Family Support Advocate

Childrens Law Center • Washington, DC

9d • $50,000 - $57,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Family Support Advocate will team with lawyers who assist parents and caretakers of children in family law, housing, special education and public benefits matters. The primary role of the Family Support Advocate is to assist families with navigating non-legal needs that are barriers to them achieving stability for their children and to support attorneys in tasks related to legal representation. This position will focus on communicating with client families, providing advocacy support and guidance and connecting families with other community resources as appropriate. The position also involves assisting lawyers with other aspects of their representation including gathering court, school or medical records, meeting with clients in their homes and communities, interviewing clients, caretakers, teachers, medical professionals and witnesses, accompanying clients and their children to appointments, attending school and other meetings and testifying in hearings or trials.

Requirements

• A demonstrated commitment to social, economic and racial justice.
• Outstanding communication skills, including ability to explain complex processes in a simplified form.
• Strong writing skills, as demonstrated by products that are carefully prepared and exhibit a high attention to detail.
• Strong organizational skills with a demonstrated ability to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Considerable resourcefulness, creativity, initiative, tenacity and discretion.
• Exceptional interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas: providing advocacy support to families; living and/or working in and with communities dealing with issues of poverty; knowledge of DC community programs, opportunities and services, especially in Wards 7 and 8; working with families with children with special needs; or working on public health issues.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with low-income communities and/or families strongly preferred.
• Strong conflict management skills, including experience with de-escalation of sensitive or highly emotional situations.
• Experience with customer service or community outreach and engagement.
• Experience working with attorneys or in a legal setting is a plus.
• Fluency in Spanish is preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

• Support for Client Families
• Contacts family within two business days after receipt of case assignment to schedule a call to confirm non-legal support needs.
• Provides consistent and reliable communication to client families regarding case information and provides assistance and advocacy through in-person meetings, phone, text and email.
• Builds trust and rapport with client families using culturally respectful approaches to further families’ goals.
• Identifies and connects clients with relevant information and services to further families’ goals.
• Helps to develop and share materials to facilitate community engagement and understanding.
• Provide Investigative and Advocacy Support to Attorneys
• Develops understanding of basic legal and ethical concepts and seeks guidance from attorneys and/or supervisor about assignments, legal terms, case theory and court procedures as needed.
• Follows all ethical rules of conduct during investigations.
• Prepares written records requests for information maintained by government entities, medical and corporate records and other non-governmental records.
• Takes all necessary steps to obtain such information and records.
• Gathers, synthesizes and summarizes information contained in records, reports, evaluations and research and identifies relevant facts/information for attorney review.
• Prepares and serves subpoenas and other similar documents.
• Files court documents, requests and obtains court records.
• Conducts school and housing investigations and responds to specific inquiries from attorneys.
• For relevant cases, identifies and locates witnesses and conducts interviews, helps prepare exhibits for court hearings and testifies at hearings.
• Assists with emergency assignments.
• Workload Management
• Identifies relevant facts in cases and uses creativity and resourcefulness, identifies practical ideas and solutions to address potential problems that arise in completing assignments.
• Works effectively and efficiently on multiple assignments across multiple attorneys simultaneously.
• Keeps attorneys informed of progress on assignments and ensure deadlines are met.
• Manages time efficiently to complete case work, meeting assignment deadlines and other CLC responsibilities.
• Prioritizes tasks with attorney and supervisor input, especially when unexpected delays or scheduling conflicts arise.
• Maintains organized case information in electronic and hard copy files.
• Records all case activity in case management system promptly.

Benefits

• Children’s Law Center offers a generous benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and short- and long-term disability insurance; employer-provided retirement contributions; flexible spending plans; and vacation, sick, holiday, family and medical leave.
• Employees with federal student loan debt can apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed