Parent Partner

The Parent Partner ensures that the family’s voice is heard throughout Intensive Services, serving as an advocate for the families in their interactions with organizations and departments at the community and county levels.  As a member of the Intensive Services program team, participates in orientation and serves as a liaison for parent/family involvement.  The Parent Partner must be the primary caregiver for a child who received services from the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), Probation (and should have their case closed for at least 1 year at the time of hire), or Department of Mental Health (DMH).

 ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Supports and promotes the mission of the Agency: Foothill Family empowers children and families on their journey to achieve personal success.
• Serves as a parent representative to the Wraparound, FSP (Full Service Partnership, or IFCCS (Intensive Field Capable Clinical Services) program activities and assists in orienting new referrals to the program.
• Embraces and is guided by the values and principles of the Core Practice Model and encompasses Engaging, Teaming, Assessment, Planning and Intervention, and Tracking and Adapting into services delivered.
• Drives to clients’ home, school, community or Agency offices to provide field-based services to clients and families as assigned and based on the families’ needs and availability.
• Provides trauma-informed care within scope of practice and focuses on building Protective Factors of Parental Resilience, Social Connections, Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development, Concrete Support in Times of Need, and Social and Emotional Competence of Children.
• Reinforces and practices skills with the caregivers that the client has learned in therapy to assist in decreasing mental health symptoms and behaviors that are putting the client’s placement at risk.
• Offers peer support and direct assistance to the individual families as needed.
• Assists in linking families with appropriate services and advocates for them as needed.
• Assists in on-going development and evaluation of the service program.
• Participates in staff meetings, in-service training and team meetings.
• Assists in the development of parent support groups. 
• Documents all services provided per program guidelines.
• Supports families and ensures that their interests and requests are represented in treatment planning and service delivery process.
• Assists families to effectively interface with community organizations, schools and county departments to better meet the needs of the family.
• Carries a caseload of up to 10-12 families. 
• Attends Child and Family Team meetings.
• Provides care or services to minors or comes into contact with minors as part of their job duties.
• Provides services relating to the administration of public funds or benefits, including eligibility for public funds or public benefits.
• Maintains availability for on-call emergency response to clients.
• Attends weekly supervision and team meetings. 
• Prepares for supervision and able to incorporate supervisor's input into service provision.
• Participates in treatment planning process to ensure that the family’s voice is heard throughout the process.
• Works effectively and cooperatively with the staff, collaborating when appropriate.
• Leads Child and Family Team meetings if needed.
• Identifies risk factors for child abuse or neglect, develops treatment plans to lower the risk to children and reports any cases of suspected child abuse or neglect as required by California child abuse reporting law.  
• Attends in-person meetings and events at various locations within the Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.
• Displays sensitivity to the service population’s cultural and socioeconomics characteristics.
• Performs work in a safe manner at all times and ensures employees are abiding by safety practices; takes action when employees put themselves or others at risk.
• Follows all policies, procedures and legal mandates including HIPAA, client confidentiality, releases of information, protected health information (PHI) and client files.
• Ensures performance and behaviors support the Agency’s performance quality improvement (PQI) goals and objectives.]
• Reports to work on time and maintains reliable and regular attendance.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

• Delivery of services required by each treatment plan for assigned cases.
• Meets productivity standards as set by the program.
• Timely completion of all charting and reports for assigned cases.
• Program goals met for majority of clientele.
• Effective communication with supervisor, DCFS, Probation, DMH and community service providers.
• Must be available to work primarily in the afternoons and evenings.  Available to provide afterhours coverage.

 POSITION REQUIREMENTS

• The Parent Partner must be the primary caregiver for a child who received services from either DCFS, Probation, and/or DMH. (For DCFS and Probation: case should be closed for at least 1 year at the time of hire).
• High school diploma or general education degree (GED).
• Embodies the following strengths and qualities that define the ideal Parent Partner:  
  • Creativity and resourcefulness 
  • Ability to connect and engage with families of diverse backgrounds
  • Clearly articulate story of own journey 
  • Non-judgmental and strengths-based 
  • Hopeful and positive while being realistic and practical
• Excellent interpersonal skills especially in the ability to negotiate and to be impartial.
• Bilingual English/Spanish required.
• Valid CA Driver’s License and maintains insurability on the Agency’s auto liability policy (including a minimum of 2 years driving experience) and maintains the California state required auto insurance liability limits.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS  

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.