What are the responsibilities and job description for the Advocacy Coordinator position at CASA of the Alapaha Judicial Circuit?
General Description
The Advocacy Coordinator provides professional staff support to all CASA volunteers to ensure that children involved with the Department of Family and Children Services and the CASA program receive sound advocacy and early permanency planning. Day-to-day, the Advocacy Coordinator provides support, supervision, case management, and training to volunteers, ensuring that abused and neglected children receive quality representation of their best interest and/or of the Child's wishes in court.
Accountability
- The Advocacy Coordinator is directly supervised by the Program Director.
- The Advocacy Coordinator will assist in the supervision of interns.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Volunteer Management
- Assign volunteers to new cases under the supervision of the CASA Program Director and make recommendations for termination when necessary.
- Prepare court orders appointing and removing CASA volunteers and distribute paperwork to volunteers.
- Maintain regular contact with CASA volunteers and provide assistance and consultation.
- Meet with all active volunteers once a month to review cases.
- Review volunteers’ reports and assist volunteers with report writing, as needed
- Attend court hearings, Citizen Panel Reviews, family team meetings, and pause calls with volunteers as needed.
- Assist in the recruiting, screening, interviewing, and training of new volunteers.
- Advertise for volunteers.
- Process volunteer applications and background checks.
- Check volunteer references.
- Assist the Program Director with potential volunteer interviews.
- Create and maintain volunteer files.
- Prepare training materials for pre-service training.
- Lead and/or assist with pre-service training and in-service training.
- Prepare courtroom observation schedule and distribute to volunteers.
- Track volunteer observation and training hours.
- Schedule and prepare for the swearing-in of volunteers.
Case Management
- Review case referrals and assign volunteers to cases in consultation with the Program Director.
- Assist CASA volunteers with advocacy, based on specific case information.
- Assist CASA volunteers with research, as necessary.
- Ensure that volunteers receive up-to-date case information as information is received by the CASA program.
- Maintain up-to-date case information, such as volunteer reports and case plans.
- Attend DFCS staffing once a month for each county, and provide updates to volunteers if they are not in attendance.
- Create and maintain case files.
Court
- Monitor dates of court hearings.
- Notify volunteers of upcoming court dates.
- Distribute CASA reports for court hearings.
- Provides court orders for the Judge’s signature and files originals with the Clerk of Court.
- Speak on CASAs’ behalf in court proceedings as needed.
Record Keeping
- Maintains accurate volunteer assignment information in individual volunteer files.
- Maintains accurate case information in individual case files.
- Ensure all volunteers log their miles and hours in CPRS.
Other Responsibilities
- Meets weekly with CASA Program Director.
- Attend weekly staffing with FCCIS staff.
- Attends workshops, training, and conferences, as needed.
- Assists in CASA program event planning, including fundraising, appreciation events, in-service training, etc.
- Participate in speaking engagements.
Disclaimer
This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skill, duties, requirements, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change (e.g.-emergencies, changes in personnel, workload, etc.)
Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Bachelor’s Degree in child development, psychology, sociology, social work, education or a related field. Extensive experience may be substituted for a degree.
- Two years of experience (volunteer or paid) in any of the following areas: social services, child advocacy, volunteer supervision, training, non-profit management, volunteer CASA or guardian ad litem, child welfare, education, or mental health.
- Necessary skill sets for success include community-building, relationship-building, organizational and administrative skills, including file management, and volunteer supervision.
- Ability to collaborate with other professionals-both within and outside the agency setting- and the ability to form positive working relationships with individuals and groups.
- Submission of a clear criminal background check.