Family Finding Specialist

Join our team at FSS and enjoy comprehensive benefits including but not limited to:

• Tuition Reimbursement: Earn up to $5,250 per qualifying year to invest in your education.
• Health Insurance: Choose from three comprehensive Florida Blue health insurance plans to keep you and your family covered.
• Dental Plan: Enjoy an employer-paid dental plan for our valued employees.
• Life Insurance: Your peace of mind matters to us. We provide employer-paid life insurance.
• Well-Being Program: Stay healthy and engaged with our highly interactive well-being program.
• Paid Time Off (PTO): Relax and recharge with our generous PTO plan. You can even earn three additional days per plan year!
• Bereavement Leave: We offer 3 paid days of bereavement leave annually to ease the burden during a family member's passing.
• Paid Holidays: Enjoy the 12 holidays without the worry of receiving a paycheck (to include 1 floating holiday) and unwind with family and friends to celebrate and rejuvenate!
• 401k Plan with Matching: Secure your financial future with our 401k plan and employer matching.
• Additional Benefits: Explore our range of benefits, including Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Vision Plan, Short & Long-Term Disability coverage, Employee Discounts, and more.
  
  

The mission of Family Support Services is to be the leader in providing safety, stability, and quality of life for all children by working with the community to strengthen the family unit.

Job Summary

This position will be responsible for supporting Case Managers (CM) by working collaboratively with staff to locate, engage and recommend safe placement for children in Out of Home Care (OHC) with relatives and non-relatives (kinship). This position will use available search methods to locate relative, non-relative and other supports. This position will assist in facilitation of permanency related meetings such as Permanency Roundtables, Rapid Permanency Reviews and MDT staffings as needed. The candidate must have a strong value and belief system that children do best when placed with kin and fictive kin (relative/non-relative), which minimizes trauma for the child (ren) and enhances child well-being.

Essential Duties

• Research current and incoming children placed in licensed homes by, but not limited to, conducting case reviews, internet searches and interviews with relatives, non-relatives, and children to identify potential connections. Complete follow-up of all individuals that have expressed interest in the child, and/or have had a positive relationship with the child.
• Conduct Home Studies and background screens on all potential placements and follow up with Case Manager on results
• Participate in a variety of staffings to include permanency roundtables, rapid permanency reviews, and other MDTs.
• Pass along or gather known information to assigned Case Manager and supervisor and conduct follow-up activities as needed. Maintain accurate and complete documentation for each assigned case.
• Conduct supportive efforts, to include home visit engagement, to promote placement stabilization.
• Document all family finding efforts for each case and track success.
• Attend agency events, trainings, conferences as needed after hours or on the weekends.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Requires a bachelors degree from an accredited college or university.

Experience

Two years of responsible experience working with relative and non-relative caregivers and/or working with High Risk children and families, preferably within the dependency or economic self-sufficiency programs.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The qualifications 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.

• Demonstrated competence and skills in positive family and youth engagement and communication
• Ability to think critically, and creatively to identify links between discovered information.
• Ability to use computers, Microsoft Office Suite, and internet with ease and exhibited proficiency.
• Ability to conduct effective phone interviews/ home assessments with prospective caregivers and providers to include foster parents, biological and adoptive parents.
• Ability to speak and conduct meetings with volunteers, caseworkers, and community groups.
• Ability to maintain an effective working relationship with others.
• Ability to write well and perform accurate assessments.
• Ability to demonstrate diligence, persistence, and positive attitude to succeed on behalf of children.
• Ability to schedule meetings in a timely manner and inform numerous individuals in a required time frame.
• Ability to keep calendars and schedule meetings accordingly.
• Ability to demonstrate use of time management and organization skills.
• Ability to write summaries to meetings that accurately reflect the details of the meeting.
• Ability to create spreadsheets in Excel.
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables with minimum direction.
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written or oral form.
• Ability and desire to perform aggressive and exhaustive family finding efforts focusing on accuracy and complete information.
• Ability to read and interpret Florida statute and policies for compliance.
• Employee must be able to coordinate work hours around availability of the families requiring non-traditional work hours.
• Employee must be able to complete paperwork, computer tasks, and drive to locations within Pasco/ Pinellas and beyond, depending on caseload dynamics.
  
  

Other Requirements

• Clear a Level II background screening.
• Clear a reference check.
• Clear a local background check from the County in which you reside.
• Clear a substance abuse screen.
• Provide a copy of all degrees prior to your first day of employment.
• Clear a Motor Vehicles Records check and must be insurable under the company’s automobile policy.
• Provide copy of automobile insurance.
• Provide proof of and maintain a minimum personal auto liability insurance level $100,000/$300,000 if deemed to be a driving risk.
• Clear an E-Verify check to substantiate that the candidate meets the department of homeland security authorization requirements to work in the united states (visit www.dhs.gov/e-verify for more information.
  
  

Licensure, Certification, and/or Registration: Valid drivers license. Child Welfare certified or certification eligible.

Family Support Services Team Members Follow 5 Core Values

Partnership:At FSS, a belief that we are better together is core to who we are. Partnership is an essential component of a healthy system of care. Our team is committed to a respectful, open-minded, collaborative approach to co-creating solutions with the community. This extends to the children and families we serve as well.

Excellence:FSS challenges ourselves to always strive for better on behalf of those we serve. We foster innovative practices, encourage continuous quality improvement, and engage in strategic planning with our partners to achieve the highest possible outcomes for children, families, and the community.

Accountability: FSS recognizes our leadership role within the system of care and strives to be accountable to the community by being trustworthy partners. FSS is committed to ethical and transparent practices, and to operate with integrity as we pursue positive outcomes.

Compassion:We recognize that we often meet families at their most challenging moment and people are more than the sum of their circumstances. We provide trauma-sensitive care for the children and families in our system to reach their full potential. We embrace a service leadership approach and commit to finding the strengths in everyone we encounter while we foster resiliency.

Equity:Equity goes beyond the fair treatment of all people. For FSS, equity is the commitment to recognize the social justice issues intrinsic to our work with marginalized communities. We strive to amplify the voices of individuals and families impacted by poverty, racism, and discrimination in any form. We obligate ourselves to a belief that none of these factors should be a predictor of child welfare involvement or outcomes.

FSS is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information. FSS is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. If you require a reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to Human Resources at c6.hr@fssnf.org

Salary : $100,000 - $300,000