Case Worker

Arkansas Baptist Children & Family Ministries (ABCFM); Jonesboro (AR); On-site; USD 36,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Arkansas Baptist Children & Family Ministries (ABCFM) seeks a Caseworker to develop and support foster care services, focusing on placement stability, permanency, and family resources with a Christ-centered approach.

The role covers foster placement and foster home processes, including licensing, home studies, and ongoing support for families and children. The Caseworker will collaborate with the Connected team to meet licensing timelines and deliver family services.

Responsibilities

• Placement services from initial placement through the child’s final day of care with Connected.
• Maintain all child client files for compliance in the electronic record system and licensing.
• Complete home studies within 90 days and conduct ongoing evaluations as required.
• Coordinate visits, case planning, and services with therapy providers and other teams.
• Provide crisis de-escalation as necessary and participate in KPI reviews with supervision.

Job description

The focus of this position is to develop children and families, to increase placement numbers and stability, permanency, and the best outcomes for children and foster families. All actions taken in this role are geared towards the best interest of the client and strengthening the family unit, through providing needed resources – while building and strengthening resource families for long-term stability serving in foster care ministry- all with a Christ centered focus. The Caseworker is responsible for integrated client services from initial placement to permanency as well as foster family services from family application, opening, and on-going family assessment and support. This is a ministry position where the main responsibility is to meet the above definition through service while sharing the Gospel in speech and action in alignment with all employment qualifications outlined in the employee handbook.

Responsibilities of Ministry Position:

Foster Placement Specific Responsibilities:

• All placement services from the time a child is placed through a child’s final day of care with Connected. Including:
• Placement in an appropriate Connected Foster Home per policy. Meet with foster parents/placement providers to assess the provider and clients’ needs to address any concerns at least monthly.
• Facilitating and participating in case “staffings”: both internal and held by external providers.
• Attend court hearings as approved by your supervisor.
• Establish necessary services for clients as part of a team with the clients’ foster placement, therapy providers, and other providers to meetclient’s needs in a timely manner.
• Plan and calendar a minimum of 1 face-to-face visit per month for each assigned client in the client’s placement.
• Assist with visitation plan for client(s) and biological or adoptive family according to policy.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for any and all placement changes including new placements in, discharges out, and disruptions from the home.
• Maintain all child client files for compliance in the electronic record system. This includes:
• placement packet, assessment, case plan, visitation plan, plan of safe care, all placement documents, monthly note share and record request, and any on-going paperwork.
• Timely completion of all case activity according to licensing and policy due dates.
• 24 business hour turnaround for client contact notes.

Foster Home Specific Responsibilities:

• Assessment of applicant families to meet licensing requirements and alignment with agency mission. This is to include all necessary documentation to license or re-evaluate a resource family.
• Completion of home study within 90 days of application and on-going evaluations are required.
• Facilitate and assist teaching resource parent ongoing service training classes as needed.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for any and all placement changes including new placements in, discharges out, and disruptions from the home.
• Placement Focused Services
• Prepare and coach families through their initial placement as new resource families.
• Establish a trust-based relationship with resource families on assigned caseload to know the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of families in order to advise placement decisions.
• Remain aware of placement vacancies in assigned homes and provide updates to supervisors, as requested.
• Responsible for filling vacant beds in assigned resource families within the families’ preferences or needs.
• Maintain files for compliance for all “family” files in the electronic record system. This includes:
• Responsibility for all compliance items for assigned resource families.
• Timely completion of all case activity according to licensing and policy due dates.
• 24 business hour turnaround for client contact notes.
• Establish and implement resource family CEU trainings in partnership with the Connected Team to meet a minimum required per year for each assigned home.
• Foster Home Recruitment & Retention Responsibilities:
• Respond to, engage with, and document assigned inquiries within 1 business day.
• Engage with local churches to recruit potential Connected foster families and support systems within the churches that Connected foster families attend.
• Coordinate with local teams to ensure appropriate foster family needs are met in a timely manner.
• Assist the Team in developing and executing one significant well-planned regional fundraiser per year.
• Other Responsibilities:
• Work peer caseloads during absences, vacations, or vacancies as needed. Caseworkers work on a team with all other positions on the Connected team. This position is expected to work closely with their supervisor and other Caseworkers.
• Participate in the agency-wide on-call rotation and/or training of foster parent applicants throughout the year.
• Provide crisis de-escalation for clients as necessary.
• Participate in supervision with your direct supervisor as scheduled to discuss casework, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), and provide necessary case details as requested.
• Complete annual required Continuing Education Units (CEUs) of 24 hours per year and submit to supervisor for review.
• Provide excellent communication to all members of the team both internal and external as appropriate. Respond to email, voicemail, Microsoft Teams, and communication within a reasonable time frame.

The Caseworker position is expected to provide 40 hours or more per week including evenings and weekends as needed.