Foster Care Homefinder

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

Summary

The Homefinder will work closely with the Foster Care Department, contracting County Department of Social Services, and family members to successfully carry out recruitment, certification and recertification of foster families and further, to help carry out the recruitment and retention plan. The Homefinder particularly is responsible for providing training and to assess perspective foster families abilities to meet the needs and participate in a visitation plan, safety plan, treatment plan and discharge plan of the youth. The Homefinder may be required to evaluate, coordinate and provide necessary referrals for services and/or treatment as described. They will also provide in-home supportive casework counseling services to foster families complete required assessments and assist individuals and families by helping to articulate goals and providing needed information. This person works closely in partnership with the foster families, County workers and other community partners. Overall, the Homefinder contributes to the Glove House high performance culture by exhibiting our values and providing quality results that keep Glove House as the premier provider of child, family and behavioral health solutions.

Primary Job Functions

• Provide foster parent recruitment and retention services and overall support of foster parents meeting training and licensure/re-licensure requirements. Provide assessment and coordinate and implement the services identified for the foster home or program guidelines while upholding the Glove House Standard of Care.
• Perform all work tasks in a safe manner.
• Is guided by organizational values and trauma informed practice in all interactions.
• Demonstrates understanding of the four dimensions of safety and can identify gaps.
• Treats all children, families, staff and ancillary providers with respect and courtesy.
• Demonstrates and models sensitivity to the cultural background of children, families and co-workers.
• Assures that job-related activities are in compliance with Glove House policies and procedures, OCFS, State and Federal regulations, and relevant professional association, ethical standards, accreditation standards, and the law.
• Performs certification and recertifications as defined by the County Contract and OCFS regulations. This may include assessments, evaluations and safety checks as well as corrective action plans.
• Supports the Foster Care team and may provide transportation clients to/from schools, appointments, visitation or arrange for transportation to appointments, community agencies, etc. as needed.
• Participate as a team member of the Foster Care Department and facilitate foster parent training, recruitment efforts, and area presentations.
• Train direct care team members regarding components of foster parent certification rules and regulations.
• Participate in foster youth treatment team meetings.
• Conduct community outreach as needed.
• May monitor interns and/or volunteers.
• Develop and maintain Foster Parent records and program documentation, such as assessments, progress notes and Home studies, recertification studies and all required documents, according to contract and Glove House standards.
• Generate and maintain necessary reports and paperwork (i.e., Quality Assurance and program reports).
• Assures all documentation is completed in a timely fashion i.e. foster parent files, Myevolve, Incident Reporting, CONNECTIONS
• Will actively participate as a member of the Foster Care team.
• Consistently attends staff meetings and provides leadership and partnership during team/staff meetings.
• Assures that program staff are up to date with any concerns or needs of your case load.
• Participate in Glove House communications and committees.
• Responsible to assist in the research and development of the best practices and new initiatives to meet the changing needs of children and families in the community.
• Must maintain timely compliance with all established Glove House standards and provide support documents as necessary (physical/TB, driver license, auto insurance).
• As an employee of Glove House, Inc., one of your primary responsibilities is to protect the privacy of our clients. The Agencies’ commitment to privacy is based on our longstanding values as well as an array of state and federal confidentiality laws and regulations. Among these regulations are the Privacy Rule and Security Rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
• Contribute to an engaging, positive work environment.
• Participate actively in departmental meetings, training and education, as well as the quality management process.
• Comply with Glove House policies, procedures, code of conduct, contracts and other legal obligations.
• Assist by training other employees and providing back-up when necessary.
• Pick up projects on the fly; perform other duties as assigned from time to time.
• Demonstrate the Glove House Values in the performance of all job duties

Job Qualifications

Education, Licenses, Certifications and Experience

• Associate’s degree required, bachelor’s degree preferred
• Minimum 3+ years’ experience working with children and families in residential, group, or counseling child welfare capacity

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Community resources, casework counseling, NYS Foster Care regulations
• Perform under strong demands in fast-paced, diverse environment
• Handle confidential information appropriately
• Perform at a high level of autonomy, with minimal supervision
• Ability to read and interpret documents such as contracts, regulations, training manuals, and procedural manuals.
• Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Utilizing computer and standard Microsoft Office, learn new computer programming (ie Myevolve, Paycom, et al.)
• Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization.
• Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral or diagram form.
• Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations.
• Work on multiple tasks, while maintaining a high attention to detail, accuracy and quality
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals. Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.
• Commit to effectively and efficiently providing high levels of customer satisfaction with positive service delivery results
• Demonstrate the behaviors of the Glove House Values
• Interact effectively with individuals/families from diverse backgrounds.
• Set appropriate limits and boundaries with clients; act decisively to protect clients, when necessary.
• Assess and apply proper intervention strategies.
• Identify and understand environmental stressors.
• Recognize importance of social, economic, environmental factors in the development and resolution of personal/family problems.
• Be sensitive to service the population’s cultural/socioeconomic characteristics.
• Commit to effectively and efficiently providing high levels of customer satisfaction with positive service delivery results.
• Make home visits

Schedule Expectations

The incumbent will work an agreed upon standard scheduled week, which may include weekends, holidays or evenings. The ability to work flexible hours is required, as is the ability to provide on-call support when scheduled or to meet business needs. Travel will be needed, to conduct Glove House business-related activities. Generally, duties of this position require at least 80% time at work/face-to-face time with clients, co-workers and supervisor. Up to 20% may be approved to work from home as approved by supervisor.