Family Support Specialist

Acenda • Glassboro, NJ

7d

About The Position

Family Support Specialists establish trusting relationships with families and provide supportive visitation, primarily in the home, with each visit lasting at least one hour. They help strengthen parent-child relationships through family-centered, strength-based interventions and activities, using evidence-based practices. The position serves families referred through Connecting NJ or a service provider and supports them throughout home visitation services.

Requirements

• High school diploma or GED equivalent.
• Two years of experience working with children ages 0–3 and families.
• Knowledge of infant and child development, normal child growth and development, and parent-child relationships.
• Experience working with community agencies, including implementing referral processes.
• Ability to relate to families using a strength-based and family-centered service model, including in apparently chaotic family environments.
• Valid driver’s license and an acceptable driving record, which must be maintained.
• Ability to establish trusting relationships and work with culturally diverse families with humility.
• Willingness to build reflective capacity, including introspection, awareness of oneself in relation to others, and recognizing the value of supervision.
• Flexible availability for weeknight and weekend hours as needed by home-visiting families.
• Ability to exercise independent thinking and good judgment, analyze work, set goals, develop plans, and use time effectively and efficiently.
• Competencies in workplace ethics, interpersonal communication, collaboration, cultural competence, screening and assessment, care planning and coordination, systems-oriented practice, practice-based learning and quality improvement, and technology.
• Acceptance of individual differences.

Nice To Haves

• Infant Mental Health Endorsement.
• Spanish proficiency for the bilingual hourly differential.

Responsibilities

• Conduct outreach to families referred through Connecting NJ or a service provider.
• Use a standardized screening tool to determine eligibility for home visitation services.
• Interview parents and administer the Family Resilience and Opportunities for Growth (FROG) Scale to identify family strengths and risk factors.
• Help strengthen parent-child relationships and improve parents’ skills to optimize the home environment.
• Help families expand their support systems, problem-solving abilities, and capacity to advocate for themselves and their children.
• Assist families in establishing goals and plans to accomplish them.
• Assess the target child’s normal growth and development.
• Identify and refer families to supportive agencies, including for healthcare appointments.
• Travel throughout New Jersey for required multi-day model and/or agency trainings.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Health, vision, and dental coverage for the employee and family.
• 401(k) with a 100% employer match on the first 5% of compensation.
• Generous time off.
• Life insurance.
• Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Year-end bonuses.
• A $1,000 sign-on bonus.
• An additional $1.50 per hour bilingual differential for Spanish proficiency.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: High school or GED