Family Peer Support Specialist

Family Support Specialist

To be considered for this position, please submit a cover letter alongside your application describing the lived experience you would bring into this role as a parent or caregiver who has navigated multiple child/youth serving systems, including but not limited to mental health, child welfare, and developmental disabilities.

Position Type:
Full-time, between 32 and 40 hours/week, non-exempt, typically Monday-Friday 8AM-4:30PM

Benefits:

• Medical
• Dental/Vision
• 401(k)
• Paid Sick and Vacation
• 13 Paid Holidays per year
• And More!

The Family Support Specialist (FSS) is a peer with shared lived experience who works with families raising a youth with emotional, behavioral, mental health, developmental or other health challenges. The FSS role is to support the parent/caregiver by helping them to engage and actively participate on their team and/or treatment process and make informed decisions that drive the process. The FSS uses personal and professional life experience to provide consultation and coaching to increase awareness and improve parent/caregiver-professional partnerships and maximize parent/caregiver voice, choice, and involvement.

FSS's work in a variety of environments, such as Wraparound, Service Coordination (educational based advocacy), Parent/Caregiver Education, and support the unique needs of families by using consistent and unified principles of the Family Support practice and competencies.

Family Support Specialists have the unique opportunity to utilize their lived experience with child/youth serving systems in order to support parents/caregivers with achieving their family's goals. Family Support Specialists will help parents/caregivers achieve their goals by; connecting them to appropriate resources; identifying natural and community supports; helping them build skills that promote personal wellness and recovery; empowering them and promoting the development of self-advocacy skills;

and providing parent/caregiver voice within leadership opportunities in the community and at all levels of the child/youth serving systems if they so choose. Being able to work independently as well as with a team will be important.

Reasonable Accommodations:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job duty/responsibility satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None.

Duties / Responsibilities:

• Use lived experience with mental health and other child/youth serving systems and overcoming adversity to provide parents/caregivers with non-judgmental support, empathy, and hope.
• Serves as an advocate and mentor for parent/caregiver adults participating in the Wraparound program in Lane County.
• Facilitates individual and group meetings with parent/caregiver adults that promote sharing, learning, and growth.
• Connects parent/caregiver adults to services, programs, and other community supports.
• Acts as a resource on services, programs, and connections throughout the community.
• Creates partnerships with parent/caregiver adults, and professionals in order to meet the need of the client.
• Implements developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, and parent/caregiver adult driven services and supports.
• Improves and promotes cross-system collaboration and advocacy.
• Supports parents/caregivers in developing and negotiating a variety of skills that build on their strengths.
• Serve as a role model in communication, health and wellness, and conflict resolution.
• Participates in individual and group supervision, multidisciplinary consultation meetings, team meetings, meetings that promote mental health policy change at the state and local levels, and other relevant meetings as assigned.
• Attend agency required trainings, and external trainings as applicable to position.
• Maintains a flexible work schedule, and travels to meet parent/caregiver adults in the community.
• Communicates and maintains schedule using agency's communication and calendar applications.
• Participates in fundraising, development, and outreach activities.
• Participate in workspace norms and duties…