Parent Advocate

The Parent Advocate (including substitutes) provides high‑quality health, mental health, nutrition, social services to children and their families, and uses agency standards to ensure services align with the Social Determinants of Health through a trauma‑informed care lens. The role also assists in providing parent engagement activities to Head Start families that support the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework, promotes family outcomes that enhance well‑being, positive parent‑child relationships, lifelong learning, and family advocacy and leadership.

The position complies with the Head Start Program Performance Standards, the Head Start Act, Licensing Minimum Standards, and agency policies and procedures. It builds partnerships with families to identify goals, strengths, needed services, and support systems, and develops strategies and timetables for achieving these goals. Responsibilities include eligibility, recruitment, enrollment, attendance management, data entry into the database, and clerical support to the program.

• Reports to:
  
  Education Center Operator or designee
• Directs:
  Parents and volunteers
• Other:
  Works cooperatively with all staff to accomplish the mission, goals, objectives and performance measures of the program and agency

Required Competencies/

Skills:

• Healthcare and Human Services Environments:
  Ability to explain issues and advancements in the healthcare and human services industries.
• Achievement Orientation: A concern for surpassing a standard of excellence. The standard may be one’s own past performance; an objective measure; outperforming others; challenging goals, or something that has not been done previously.
• Community Orientation:
  Ability to align one’s own and the organization’s priorities and assess and address community needs in an evidence‑based and holistic manner, addressing the social determinants of health through a trauma‑informed lens.
• Professionalism and Ethics:
  Demonstration of ethics and sound professional practices, along with social accountability and community stewardship. The desire to act in a way consistent with one’s values and what one says is important.
• Interpersonal Understanding:
  Ability to understand others and accurately hear and understand unspoken or partly expressed thoughts, feelings, and concerns. It measures increasing complexity and depth of understanding of others, including cross‑cultural sensitivity through a trauma‑informed care lens.

To perform this job satisfactorily, an individual must be able to perform each essential performance requirement satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the training, experience, knowledge, and skills required for this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable an individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions listed above.

• Education/Training/
  
  Experience:
• High School Diploma or equivalent.
• Current Pediatric CPR and First Aid Certification.
• Family Service Worker Credential.
• Three years experience in delivering social services to vulnerable families.
• Understanding of cultural differences and sensitivity to the implications of culture for service delivery; ability to utilize various learning techniques in the delivery of Family and Community Support Services.
• Familiarity and competency with modern office equipment, software and computer systems; working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), databases, and related tools.
• A parent of a current or former participant in a Head Start program, preferred.
• Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, desirable.
• Fluent in English and Spanish (read, write, speak), desirable.
• Staff required to submit proof of vaccination status or may request exemption due to religious and/or medical accommodation.
• Certificate or license, as applicable, by the appropriate state agency as a qualified practitioner.
• State of Texas vehicle operator’s license and proof of liability insurance.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing duties, the employee must be able to stand, walk, reach with hands and arms, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, talk, hear, taste, or smell.
• May need to lift up to 10 pounds, have close vision, color vision, depth perception, and good hand‑eye coordination.