About First3Years: First3Years is a state-wide non-profit organization whose mission is to educate, advocate, and collaborate to support the healthy development of infants and toddlers. First3Years is recognized around the state for its training programs around infant mental health and our ability to bring meaningful research around relationships brain development during the early years to those who need it most.

The Safe Babies Program seeks to lessen the long-term impact of neglect, increase the likelihood of reunification, and ensure policies that guide the movement of infants and toddlers in the child welfare system are developmentally informed. This is accomplished by four pillars: coparenting between birth parents and caregivers, coordination of care, education and technical assistance and continuous evaluation.

This individual will provide services to birth parents who are involved with the child welfare system. In this role services rendered could include individual counseling, parenting, and parent-child monitored return visitation support to those birth parents enrolled in the Safe Babies program. The Safe Babies Clinician will serve families in Harris County in person or virtually, meeting parents where they are, in the least restrictive environment ethically possible. Serving through tenure of the grant scheduled to end April 2025 with possible extension.

Job is Remote; clients will be based in Harris County, Houston TX; virtual sessions will be set up for 2024; applicant can be local to Houston or Texas Based

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Clinician may conduct single or a combination of services for birth parents and their children enrolled in Safe Babies including relationship-based therapy, parenting modalities and parent-child dyad support during a monitored return (i.e., Psychotherapy (EMDR, CBT-TF), Circle of Security, Nurturing Parenting, Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Child Parent Psychotherapy)
• Work in compliance with state regulations and codes.
• Provide monthly reports to Director of Safe Babies:
  • Time Sheet
    • Direct Service Hours: client sessions, individual counseling and/or parenting
    • Indirect Service Hours: scheduling, admin, team meetings/staffing, court, prep
  • Monthly family success story
• Weekly check in with Coordinator/ monthly check in with Director
• Provide flexible hours for families receiving therapeutic services, including but not limited to evenings and weekends. Services can be provided in-person or virtually.
  • Approximately 30-40 hours a week- dependent on caseload- reported hours in timesheet
• Participate in First3Years/Safe Babies webinars and trainings throughout the year as needed.
• Participate in Safe Babies Stakeholder meetings
• Maintain clear communication and collaboration with First3Years/Safe Babies regarding client information and progress.
• Engage in professional learning opportunities such as formalized training, workshops/conferences, supervision*, and self-study to maintain annual professional counseling licensure (including ethics and supervision*)

Job Requirements/Skills & Knowledge:

• Master’s Degree in psychology, social work, or other related mental health fields. Fully licensed (LPC, LMFT, LCSW) in the state of Texas.
• Excellent written communication and ability to store progress notes in a confidential format, HIPAA compliant
• Respect for people of all cultures, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds.
• Strong understanding of infant/child development, child abuse/neglect and best practice interventions for trauma, infant/early childhood mental health, reflective practice, family systems, child protective services, and relationship-based treatment approaches.
• Familiarity with juvenile and family court proceedings.
• Ability to coordinate, collaborate, and communicate effectively across relationships in multidisciplinary groups.
• Experience with systems change and community collaboration.
• Ability to assess and intervene within complex family and community systems. Must be able to mediate differences of opinion objectively.
• Minimum of 2 years providing therapeutic services
• Connection to the mission of First3Years and desire to help very young children and their families
• Bilingual preferred, but not required
• Personal Transportation abilities required (vehicle).

Other Benefits:

• Mileage reimbursement
• Flexible work from home schedule
• Infant Mental Health Endorsement Fee Coverage
• Reflective Supervision
• Parenting and additional modalities training fees covered. (Must be approved prior to enrolling or completing training)
• Access to ongoing CEUs through our Safe Babies training series and First3Years

Application Due: 3/26/2024