Bilingual Family Support Specialist

Children's Hope Alliance•Morganton, NC

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Bilingual Family Support Specialist (FSS) provides intensive, long-term home visitation services to families who are pregnant or parenting a child from birth to age five. The role serves families across the Catawba Valley Healthy Families service area, with a primary geographic focus on Burke and McDowell counties based on current program needs. Services begin during pregnancy or within three months of birth and use a family-centered, strength-based approach that respects diverse family structures and parenting practices. The FSS builds trusting relationships with families, assesses needs and strengths, creates and updates individualized service plans, and helps parents set and achieve meaningful goals. Through regular home visits, parent education, developmental activities, referrals, and connections to community resources, the FSS supports parent-child relationships, healthy childhood development, and family well-being. The position includes documentation of family contacts and services, participation in team meetings and supervision, and required training. The role has no supervisory responsibilities.

Requirements

At least a high school diploma or equivalent.
Knowledge of infant and child development.
Experience working with or providing services to children and families.
Ability to defuse difficult situations or confrontations and establish trusting relationships.
Knowledge of the dynamics of child abuse and neglect.
Ability to work with individuals and professionals from different disciplines and to apply family-centered, strength-based service concepts.
Acceptance of individual differences and the experience and humility to work with culturally diverse families.
Willingness to develop reflective capacity, including self-awareness, communicating awareness of oneself in relation to others, and recognizing the value of supervision.
Computer proficiency for communication, participant-record documentation, and accessing and interpreting information.
Valid North Carolina driver’s license and maintained insurance coverage.
Must pass pre-employment drug screening, criminal, HCPR, and driving checks.
Ability to travel frequently by car to home visits, sometimes in outlying areas.
Ability to lift and/or move up to 30 pounds.
Ability to kneel, bend, reach, and sit on the floor regularly to engage in developmental play with children and families.
Ability to work in active home environments with changing climate and noise levels and to perform reading, typing, writing, speaking, telephone use, prolonged desk sitting, and computer work.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Child Development, Early Childhood, B-K, Human Services, Social Work, or a related child and family field.
At least one year of experience related to the program, or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
Bilingual Spanish/English abilities; preference is given to bilingual applicants.
Infant Mental Health Endorsement.

Responsibilities

Engage referred families by scheduling, administering, documenting, and scoring the Family Resilience and Opportunities for Growth (FROG) initial assessment.
Maintain regular, long-term contact and support with assigned families through home visits lasting at least one hour and on-call availability to families 24/7; occasional in-person support between scheduled visits may be required.
Build trusting relationships while honoring diverse family structures and parenting practices.
Develop and regularly update individualized Family Service Plans addressing needs identified through the FROG assessment and during service.
Assist families in setting and achieving meaningful goals, including helping parents create a goal plan within 45 days of enrollment and updating it every six months.
Support parents in developing problem-solving and coping skills and in advocating effectively for their families.
Provide parent education using Partners for a Healthy Baby, Nurturing Program, Growing Great Kids, and supplemental curricula.
Strengthen parent-child interactions and promote healthy childhood growth and development through targeted activities, observation, and the parallel process.
Administer family screens, including intimate partner violence, depression, and child-development screens (ASQ-3 and ASQ-SE), and make appropriate referrals.
Serve as a liaison between families and community agencies, and stay informed about local resources that may support family well-being.
Assist families with scheduling and attending prenatal and postnatal care, well-child checkups, immunizations, and other appropriate appointments.
Attend CVHF staff meetings, weekly individual supervision meetings, group parent trainings, occasional community outreach events, and other required meetings and trainings.
Attend required training during employment; some training may involve travel and overnight stays.
Document all family contact and maintain required paperwork, screening records, family data, referrals, and other information in the Family Wise Database and/or family files.
Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Contribute to the organization’s mission; plan work appropriately; complete required training and meetings; meet quality and timeliness expectations; follow policies and report unsafe or noncompliant activities; communicate effectively; contribute to teamwork; coordinate work with others; and demonstrate cultural competence.