Protective Services Specialist 1/2/3 - Fairbanks

Alaskajobs; Fairbanks (AK); On-site; USD 65,000 - 86,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Insurance Benefits

Retirement Benefits

Paid Leave

Twelve paid holidays

Job summary

Office of Children’s Services in Fairbanks seeks Protective Services Specialist to investigate child protection cases across family services and investigations units. The role requires gathering information, planning interventions, and coordinating with families and partners to ensure child safety.

Expect field-based duties, strong writing skills, and the ability to work independently while collaborating with tribal/community partners. Travel to rural communities will be required.

Qualifications

• Competency-based minimum qualifications apply to this position.
• Candidates should demonstrate KSAs through work history, training, and experience.
• Strong written communication and ability to work independently with a collaborative approach.

Responsibilities

• Investigate reports of child abuse/neglect and develop intervention plans.
• Coordinate with families, tribal partners, and service providers to ensure child safety.
• Prepare and submit reports to the Court as required.
• Travel 4+ times per month to communities and schools as needed.

Skills

Self-Management

Stress Tolerance

Teamwork

Job description

Job Description

The Department of Family & Community Services is recruiting for Protective Services

Specialist 1/2/3 in Fairbanks!

This job class uses Competency Based minimum qualifications (MQs). Please read the

Competency Based MQ instructions below to learn more.

This position is open to All Applicants.

Please check our

residency definition

to determine if you qualify.

Watch Office of Children’s Services Video Here:

I AM OCS

What You Will Be Doing:

As a Protective Services Specialist (PSS), responsible for Child Protection Services in the Family Services unit, the Investigations & Assessment unit, or as Generalist covering both.

This case carrying position has a wide range of duties, including investigating reports of child abuse and/or neglect, prepare plans for intervention by soliciting the cooperation of the family and others, and gather information about family dynamics/functionality, develop plans to ensure child safety while assisting parents in addressing their diminished protective factors, place children out of the home with a relative or licensed foster home when necessary, provide ongoing and/or in-home services to families, write and submit reports to the Court, work closely with Tribal/Community Partners, frequent face-to-face and telephonic contact with parents and caregivers of children in custody and make referrals to other service providers and agencies.

OCS has opportunities across several units. During the hiring process, we work with applicants to match them with a position that best aligns with their strengths, experience, and interests.

Strong writing skills, the ability to manage your workload independently, and a collaborative approach are important in ensuring the safety and well-being of children throughout Alaska. Child protection work can involve making critical decisions in urgent situations. Staff must be prepared to respond quickly and confidently to protect children and maintain their own safety, including in situations that may involve potential physical risk.

Mission and Values/Culture:

The Mission of the Office of Children's Services is: Ensuring the safety, permanency and well-being of children by strengthening families, engaging communities, and partnering with Tribes.

Core Values

Hope, Integrity, Respect and Empathy.

Benefits of Joining Our Team:

The Office of Children's Services is committed to an organizational culture that values each team member. We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment. We celebrate and value the diversity of our employees, partners, and families we serve.

Your first twelve months in the agency are probationary and considered a training period, with formal virtual training, on-the-job training with your supervisor, and with other colleagues.

While this is a field-based position that involves working in the community, part-time teleworking within the duty station may be an option upon eligibility.

Full-time benefits of this position include but are not limited to: Insurance Benefits; Retirement Benefits; Paid Leave; and twelve paid holidays per year. Please see the benefits tab on this posting for more information.

The Working Environment You Can Expect:

The Office of Children’s Services

Fairbanks Field Office

is in Fairbanks. For information on the Fairbanks community (including schools, hospitals, housing) please review the

Alaska Community Profiles

. The typical workweek may include some caseworker visits at school or in resource family homes, virtual and in-person court attendance, and working independently in an office setting. More information about the Fairbanks OCS location can be found on our

website

.

The work we perform is critical and significantly impacts the communities we serve. As a result, the Office of Children's Services (OCS) requires staff to work after hours and on-call, work in the evenings and weekends as well as weekdays, so overtime is also an expectation when deemed necessary.

Frequency of travel is expected to be 4+ times a month for a duration of 1 day with the occasional overnight. There may be day trips and occasional overnight stays in rural conditions with some exposure to extreme weather conditions in the winter. Travel in outlying areas may involve small aircraft and overnight stays. Child protection work requires traveling both on the road system as well as required travel on small planes to rural villages in Alaska, often located significant distances apart in isolated communities.

Who We Are Looking For:

We are interested in candidates who possess some or all of the following position specific competencies:

Self-Management:

Sets well-defined and realistic personal goals; displays a high level of initiative, effort, and commitment towards completing assignments in a timely manner; works with minimal supervision; is motivated to achieve; demonstrates responsible behavior.

Stress Tolerance:

Deals calmly and effectively with high stress situations (for example, tight deadlines, hostile individuals, emergency situations, dangerous situations).

Teamwork:

Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity; fosters commitment and team spirit; works with others to achieve goals.

To view the general description and example of duties for the position please go to the following link:

https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/alaska/classspecs?keywords=protective%20services%20specialist

Minimum Qualifications

Competency Based Minimum Qualifications Instructions

This job class uses competency based minimum qualifications.

Please ensure your application

(through work history, volunteer experience (duties summary), training, education, licenses, certifications, etc.) supports how you have gained the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors (competencies) and that you possess the minimum required competencies for the job class.

Competency Description

The competency description(s) listed below have been designed to promote a common understanding of the essential elements of the job class. They highlight the more general and customary knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), tasks, and behaviors used to describe the competency. They typically list expectations, as opposed to specific tasks, and are to be used only as parameters and guidelines. A competency’s description is not intended to exclusively define every KSA, task, and behavior needed to successfully meet the competency, but rather to provide the manager/agency with a broad reference of options as to how an applicant can meet the job expectation.

Any combination of education and/or experience that provides the applicant with competencies in

Analytical Thinking/Problem Solving:

Uses a logical, systematic, and sequential approach to address problems or opportunities or manage a situation by drawing on one’s knowledge and experience base and calling on other references and resources as necessary.

Customer Service

: Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside State government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.

Integrity:

Contributes to maintaining the integrity of the organization; displays high standards of ethical conduct and understands the impact of violating these standards on an organization, self, and others; is trust