The Safe Babies Healthy Families Family Support Specialist provides in home support, education, and resources to families via individual as well as family biopsychosocial needs assessments in order to identify and implement interventions to support health, wellbeing, and safety of children and families served. Staff coordinate cares wrapping supports to create goals and maintain healthy family environments supporting child wellbeing in allegiance with federal, state, and programmatic requirements.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES (FUNCTIONS) include the following:

• Provide in-home services maintaining ongoing contact with eligible families prenatally through age five in accordance with Healthy Families America best practice requirements and recommendations.
• Evaluate complex child and family needs to include legal, ethical, and biopsychosocial components.
• Assessment will reflect interdisciplinary collaboration, which are comprehensive in relation to child's chronological/adjusted age, diagnoses, support systems, exposures, and anticipated interventions.
• Consider barriers utilizing trauma informed approaches to include chronic/acute illness, mental health histories and current presentation, cognitive development, adverse developmental events, resistance to treatment/interventions, health system impediments, lack of social support, safety concerns, and vulnerabilities.
• Partner with families to develop goals, monitor progress, address barriers to goal attainment, celebrate successes and evaluate outcomes of individualized care plans.
• Identify interventions to be family-centered, strength-based, and directed at establishing trusting relationships to strengthen parent-child interactions and promote healthy bonding and childhood growth and development.
• Train, teach, guide, and mentor families and community partners on management of complex biopsychosocial issues.
• Provide psychoeducation and coaching via teach back methodology to develop and enhance critical parenting.
• Promote independence and self-sufficiency by assisting families with identifying and enhancing protective factors.
• Network proactively with and demonstrate a working knowledge of community resources and partnerships. Complete referrals and warm handoffs as appropriate.
• Demonstrate and apply knowledge of federal regulations, state requirements, funding provisions, and programmatic expectations to ensure safety, wellbeing, and protection/confidentiality of those served.
• Engage children and families in the intervention and decision-making process with respect to individual autonomy and the right to self-determination.
• Utilize crisis intervention, conflict resolution, and mediation to create and maintain healthy, trusting relationships with high-risk families.
• Provide perinatal and child specific education curriculum with specific skillsets in prenatal and developmentally, culturally humble formats.
• Demonstrate humility toward cultural diversity with respect to the spiritual, linguistic, historical, developmental, ability, and educational backgrounds of the populations served.
• Utilize critical thinking and conflict resolution skills to effectively balance competing needs and responsibilities.
• Participate in supervisory, team, reflective consultation, and staff meetings to include peer interviews and community established networking opportunities.
• Reflect and debrief with colleagues, supervisory team, and consultants to address barriers and care coordination.
• Maintain documentation as required by federal, state, and Healthy Families America specific requirements.
• Performs other duties (or functions) as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to carry out each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in human service field or associate degree and 2 years of directly applicable experience.
• Experience in working with or providing services to children and families, particularly assessing, and addressing vulnerabilities.
• Willingness to engage in building reflective capacity (introspection, communicating awareness of self in relation to others, valuing supervision, etc.)
• Travel between multiple sites is required. Must maintain a valid driver's license, reliable transportation, and proof of insurance.
• Criminal background check will be completed.
• Must be available to work flexible hours in a home-based hybrid model. Evening and occasional weekend hours will be expected to support the needs of those served.
• Strong organizational, communication, and technology skills to support the service of others.
• Create and maintain professional relationships with the ability to establish appropriate boundaries and act with integrity.
• May be required to lift, carry, push or pull up to 25 pounds.
• English/Spanish bilingual, preferred.