Join a collaborative team dedicated to helping children and youth achieve stable, permanent connections. This position combines direct service, community partnership, advocacy, and program development to support guardianship permanency efforts across Rhode Island. The ideal candidate is knowledgeable about child welfare and trauma-informed care, skilled at building relationships with families and community connections, and motivated to drive positive outcomes through compassionate practice, strategic coordination, and systems-level collaboration.
Education & Experience:
- Must possess bachelor’s degree in social work or related field
- Knowledge of child and adolescent development
- Understanding of child welfare system
- Experience in direct service
- Trauma-informed and permanency competent
- Policy development and advocacy strongly encouraged
- Must possess a valid driver’s license and auto-insurance, with continuous access to a private vehicle
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Maintain client confidentiality and conduct self in accordance with professional and ethical standards.
- Assist the agency in assessing and providing effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural beliefs and practices, preferred languages, mental and behavioral health literacy, and other communication needs.
- Promote coordination and collaboration of service delivery, both internally across agency programs and departments, as well as externally, with community partners and contractors.
- Contribute to and participate in agency community outreach activities, as well as additional support programming, as assigned.
- Utilize a strength-based youth and family centered approach to working with program participants, including children, youth, and families working towards the permanency goal of Guardianship.
- Outreach to DCYF when they register a youth who is identified to be in a kin or non-kinship pre-permanency home. Monitoring and tracking these youth and families until legalization.
- Elicit and incorporate youth & family voice into advocacy and service planning as much as is practical.
- Schedule and lead monthly Information Meetings in partnership with DCYF and other targeted information meetings as needed.
- Follow up and track families who attend Information Meetings until they are licensed with DCYF.
- Assist in organizing and implementing trainings and workshops for families, DCYF, and community foster care agencies.
- Actively participate in individual supervision, agency staff meetings and other agency forums.
- Complete all necessary documentation, including all client records, narrative reports of assessments, progress reports, treatment plans, quarterly report submissions, and discharge summaries, in compliance with HIPAA standards.
- Actively participate and contribute to program and agency data collection and analysis for purposes of identifying trends, program development, and communication with the community
- Attend and participate in-service trainings, team meetings, professional development, and group and individual supervision, as applicable.
- Work in partnership with ARI leadership and DCYF administrators to create and implement services aimed to support permanency through legal Guardianship, including but not exclusive to teaming, data sharing, and comprehensive program development.
- Work in partnership with DCYF, collateral providers, family members, and the youth to assess readiness for permanency through guardianship.
- Provide technical assistance, training, and support to DCYF to help remove barriers to permanency through advocacy for the disclosure presentation process, assistance with the development of visitation plans, and the inclusion of all members of the family constellation (birth parents, prospective guardians, and children and youth, siblings) in permanency planning, as appropriate.
- Other duties as assigned.
All-agency:
- Alignment and commitment to values, mission, model, and vision of the agency
- Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Awareness of local, national, and global events, trends, and best practices in the agency’s fields of expertise
- Competence and confidence in building internal and external transparent, positive partnerships that will further the agency’s mission
- Effective written and verbal skills, including public speaking
- Data-informed decision-making
Position-specific:
- Knowledge of permanency-related topics
- Experience in service provision of trauma-informed care, permanency practice, and educational needs of child welfare population
- Knowledge of and demonstrated experience with best practices and state and federal laws related to foster care, youth permanency, homelessness and housing, mental health, education and health for at-risk populations.
- Ability to assess, deliver, and evaluate direct service programming
- Strong organizational, system building & strategic decision-making abilities
- Awareness and understanding of laws, policies, practices, and benefits related to legal guardianship
Other Requirements:
- Must pass Background Criminal Investigation (BCI) check
- Must pass Child Protection Services (CPS) background checks for RI as well as any additional states, per Adam Walsh Act of 2006.
- Compliance with I-9 verification
- Ability to work a flexible schedule
- Access to reliable transportation
- Specific to staff-owned vehicles, staff must demonstrate:
-Possession of valid driver’s license
-Maintenance of clean driving record
-Possession of valid and continuous auto insurance coverage that
meets the state’s minimum requirements
-Valid vehicle inspection sticker
- Hold an active license with the RI Department of health (RIDOH) for applicable positions
- Additional requirements, as outlined by service contracts, if applicable
- Physical Requirements: Prolonged periods of (1) sitting at a desk/meeting table and (2) working on a computer.
- Ability to self-transport to client and agency-related meetings and work within the RI community
- U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS) of strength level category: Sedentary to Light work
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable staff to perform the essential duties.
Pay: $50,000.00 - $60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible schedule
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Mileage reimbursement
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Education:
- Bachelor's (Required)
Experience:
- Child welfare: 1 year (Preferred)
- direct service: 1 year (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
