Adoption Specialist

D A Blodgett-St Johns•Grand Rapids, MI

10h•$36,660 - $39,104•Hybrid

About The Position

The Adoption Program is primarily involved with placing children with special needs (i.e. older children, large sibling groups, and children with emotional, physical, and mental impairments) into adoptive homes. The Adoption Specialist is involved in recruiting adoptive families that will provide permanent homes for these children. They assess both the child and the family, carefully screen of adoptive applicants, match children with families, prepare both children and families for placement, facilitate training, and provide ongoing support services to these children and families to achieve a high level of success.

Requirements

Educational requirements are a minimum of a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with a major in social work or a related human services field.
Background experience in foster care, adoption and/or with individuals with special needs.
A comprehensive understanding of child development, especially as it relates to adoptive children from foster care.
Knowledge of community resources.
Good Conflict Resolution Skills. The ability to work with others in a team and coordinate case planning with other departments.
Valid driver’s license, good driving record and adequate insurance with a reliable vehicle available at all times.
Possess an understanding and sensitivity to the client’s socioeconomic characteristics with personal qualities of warmth with the ability to establish meaningful relationships with people from various cultures.
Competence in computer use and keyboarding skills.
Good moral character and no criminal record.
Become familiar with and follow the code of ethics and agree to abide by the related Agency standards.
A personal commitment to the Agency’s mission, philosophy, and values.

Nice To Haves

Ability to maintain composure when exposed to stress.
Ability to set priorities and allocate resources properly in order to effectively achieve work responsibilities and objectives.
Pay attention to detail, accuracy, and completeness.
A desire to serve others by focusing efforts on listening and responding effectively to questions, providing services, and evaluating customer satisfaction.
Ability to inspire and encourage others to reach a goal; maintaining a high level of productivity and self-direction.
Ability to adhere to organization policies and procedures, acting in a fair and just manner while maintaining confidentiality.
Ability to be dependable, trustworthy, and committed to doing the best job possible and completing work in a timely and consistent manner.
Ability to effectively receive and express ideas, both written and verbal; using clear and concise vocabulary and active listening skills. Ability to communicate with small and large groups and ability to communicate with a wide variety of people.
Ability to fit into a changing work environment, priorities or organization needs by staying open-minded and being able to change based on new information.
Ability to recognize courses of action to handle problems, gathering and organizing information, identifying cause and effect relationships, and applying contingency plans to solve those problems.
Ability to select and commit to an effective course of action by understanding issues, comparing solutions, and drawing conclusions to resolve problems.
Ability to use technical knowledge and training to execute work; delivery high quality results.
Acceptance of responsibility and one's own actions.
Effectively interacts with people by being able to share and receive information that supports team goals.

Responsibilities

Assess, prepare, and place children from foster care into adoptive homes. Recruit, screen, assess, educate/train and support adoptive families.
Supervise children in their adoptive placement to assure that the children are adjusting. Make referrals as needed.
Organize, facilitate, and monitors services so that annual adoption objectives are successfully achieved on an annual basis (i.e. placements and finalizations in a timely manner).
Coordinate community resources (i.e. counseling, special education, and DHHS, etc.) available for and needed by adoptive children and families.
Complete all necessary agency, DHHS, Adoption Assistance, and legal paperwork requirements on a timely basis.
Help develop and implement adoption plans so that children obtain permanency in a timely manner.
Assist with support group activities.
Participate in required case related activities such as court hearings and other meetings.
Agency-related duties include attendance at general staff meetings, departmental meetings, cooperation with other departments within the agency, and timely completion of paperwork (to include mileage, paid time off requests, outlook calendar).
Staff members may be assigned to assist with other duties by the administration. Examples include public relations and promotions, recruitment, special committees, or task forces.
In addition to scheduled 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. work hours, staff members are expected to accommodate his/her personal schedule to clients’ availability and agency needs. This will include court hearings, home visits, group meetings, special events, and other after-agency hours appointments and telephone contacts.
Other responsibilities shall include those set forth in agency personnel policies as amended. After the required training, a full-time Adoption Specialist can expect to be responsible for 15 children as well as families.
Adoption Specialists are required to receive a minimum number of training hours annually.
Work cooperatively with other agency staff and with personnel from related community agencies, law firms, other agencies, and courts. Adoption Specialists are expected to have satisfaction surveys returned that are positive.
Timely reports with good quality and timely placements as measured by the departmental scoreboard.
Take responsibility for maintaining accurate and current case records.
Make sure the services provided are in keeping with the highest standard of professional child welfare services.