/child-centered recruitment model, supported by the Dave Thomas Foundation. This role serves youth who face significant barriers to permanency and explores a child's history of social connections to optimize the potential for successful placement outcomes. Primary responsibilities include intensive search and recruitment efforts for children awaiting adoption, rapport-building with youth, therapeutic preparation for children/youth to join an adoptive family, assisting with pre-placement visitation, locating appropriate community resources, and helping navigate the adoption process.

This position requires frequent travel across Virginia to visit assigned youth monthly, with occasional overnight accommodations as needed. This position often requires the ability to work a flexible work schedule to accommodate monthly face‑to‑face visits and travel.

The Adoption Specialist – WWK Recruiter will report directly to the Adoption Program Manager.

This list is not an exhaustive & all-inclusive list of job responsibilities. The distribution of time allotted for any function or duty is subject to change with or without notice. Nothing in this job description restricts management's right to assign other responsibilities to this job or reassign them elsewhere at any time.

• Work in partnership with agency staff to identify youth for referrals to the WWK program.
• Review the case record, interview the youth, caseworker, other agency staff with knowledge of the case and any available family members and/or other supportive connections to assist in the recruitment process.
• Utilize internet search tools to identify and locate resources within the youth’s network and demonstrate willingness to engage in cold calling people identified as current and previous connections of the youth.
• Develop an initial written adoption readiness assessment describing the youth’s understanding and feelings about adoption.
• Create child-focused recruitment plans for the youth based on the belief that all children deserve legal permanency and knowledge regarding the impact of trauma and trauma-informed practices.
• Meet with the youth on a monthly basis in the locality where the youth resides.
• Communicate with the custodial caseworker on a monthly basis to review the progress of the recruitment plan.
• Meet with family members and supportive connections to discuss the progress of locating permanent resources for the youth.
• Once matched, work with the custodial caseworker, youth and the adoptive resource to ensure preplacement visits are implemented.
• Assist with the development and coordination of the transition plan with the youth and matched family. Work with the youth and family during the transition process to assist with placement support.
• Work in conjunction with the custodial caseworker to ensure that the adoptive family is working towards adoption finalization.
• Attend educational opportunities provided by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption including, but not limited to: WWK classroom training, online modules, database training, webinars, and the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Summit hosted by the Foundation.
• Submit monthly data in the WWK database.
• Collaborate with supervisor, adoption team members, other DePaul staff across programs, and community partners as needed to optimize services and program outcomes.
• Complete other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics or KSAOs are attributes needed to perform a job that are demonstrated through qualifying training, education, and experience. This list is not an exhaustive & all-inclusive list of all KSAOs for this job.

• Office and records administration techniques and procedures
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