Therapeutic Mentor

Centerstone•Sarasota, FL

14h•$15 - $21

About The Position

Are you passionate about empowering families and driving meaningful change in your community? Join our team as a Therapeutic Mentor, where you'll provide compassionate, hands-on peer support to parents and caregivers of children and youth receiving services through Centerstone's Community Action Treatment (CAT) team. In this dynamic role, you'll work directly with families—whether in their homes, community settings, or agency-based groups—to offer guidance rooted in both evidence-informed practices and your own lived experience. Your support will help families navigate complex systems like DCF, child welfare, and the courts, while fostering resilience, confidence, and advocacy. More than just peer support, you'll be a catalyst for systemic change, helping to elevate the voices of families and reduce bias in service delivery. By building trust and modeling strength through shared experience, you'll play a vital role in creating a more inclusive, family-centered approach to care.

Requirements

Ability to maintain and manage confidential information
Strong attention to detail and accuracy
Must have direct current or previous life experiences as the biological, kin, foster or adoptive parent of a youth with complex needs and receiving community mental health services, child welfare, and/or juvenile justice system.
Have tolerance and respect for individual differences, opinions, and perspectives.
Be respectful of low-income families, as well as have a good understanding of different socioeconomic populations.
Ability to work independently, and exercise ethical and swift judgment during times of crisis.
Knowledge of/linkages with diverse populations, key community stakeholders, and populations with/at risk for trauma.
Public speaking experience, excellent organizational skills, strong communication and writing skills.
Creative problem-solving skills, and ability to coordinate multiple tasks.
Must value cultural differences, work independently and/or as a member of a team, problem solve, and be genuinely interested in working with survivors of trauma.
Must be able to travel up to 50% of the time.
High school diploma or GED required.

Nice To Haves

Experience in providing education, outreach, and collaboration with community stakeholders is preferred.

Responsibilities

Provide support and assistance to parents in meeting the physical, emotional, and educational needs of their children.
Work with and model for the entire family a positive, sensitive, non-judgmental manner of relating.
Assist the team in understanding the parent’s perspective, culture, and beliefs in a way that increases understanding by others while decreasing differences and highlighting similarities.
Assess and prioritize needs of a parent regarding parenting tasks or sources of self-confidence.
Providing information on child development and parenting skills
Assisting a parent in acquiring practical/organizational skills (i.e., budgeting, utilizing resources.
Assist a parent in developing their own interests and personal goals
Providing information that assists the parents’ understanding of their child’s developmental needs, promotes positive parenting, and develops the parent/child relationship.
Teach problem solving skills to manage crises
Maintain appropriate documentation that outlines the services provided to the family.
Present workshops to parents and other groups
Serve on committees with project stakeholders, and serve as the parents’ voice
Coordinate with parent resource centers and provide them with special ed information and with trainings for parents
Attends IEP and school meetings as requested by the caregivers or team members.
Accompany parent into community for meetings and forums.
Coordinating with other agencies, groups and project stakeholders
Researching information needed by the parent/family
Facilitating webinars or trainings for parents/caregivers, including trauma-informed, evidence-based parenting curriculum.