Sr. Family Services Specialist – Child Welfare (Chesterfield – Colonial Heights)

Hiring Range: $59,452.00 to $69,855.00

Full Time or Part Time: Full Time

Additional Detail

Minimum Qualifications

We know you! You’re flexible, adaptable, and well-organized; compassionate and understanding; assertive and able to make independent decisions. You’re committed to the children who need a voice and dedicated to their safety. And you know what? You might be exactly who we’re looking for. 

Customer Experience: It’s Our Business, It’s Our Passion.

The Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services is hiring Senior Family Services Specialists – for the CPS Investigations, CPS In-Home, Family Preservation, and Permanency Services teams. Our priority is working with families to get them on track for a better life. We serve as a community resource, while protecting and assisting our community’s most vulnerable members by providing solutions to break the chain of poverty/abuse/addiction and strive to change the trajectory of a child’s life. Our Senior Family Services Specialists do a lot of things for a lot of people. We offer many ways to use your degree and advance your career, along with great benefits. Find your fit within our team!

What You Do and How You Do it:

In Child Welfare, you engage and empower families to make positive changes through assessing their needs, developing services plans, making referrals to community partners, and providing case management services. You will learn local, state, and federal regulations, and stay up to date as things change. You will maintain positive relationships while taking a trauma-informed, child and family-centered approach in service delivery. You will provide after-hours CPS on-call coverage or Permanency on-call coverage on a rotating schedule. At times, as the need arises, Senior Family Services Specialist staff are assigned to various teams within the child welfare continuum of services (foster care, adoption, family preservation, CPS). You will make home visits to assess the safety of children and the risk of abuse. You may have other assignments in other areas based on the needs of the agency.

Role Preview: 

• The CPS Investigations team responds to referrals alleging child abuse/neglect to families experiencing abuse/neglect in Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights. Strong investigative, documentation, and assessment skills work best for this role.
• The Family Preservation Team works with children and their families through Chesterfield and Colonial Heights Juvenile Court for Child in Need of Services (CHINS) petitions, significant delinquency matters, custody petitions and relief of custody petitions. On this team, you will provide case management to these families by helping to connect them to resources within the community to help stabilize the home. In this role, you will work closely with multiple community partners such as the court system, guardian Ad litems, probation officers and mental health workers. At times, this position could assist with taking CPS referrals for abuse and/or neglect. Strong assessment, case management and collaboration skills work best for this role.
• The CPS In-Home team works directly with identified families to provide case management and resources for case types that are transferred from CPS Investigations for continued monitoring for families experiencing abuse/neglect, provision of prevention services, and respond to referrals alleging child abuse/neglect in Chesterfield County and City of Colonial Heights. Strong case management and collaboration skills work best for this role.
• The Permanency Services team supports and assists children who are in the legal custody of the department and their relative caregivers in permanency planning, utilizing available resources to meet their personal, social, health, and economic needs to help them develop their own capabilities. Gathering, assessing, and analyzing information to develop service plans and written assessments for children and their families using a strengths-based, trauma-informed approach to work towards reunifying children with their parents and/or relatives are essential. Strong case management, assessment, and collaboration skills with a commitment to have long-term impacts/interactions with children and families work best for this role.

Here’s What You Need:

Bachelor’s degree in social work or a human service field. We prefer a worker with experience in public child welfare, preferably child protective services, prevention, foster care and/or adoption with the mandated Virginia CPS and/or Permanency training. Master’s degree in social work is preferred; one year of social work experience preferred; or an equivalent combination for training and experience. You will also need:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills to include the ability to interact with a diverse population
• Outstanding public speaking and presentation skills, especially for court interventions
• Strong case management and case documentation skills with attention to details
• Ability to collaborate and partner with various stakeholders for positive outcomes
• Advocate for the rights and needs of children and families
• Assertive and confident – especially when being challenged
• Independent thinker and decision maker
• Strong computer skills and adaptability to using electronic devices while in the community to document your work in various child welfare databases to include OASIS, COMPASS and e-Scribers
• Ability to deal effectively with conflict
• A real commitment to the safety of children and to Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services
• Strong time management and organization skills
• Willingness and desire to learn through training and professional development opportunities
• Good driving record

Realistic Job Preview 

We’ll be honest—this is intense. You may have contact with hostile families and children and home visits may be in less than adequate living conditions. Your emotions will range from the fear of what will happen on your very first home visit to profound sadness for severely traumatized or injured children. It’s a stressful job with critical outcomes. You must be committed to your client – the children and their families. You have the power to create positive change and have a direct impact on the lives of children and their families that lasts a lifetime. When a child sees you years later after becoming a well-adjusted adult and thanks you, you realize you may have saved a life. Being a family services specialist isn’t for everyone, but if you are committed to making a real difference in the lives of others and are looking for a career rather than a job, we want you on our team.

This position is part of an approved Career Development Plan (CDP) and offers career progression opportunities and salary incentives, as funding permits, based on performance, qualifications, and experience.

Current valid driver’s license and good driving record required. Based on the Virginia DMV point system, record must not reflect a total of six or more demerit points within the twenty-four months preceding the anticipated hire date, or one major violation of six demerit points within the preceding thirty-six months. Out of state driving records must be obtained by applicant and presented at time of interview. Records must reflect at least three years of history and be dated within thirty days of interview date. 

Pre-employment drug testing, FBI criminal background check, CPS registry check and education/degree verification required. This position is considered Critical Safety Sensitive and is subject to random drug testing and alcohol testing. The use of medical marijuana is prohibited for this position. 

Chesterfield County offers an attractive benefits package and incentives for candidates with a master’s degree in social work and Bilingual (Spanish & ASL) abilities. 

Did you know that working for a local government provides credit towards the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program 

(PSLF)?

Still Interested? 

To apply, please visit:https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/chesterfieldco/jobs/4697511/senior-family-services-specialist-child-welfare

PLEASE NOTE: Position open until filled (first review to begin October 28, 2024).

Your New Career…Making a Difference by Helping Those in Need

Shift

Monday – Friday; 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Work Location

Social Services

Chesterfield County is an Equal Opportunity Employer Committed to Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Agency

Chesterfield County

Address

Human Resources Department

9901 Lori Road / P.O. Box 40

Chesterfield, Virginia, 23832

Phone

804-748-1551 (Office)

Website

http://www.chesterfield.gov

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