Foster Care Home Finder

OLV Human Services•Lackawanna, NY

8d•Onsite

About The Position

Foster Care Home Finder is responsible for recruiting, training, certifying, and supporting foster and adoptive families. This role is critical in building strong, nurturing homes for children in need by guiding prospective foster parents through the certification process, conducting home assessments, coordinating placements, and providing ongoing support to foster families. The ideal candidate is a relationship-builder with strong assessment, communication, and organizational skills who is committed to child welfare and family preservation. This position aims to strengthen communities, advocate for families, and help children achieve safety, stability, and permanency.

Requirements

Master's Degree in Social Work, Mental Health Counseling or a closely related field
1-2 years working with children and families
Computer skills
Customer skills
Culturally sensitive to the needs and diversities of multi-cultural communities.
Skills in typing, basic computer operations, Microsoft, PowerPoint, Excel.
Strong organizational skills.
Able to work independently, demonstrating good judgment and prioritizing.
Must be accurate and detail oriented.
Practices good customer service skills in all working relationships.
Strong interpersonal skills, respectful, and courteous nature.
Demonstrated assessment skills
Knowledge of child welfare regulations and regulatory agencies whenever possible.
Teaching and presentation skills.
Willingness to develop strong relationships, and ability to demonstrate patience, compassion, and empathy for clients.
Ability to establish strong interpersonal skills to foster healthy and productive relationships with clients and colleagues.
Good mediation/conflict resolution skills.
Ability to work effectively with clients, families, staff and community contacts from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Knowledge of community resources and the ability to access specialized services to clients.
Ability to advocate effectively for clients.
Ability to be flexible and adapt to change.
Ability to interface with people (groups and individuals) and communicate within various mediums (logbooks, e-mail, telephone).
Demonstrate time management / organizational skills.
Must be an excellent listener.
Effective problem solver
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Takes a systematic approach to solving problems rather than reacting to symptoms
Job requires preferring to work with others rather than alone, and being personally connected with others on the job
Identifying what needs to be done and doing it before being asked or before the situation requires it
The aptitude to extract, interpret, integrate and manage information correctly and make timely and concise decisions for the best course of action, among multiple alternatives, to enable the decision-making process to take place on a higher level in order to achieve objectives.
Ability to listen effectively and accurately enough to understand another's situation and point of view
Fosters and initiates new ideas, methods and solutions
Staying with a position or plan of action until the desired objective is obtained or is no longer reasonably attainable. Works to achieve goal in spite of barriers or difficulties; actively works to overcome obstacles by changing strategies, doubling efforts, using multiple approaches, etc.
The ability to tackle a problem by using a logical, systematic, sequential approach

Nice To Haves

License preferred: LMSW/LCSW/LMHC

Responsibilities

Develop a strong working knowledge of foster boarding home regulations and policies.
Responsible for the matching process between children and foster families and notifies the case worker of placement.
Identification, planning and involvement in recruitment activities for foster families.
Responsible to represent the agency on appropriate coalition, committees, and at community recruitment events.
Assist with foster parent recruitment, retention and recognition events (i.e. Foster Parent month, foster care events, Christmas party, fundraisers, etc).
Send written acknowledgments to foster parents around special events and other appropriate times.
Respond to foster parent inquiries and screen applicants on the phone in accord with OLV and State regulations concerning foster parenting.
Maintains caseload through Connections, including all required dates, information, bed availability, training, and annual re-certification of assigned families.
Responsible for ensuring foster parent applicant files of assigned caseload are complete and in compliance with Agency, County and state regulation, at the point of presentation for approval.
Develop a strong working knowledge of the roles, permanency options, needs and services for relative caregiving families.
Make home visits in connection with foster home assessments to check on readiness to begin the certification process and to give the applicant(s) initial documents.
Assess foster parent applicants for their potential suitability as a foster/adoptive parent through in-home and office interviews of all household members.
Inform and prepare applicants as to the expectations and responsibilities of foster/adoptive parents; as set forth in State, County, and agency regulations.
Evaluate applicant(s) in their own homes through in-depth interviews with all household members. Interview applicant(s) regarding their motivation, parenting capacities, personal background, and current family functioning.
Collect written collateral data such as school, employment, and personal references, and any other information, from outside sources as needed.
Clear prospective foster/adoptive families with the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, Staff Exclusion List, and criminal clearance.
Obtain complete medical clearances on all household members.
Complete foster/adoptive home studies.
Work in partnership with program staff and foster families to develop and ensure adherence to partnership development plans as needed.
Work with the program Director to make decisions about appropriateness to deny applications or reapproval/recertification as necessary.
Maintain case records prior to certification, after certification, and with each completed re-certification.
Assess and evaluate foster homes for re-certification including the collection of all needed documentation.
Serve as an advocate for foster families and work in collaboration to address concerns as they arise.
Develop and maintain knowledge on community resources for which to refer foster families to for additional supports as needed.
Develop and maintain a strong understanding of kinship caregiver options, challenges and supports to best serve kinship foster families.
Completes all BVS, DSS and OCFS paperwork in a timely manner and ensures that documentation in foster parent records conforms to agency, County and State regulatory requirements.
Maintains hard copy of foster parent records.
Co-trains prospective foster families in approved pre-certification training curriculum.
Co-train a minimum of 3 MAPP/GPSII trainings per year.
Provides one-on-one training and assessment to relative/kinship foster homes to best meet family needs.
Develop and maintain relationships with foster parent and ensures ongoing support for foster parents.
Serve as a liaison between casework staff and foster parents.
Works with the foster care social workers to preserve challenging foster care placements through family support and mediation.
Participates in family team conferences, case reviews and department meetings as needed.
Assist with coordination and/or delivery of foster parent training programs as necessary and/or requested.
Serves as a co-trainer in program specific trainings, which may include Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families, Risking Connections, Caring for Our Own, Applying Reasonable and Prudent Parenting Standard, etc.
Co-facilitate traditional and relative foster parent support groups.
Attends all mandatory in-service training and regularly attends supervision meetings.
Follows BVS and OCFS policies to ensure compliance with regulations and requirements.
Performs other duties as assigned.

Benefits

Generous Paid Time Off (PTO), including paid holidays
Qualifying Non-For-Profit for Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program
Health, dental & vision insurance options
Free dental insurance
Paid Employer sponsored life insurance.
Supplemental insurance programs for additional life insurance, short-term disability, accident & cancer insurance
Up to $600 every year for completing biometric health screenings on a single health insurance plan & up to $1,200 if a spouse also completes
Up to $180 annual gym reimbursement
Dental & Outpatient Mental Health services
Employee referral program