Family Advocate - Head Start

The Centers•Cleveland, OH

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Family Advocate serves as a link between families, the staff at The Centers, service area personnel, and community resources. The role involves establishing positive relationships with caregivers and delivering high-quality, direct services to support the well-being and success of each family member participating in the Early Learning program. Responsibilities include facilitating Family and Community Partnerships and assisting with Program Governance, Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment, and Attendance activities. The Family Advocate is specifically assigned to support a particular Early Learning center and is an active member of the Family Support Team and has a dotted line supervision to the Site Manager.

Requirements

BA/BS degree in Human Services related field.
Able to work occasional evening and weekend hours.
No record of child abuse or moral turpitude as determined by background check based on fingerprints.
Comfortable with the utilization of various technological platforms and data systems.
The ability to travel between sites independently.

Nice To Haves

Experience in social work field setting preferred.

Responsibilities

Establishes cooperative relationships with local businesses, agencies, and community organizations and completes and maintains up-to-date Community Partnership Agreements.
Conducts home visits as needed to address attendance concerns, completion of enrollment, family services, and other paperwork.
Support families in making a smooth transition into programs; connect them with appropriate link families enrolled in the Early Learning program to internal and external community resources; provide or make referrals according to need.
Complete family pre-assessment within 90 days of enrollment and facilitate the Family Success Plan/ Family Partnership Agreement process. Assist parents in setting goals and checking status according to required timelines.
Lead monthly family engagement events with staff, families, and partner agencies such as Starting Point and UPK and submit parent planning documentation monthly.
Recruits facilitate and document center volunteers and donations. Educate volunteers on the value of their participation in the Early Learning Program.
Attends community meetings and events, creating linkages to community resources staff. Assist them with obtaining and maintaining publicly funded childcare benefits and navigating the Electronic Childcare system.
Proactively recruit families to ensure funded enrollment goals are met at the site and throughout the agency; engage staff and parents for site-specific and organizational-wide efforts.
Collaborates with Early Learning staff to ensure the site is ODJFS and SUTQ compliant.
Attends agency-sponsored in-service training or seminars, training sessions, and meetings outside the agency as a method of gaining more experience and knowledge
Collaborates with the Enrollment team to complete eligibility and enrollment documentation, which includes an eligibility checklist for each child/family file.
Maintains complete and accurate client files and case notes, records child health information, and ensures all required documents and signatures are obtained promptly.
Documents and tracks follow-up needs such as Family Partnership Goals, health, dental, nutrition, growth assessments, and hearing and vision concerns.
Track and report accurate attendance daily to ensure attendance can be analyzed and reported monthly. Provide support to families to address attendance barriers for children with an average daily attendance rate below 85% and follow up on absences.
Complete family contacts and all data entry and documentation associated with the family in the data management system in a timely manner
Collaborate with site staff to maintain center compliance and submit all documentation to the service areas as needed in a timely manner
As a member of the site, collaborate with the site staff to ensure families and children are served and safe.
Maintain center compliance in the Family Support service area and submit all documentation to the Family and Community Engagement Manager and other service areas as needed.
Other duties as assigned
Certification in CPR/First Aid, Communicable Disease, Child Abuse, and Neglect Prevention is required upon hire.