Social Services Associate (Family Contact) - Wasilla

State of Alaska; Wasilla (AK); In loco; USD 42.000 - 62.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

The State of Alaska, Department of Family and Community Services, Office of Children's Services (OCS), is seeking a Social Services Associate for the Wasilla area. This on-site position works with the Wasilla Family Contact program to facilitate safe, culturally centered family contact for children in foster care and their families.

Responsibilities include coaching parents on safe parenting, documenting contacts, coordinating transport and scheduling with placements, and collaborating with the

Competenze

• Interpersonal skills with empathy, courtesy, and cultural sensitivity.

Mansioni

• Facilitate family contact between children in foster care and their families using best practices.
• Complete and submit documentation of family contacts in a timely manner.
• Coordinate transportation for children to and from family contact as needed.
• Collaborate with foster care placements and parents to schedule family contact and support goals.

Conoscenze

Interpersonal skills

Descrizione del lavoro

This position is open to Alaska Residents only. Please check our residency definition to determine if you qualify.

The Department of Family and Community Services, Office of Children's Services (OCS) is recruiting for full-time Social Services Associate located in Wasilla, Alaska.

What You Will Be Doing

The Wasilla Family Contact Social Services Associate positions partner with Beacon Hill and the Mat-Su Health Foundation to provide a “best practices” approach to facilitation of family contact between children in foster care and their families. You can expect to take specified trainings to teach you how to facilitate meaningful, healthy, culturally centered family contact for families involved in the child welfare system in Mat-Su. Your primary responsibilities as a Family Contact Facilitator will be to encourage and coach parents to practice safe parenting skills, complete documentation of family contacts and ensure timely submission, transport children to and from family contact as needed, work with parents and foster care placements for scheduling purposes and other duties as assigned. You will be supporting families and their goals in Family contact by working directly with the PSS to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children during family contact. The successful incumbent will be courteous, professional in language and presentation, calm, motivated, efficient, and have strong critical thinking skills, have the ability to lift children up to 40 lbs. into car seats, flexibly adapt to last-minute changes, work independently or in a team setting, remain calm in stressful situations and de-escalate children and adults, possess experience working with persons with diverse culture and backgrounds, be confident in driving in all weather conditions, have experience in the use of Microsoft office Suite4, Word, and meetings platforms (Zoom, Teams), and have good time management and multi-tasking abilities.. This position may require traveling up to a week at a time.

The Office of Children's Services requires staff to work overtime when deemed necessary. OCS Staff are considered essential, so are expected to work during pandemic and other natural disasters. The agency also supports a healthy work/life balance for all staff.

Our Organization, Mission, and Culture

The Office of Children's Services strives for a diverse and inclusive workforce where safety and wellbeing are paramount and employees at all levels promote a culture where everyone is valued, treated equitably, and treated respectfully.

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.

Everything we do is underpinned by our Core Values.

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 6 months in the agency are probationary and considered a training period, with formal and on-the-job training with your supervisor and your colleagues.

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.

Working Environment You Can Expect

This position is in Wasilla OCS Office. The Office of Children's Service's staff are considered essential and are required to work after hours, on-call hours, through pandemics - natural disasters, and all holidays that land on their rotational work week.

The work we perform is critical and significantly impacts the communities we serve. As a result, the Office of Children's Services works on evenings and weekends as well as weekdays, so overtime and on-call work are expectations of our workers. Travel in outlying areas may involve small aircraft and overnight stays.

For information on the Wasilla community (including schools, hospitals, housing) please review Alaska Community Profiles.

We Are Seeking a Candidate with the Following Competencies:

1. Interpersonal Skills: Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations; is sensitive to cultural diversity, race