Job Description
Family Coach
About Family Success:
Under the Family Permanency Planning Services division, the Family Success Initiative provides supportive services to parents and children. The goal is to help parents safely manage their children’s behaviors by helping parents proactively anticipate the unique needs of their children, and employ strategies to meet those needs; consistently apply developmentally appropriate discipline; manage parent-child conflict; create and sustain nurturing environments for their children; and connect to networks of support.
About the position:
The Family Coach will provide targeted services to families with children of various ages both in the office during supervised visitation or community based visits for foster care cases and within the home for families receiving preventive services. Facilitation of groups will also be expected on an as needed basis.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Engagement
· Promote early engagement with parents whenever a new intake is assigned within the first 30 days.
· Prepare parents and participate in Family Team Conferences not limited to (Transitional, 20 Day, Six Month Service Plan Review, Trial Discharge, Final Discharge), debrief after.
· Engage, establish and maintain friendly, compassionate, professional working relationships with parents receiving services, family members and support team in a manner that reflects our values and culture.
· Encourage parents to participate in Family Success Interventions (Baby & Me, Visit Coaching, Parenting Journey)
· Outreach to parents via text messages, phone calls or emails in order to build relationships while connecting parents to community resources as needed
· Review Parent Engagement Guide with parents in order to acquaint parents with the child welfare process
· Review Rise Visiting Tip Sheets with parents in order to provide hope and reassurance that they can have meaningful family team with their children while in foster care
Coaching
· Coach parents to develop skills that will allow them to independently develop problem solving skills while discovering their strengths, hopes, dreams as well as their priorities.
· Appropriately assess the needs of the parents in order to create measureable goals while determining what barriers could impact the desired outcomes.
· Facilitate bi-weekly support groups utilizing Network and Parent Café Model.
· Recognize and celebrate parents whenever they make simple or significant progress towards reunification.
· Escort parents to scheduled court appearances for support
Collective Approach
· Collaborate and maintain effective communication with team members, case planners as well as other stake holders to ensure that the overall needs of the parents are met.
· Participate in routine case consultation with case planning teams in order to assure the parents are following through with their required service plan while demonstrating behavior change
· Participate in joint home visits with case planners as needed to provide the required support to fathers
· Partner with parents during weekly family time at the office or in the home in an effort to enhance the bond between parent and child.
· Assists parents in establishing structure during visits and meeting the needs of their children by utilizing hands on teaching and modeling.
· Ensure that the provision of services is informed by principles outlined in both the Visit Coaching, Baby & Me, Parenting Journey, Appreciative Inquiry and Solutions Based Casework.
· Join decision-making meetings for parents where they have established a real connection.
Data/Documentation
· Maintain and manage documentation of interactions with parents within the database
· Submit monthly tracker to supervisor regarding contacts made with parents in a timely manner.
· Provide progress report to case planners, courts or other interested parties as needed.
· Monitors program participation through noting and tracking ongoing contact with parents
· Gather feedback from parents on their experience
Professional Development
· Contribute agenda items and participate in weekly supervision with assigned supervisor.
· Attend and actively participate in skill development training to improve the manner in which we approach the work, keep current with structural changes within the agency/child welfare
· Participate in funders site visit meetings as needed to highlight the challenges as well as the positive outcomes within Family Success Initiative.
· Prepare parents to participants in the birth parent roundtable
· Participate in policy/advocacy development and decisions
Qualifications:
You Are:
- A natural collaborator
- Warm, enthusiastic, able to engage and positively impact individuals
- Someone who has a sincere appreciation for people and how they are each uniquely motivated
- Skilled at working in a fast-paced environment on multiple projects occurring simultaneously
- Someone who will uphold the mission and values of Graham Windham[1]
- Able to maintain a high level of confidentiality
- Able to work flexible hours
- Able to travel extensively to all NYC boroughs
You Have:
- Previous life experience being impacted by the child welfare system as a parent including having had a child placed in foster care or having had a court-ordered supervision case. Other prior child welfare involvement such as having personally experienced child welfare investigations may also qualify. Previous child welfare cases must be closed for at least one year
- Experience holding challenging conversations
- Strong interpersonal skills to assist with parent engagement and are geared towards working sensitively on topics involving trauma, stress and healing
- Writing skills
- Computer skills conducting Google searches and using Microsoft Office Suite
- Passion for parent leadership and preventing child welfare involvement
It Is A Plus If You:
- Have experience as a Parent Advocate in foster care, preventive, mental health, or family defense agencies, or in any coaching or support roles in community organizations, schools, etc.
- Have experience facilitating meetings
- Are bilingual
Compensation:
Salary commensurate with experience. Graham Windham offers eligible employees a comprehensive benefit package including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, holiday pay, retirement savings plan, therapeutic supports, and much more.
Position Type: Full-time with a flexible work schedule.
Location: Willingness and ability to travel throughout the five boroughs of New York.
To Apply
Please complete an online application. Please include a cover letter. Your cover letter should briefly explain why you would make a good Family Coach, why you are interested in doing this work, how your work history or volunteer work has prepared you for this work, and just one sentence noting the type of child welfare involvement you previously experienced.