Children's Services/ICW - Family Voluntary Services (FVS) Caseworker

Puyallup Tribe of Indians•Tacoma, WA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is committed to protecting and exercising the inherent inalienable sovereign rights of the Tribe and Individuals in the interest of the Medicine Creek Treat Territories, as stewards to ensure preservation of our cultural and environmental integrity for common good and prosperity for all. This position develops, implements, and evaluates case plans for enrolled Puyallup Tribal children who are found to be children in need of care through the Puyallup Tribal Court. The role facilitates family reunification or other permanent placement planning as deemed necessary by the Tribal Court, making life-changing decisions based solely on the best interest of the children. The FVS Caseworker works with families to mitigate identified risk on a voluntary basis prior to the removal of the child(ren) from the home via court structure. The role also supports and encourages children, parents, and extended family members to participate in achieving documented case plans. The FVS Caseworker is tasked with the protection of children from child abuse/neglect with ongoing continuous risk assessments while keeping children in their own homes. The role engages the family and builds on the willingness of the family to engage in services provided by the Puyallup Tribe or allied agencies. The FVS Caseworker may also provide support to children who are of appropriate age to access the Extended Foster Care Program, by educating youth on resources and services, assisting with schooling, vocational programs or higher education, engaging them in the program, and helping them launch into adulthood successfully. The FVS Caseworker will initiate court structures to remove children if risk cannot be mitigated to keep the child safe, or if additional factors arise. The position requires preparing detailed, comprehensive, and accurate reports to court, developing case summaries, and attending predetermined and emergency court proceedings. The role stays informed of all court proceedings, maintains complete case records of case progress including court documents, school and health records, and correspondence. It is also responsible for the administration of financial support records, service agreements, service episode information, tribal affiliation and enrollment. The role actively participates in departmental staff meetings and prepares case summaries for staff with team case reviews, casework supervisor and the Local Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committee when needed and applicable. The FVS Caseworker conducts home visits/inspections with clients to ensure the needs of the family are being met and they are benefitting from services provided by the FVS. The role initiates and maintains appropriate documentation for financial, medical and educational services for children and families. The position manages crisis situations as they arise, maintains and ensures an extreme level of confidentiality regarding client issues, and has the ability to prioritize workload based on client emergency situations. The role is responsible for transporting clients to and from appointments and has the ability to adapt and be flexible to constant changes in Tribal and State Children’s Services systems. The position determines suitable and safe living conditions for children and their families. Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree (B. A.) from four-year college or university in Social Services Field required
Two years related experience in case management and/or training working with Native American children and their families preferred
Equivalent combination of additional education and less experience
Internship hours completed in a social work setting may count as experience
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.
Must possess independent decision-making skills, have or be willing to learn de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques.
Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.
Current First Aid and CPR certification and HIV/AIDS training certificate.
Must pass Washington State Department of Social and Health Services criminal history and CPS background inquiry every two years unless otherwise indicated.
Must have and maintain a valid and unrestricted Washington State driver’s license and proof of insurance. The driver’s license must not contain any restrictions that would otherwise prevent the employee from driving a GSA vehicle.
Willing to attend training for professional development.
Knowledge of legal requirements of Puyallup Tribal Court- Children’s Code, and U.S. Federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.
Knowledge of Native American family dynamics. Sensitive to and familiar with the social/cultural needs of Tribal children and their families.
Must pass tuberculosis test.
Knowledge of DCFS systems and procedures.
Willing to travel with little or no notice.
Requires the ability to operate a typewriter, personal computer, multi-line telephone, calculator, facsimile and photocopier.
Requires the ability to read, write, communicate, and interpret information accurately in English.
Requires the ability to concentrate and consistently produce accurate work.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required talk or hear.
The employee is frequently required to sit.
The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; reach with hands and use hands to finger, handle and feel.
The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.
Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

Nice To Haves

Two years related experience in case management and/or training working with Native American children and their families preferred
Internship hours completed in a social work setting may count as experience

Responsibilities

Initiates, facilitates and assists in obtaining referrals to outside agencies and professional providers in establishing services necessary to achieve case planning goals.
Performs case consultation and collaboration with CPS Investigator, professional therapists, medical personnel, school officials, legal professionals, and other community agencies for optimal outcomes of case plans.
Develops appropriate case plans, attends staffing and team meetings to determine needs of clients toward completing their case plans.
Works with families to mitigate identified risk on a voluntary basis prior to the removal of the child(ren) from the home via court structure.
Supports and encourages the children, parents, and extended family members to participate in achieving documented case plan.
Protection of children from child abuse/neglect with ongoing continuous risk assessments while keeping children in their own homes.
Engages the family and builds on the willingness of the family to engage in services provided by the Puyallup Tribe or allied agencies.
Provides support to children who are of appropriate age to access the Extended Foster Care Program by educating the youth on resources and services available, assisting the youth/young adult with schooling, vocational programs or higher education & engaging them in the program, and helping them launch them into adulthood successfully.
Initiates court structures to remove children if risk cannot be mitigated to keep the child safe, or if additional factors arise.
Prepares detailed, comprehensive and accurate reports to court, develops case summaries, and attends predetermined and emergency court proceedings.
Stays informed of all court proceedings.
Maintains complete case records of case progress including court documents, school and health records, and correspondence.
Responsible for administration of financial support records, service agreements, service episode information, tribal affiliation and enrollment.
Actively participates in departmental staff meetings.
Prepares case summaries to staff with team case reviews, casework supervisor and the Local Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committee when needed and applicable.
Conducts home visits/inspections with clients to ensure the needs of the family are being met and they are benefitting from services provided by the FVS.
Initiates and maintains appropriate documentation for financial, medical and educational services for children and families.
Manages crisis situations as they arise.
Maintains and ensures extreme level of confidentiality regarding client issues.
Ability to prioritize workload based on client emergency situations.
Responsibility for transporting clients to and from appointments.
Ability to adapt and be flexible to constant changes in Tribal and State Children’s Services systems.
Determine suitable and safe living conditions for children and their families.
Performs other duties as assigned.