Family Finding Recruitment Specialist

UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago•Cicero, IL

About The Position

The Family Finding Specialist/Recruitment Specialist position will identify and engage familial supports and connections including relatives and fictive kin for the purpose of life-long connections and permanency achievements. This position will work collaboratively with the licensing and casework teams, licensing target families to then transfer case to licensing team (will not carry licensing case load) it will also assit the family caseworker with facilitating the expansion of resources needed to better serve children and their families involved in foster care, including conducting extensive research, investigation, and outreach in locating absentee parents/guardians.

Requirements

Ability to engage the youth (as age-appropriate), birth parents, family and social connections, foster parents, and staff to facilitate and support stability and permanency for the youth.
Possesses strong, creative problem-solving skills.
Can use non-traditional search methods to identify and locate family members and supportive connections.
Serves as a team member within the multidisciplinary team or Child and Family Team Meeting.
Assists in licensing potential foster parents, fictive kins, and assists in training biological parents of foster children, as assigned.
Engages in a variety of techniques to meet and communicate with potential foster parents, including attending events, networking, social media, and other strategies.
Supports and licenses potential foster parent/s or fictive kin.
Takes the lead in engaging in both proactive general and target foster family recruitment efforts for youth in the foster care system.
Coordinates services and attends meetings with other agencies, systems, and community providers to meet the needs of the clients.

Responsibilities

Provides professional technical assistance and resource development support to casework staff who serve children with specialized and problematic behavior service needs.
Assists the family caseworker with facilitating the expansion of resources needed to better serve children and their families involved in foster care.
Utilizes a family-centered, trauma-informed, strength-based, and EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) lens through which youth and family needs are assessed.
Engages the youth (as age-appropriate), birth parents, family and social connections, foster parents, and staff to facilitate and support stability and permanency for the youth.
Uses strong, creative problem-solving skills and non-traditional search methods to identify and locate family members and supportive connections.
Serves as a team member within the multidisciplinary team or Child and Family Team Meeting consisting of case manager, supervisor, foster parent, birth parents and youth to facilitate connections between newly found family/fictive kin members, supports, and other collateral resources to resolve complex and stalled cases to improve permanency outcomes.
Assists in licensing potential foster parents and fictive kins, and assists in training biological parents of foster children, as assigned.
Engages in a variety of techniques to meet and communicate with potential foster parents, including attending events, networking, social media, and other strategies.
Supports and licenses potential foster parent/s or fictive kin.
Takes the lead in engaging in both proactive general and target foster family recruitment efforts for youth in the foster care system.
Conducts targeted recruitment efforts by reaching out to potential families who are most likely to meet the needs for the specific youth, including attending and participating in community events throughout the area.
Coordinates services and attends meetings with other agencies, systems, and community providers to meet the needs of the clients.