Family Works Specialist

The Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition, an agency that strives to create permanency in every foster child’s life by recruiting and supporting foster and adoptive families, is searching for a Family Works Specialist to join the team. The Family Works program is an in-home (virtually at this time) parenting support intervention intended to stabilize and enhance foster, pre-and post-adoptive, or guardianship homes that are at risk of disruption.

Specialists are master-level individuals who work with advanced training, understanding, and practice in the neurobiological impact of trauma on child development and attachment-based interventions to address the complexities that have created barriers to healthy family and individual functioning. Enrolled families have access to 24/7 support and coaching, as needed.

The 18-20 week program follows the principals of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and uses the strategies and techniques to help the families stabilize and further support the children and youth to develop greater relational skills, increase their sense of personal safety and security, begin to resolve developmental trauma and facilitate new relationships.

The Coalition hires individuals:

• Passionate about serving foster/adopted youth and families
• Confident enough to work independently, while knowing when to reach out for help
• With the highest level of integrity and flexibility when working both in the office and in the field

Essential Functions:

• Utilize knowledge of complex-developmental trauma and attachment-based strategies to educate parents and caregivers about the unique issues surrounding adoption and guardianship, child development, loss, grief, attachment, and trauma
• Identify, collaborate with, and refer to collateral service providers
• Respond to families in crisis situations in an urgent and timely manner
• Provide face-to-face (virtual at this time) child and family interventions
• Partner with families to identify and establish attainable goals and support families to achieve their goals
• See job description for a complete list

Candidates must:

• Hold a Master’s Degree in Counseling or Social Work–LMSW, LCSW, PLPC, or LPC preferred
• Have 2 years of experience providing direct service to clients
• Maintain a flexible work schedule to meet the needs of youth and families—early morning, late afternoon, evening and weekend meetings are planned as needed
• Demonstrate the ability to build rapport and relationships with children and families during face-to-face meetings and phone contact
• Critically assess family and relational functioning in a strengths-based manner
• Communicate effectively both verbally and in writing
• Exhibit excellent knowledge of community services that support foster/adopt families
• Demonstrated experience working with child welfare teams utilizing innovative strategies to overcome obstacles