Early Childhood Teacher & Home Visitor

Description:

About the Job:

MountainStar Family Relief Nursery is recruiting an Early Childcare Teacher & Home Visitor to join their team in Bend, Oregon. This is your chance to be a part of something bigger and help shape the future of this vibrant community.

Why you want to join us:

You believe that every child deserves the best start possible. You believe that parenting is hard even in the best circumstances. You care about children who have experienced trauma and want to work to support vulnerable families to succeed. You enjoy working with children in a trauma informed workplace and a therapeutic classroom environment. You are motivated to engage with families and offer resources so that families are supported in nurturing their child’s emotional, physical, and intellectual development.

About MountainStar Family Relief Nursery:

MountainStar Family Relief Nursery is a local non-profit that has been in Central Oregon for 20 plus years. We are a strength-based child abuse and neglect prevention program to support families with children ages 6 weeks through 5 years. We provide high quality trauma informed care and services for children and families experiencing high stress. Services include a therapeutic classroom emphasizing social-emotional development, home visits, parenting classes and other full wrap around services.

Our values are:

1. Caring – welcoming, trauma-informed, non-judgmental, family-focused, compassionate, honest, and fun.

2. Collaborative –engaged with clients, supporters, program partners, and communities.

3. Excellence – committed to quality programs, current research, continuous learning, and robust evaluation.

4. Inclusive – seek out and value diverse perspectives, understand and address systemic barriers equitably.

What’s in it for you:

MountainStar offers comprehensive compensation and benefit package that includes 100% employer paid medical, vision, prescription, & dental (premium value of $772 monthly), Simple IRA Retirement Plan match up to 3%, vacation & sick pay accrued semi-monthly, 11 paid holidays, Oregon Paid Leave covered in full (employee cost covered by MtStar), Wellness Reimbursement Program, and a Short-Term Disability Plan. MountainStar offers a professional, agile workplace with its primary goal being a workplace of choice. MountainStar offers excellent leadership that works hard to align strategies with the company's mission statement, core values, empower employees’ autonomy, provide trauma informed workplaces, a culture of transparency, wellness days, learning and development opportunities. MountainStar was ranked the 100 best nonprofits to work for in 2022 and 2023, based on the survey responses of MountainStar’s employees and their work experience.

About the environment:

• Wellness days and Team Appreciation days
• Growth opportunities
• Culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Engaging work with purpose

About the Role:

The Infant/Toddler Interventionist “Early Childhood Teacher & Home Visitor” at MountainStar will work with children ages 6 weeks-3 years old and their families to provide a safe, therapeutic classroom, respite space and engage with parents to improve the child-parent relationship.

• Plan, organize, and facilitate a therapeutic classroom for up to 8 young children as part of a teaching team.

• Case load of 8-12 families including home visits and phone contact.

• Consistent, strength-based home visits with families.

• Referral assistance and crises support.

• Parent coaching, goal setting and facilitating positive parent-child interaction.

• Culturally competent relationship/rapport building with parents.

• Maintain records including daily observations, home visit records, family, and child assessments.

• Serve USDA meals following guidelines and record keeping.

• Scheduled driving routes (no CDL required) in various weather conditions with company minivan/SUV.

• Support other classroom activities - at times outside of regular hours.

• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bilingual English/Spanish including reading, writing, and speaking effectively in both languages.

• BA/BS in Early Childhood Education or a related field with infant/toddler or preschool teaching experience. Bachelors in progress, AA/AS or comparable Oregon Registry level Step 6 considered.

What You're Skilled At:

• Ability to relate sensitively and non-judgmentally with at-risk children and families.

• Experience in social service setting, knowledge of community resources.

• Basic knowledge and openness to learn about child abuse and neglect.

• Ability to learn how to recognize and record behaviors.

• Excellent computer skills including email, Excel, Word, and web-based databases.

• Effective communication skills including rapport building, report writing, conflict de-escalation and resolution.

• Ability to establish and maintain professional boundaries and confidentiality while providing services.

• Cultural competence, and personal understanding and implementation of tenets of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

• Good judgment and maturity to function in crises.

• Work independently and as a team member.

• Ability to multitask and prioritize.

• Ability to be flexible and take on multiple responsibilities.

Physical Demands, Background, Driving and Training Requirements:

• May work outdoors intermittently with exposure to typical Oregon weather. There may be frequent interruptions, working alone, evening or weekend work, working long hours. Working in a close environment with active children.

• Must be able to pick up and carry 40 pounds. Must be able to bend, kneel and stand for long lengths of time. In addition, staff must be able to get up and down from playing on the floor with children.

• Ability to pass a background check.

• Valid driver’s license and reliable personal transportation.

• Clean driving record to drive company vehicles.

• Oregon Registry Online (ORO) Step 6 or able to achieve in 6-12 months of hire date

• Within 60 days of employment must be Pediatric CPR and First aid Certified, have a current food handlers’ card, and show proof of completing “Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect,” “Childcare Health & Safety,” “Safe Sleep,” and “Prevention is Better than Treatment” courses as required by Oregon Office of Childcare.

Salary Range + Benefits:

This is a full-time, 36 hours per week position Monday through Friday, starting at $21.27 per hour depending on experience. Wage differential with bilingual status, previous experience, and education level, plus benefits. To protect confidentiality at MtStar, there is a standard procedure requiring at least a 2-year separation between being a program participant and serving as a staff member or volunteer within the organization. All staff and volunteer roles are at the discretion of MountainStar. All positions at MountainStar are contingent upon the availability of funding.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

MountainStar is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.