What are the responsibilities and job description for the Social Worker II- Neutral Facilitator position at Buncombe County?
Primary Purpose:
This position shares both Neutral Facilitation and Resiliency Coordination support services for families and staff. As a Neutral Facilitator, the role supports Child and Family Team (CFT) meetings by holding structured, guided discussions with the family, their natural supports, and other team members about family strengths, needs, and problems and the impact they have on the safety, permanence, and well-being of the family’s child(ren) and youth. Resiliency Coordination supports the Organizational Care Model across the agency with a primary focus on social workers and supervisors.
Minimum Education, Training and/or Experience (required at time of hire): Bachelor's degree in social work (BSW) from an appropriately accredited institution; bachelor's degree in a human services field from an appropriately accredited institution and one (1) year of directly related experience; or bachelor's degree from an appropriately accredited institution and two (2) years of directly related experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Essential Functions of the position:
- Assess clients for any medical, educational, social, and placement needs as well as other services for eligible clients, link clients with Agency and community resources.
- Engage in case planning activities with the case assigned social worker.
- Complete required documentation in regard to cases.
- Attend and/or facilitate meetings for families being served as needed to maintain open communication between the family, assigned social worker, and other community supports/systems involved with the family unit.
- Provide training, individual and group support, and partnerships with community programs to meet tangible resource needs.
- Evaluate available information to determine the appropriateness for intervention and level of services required.
- Research information to assess risk, determine service needs, and establish case history and eligibility.
- Identify, explore, and utilize community resources for the purpose of coordinating unmet client needs.
- Maintain current knowledge of resources available from public and private agencies to assist clients with problems and work closely to facilitate connection to such services.
- Report any concerns of abuse or neglect to the supervisor immediately.
- Gather information for the purpose of documenting unmet needs and advocate to address unmet service needs.
- Demonstrate a commitment to culturally competent practice.
- Provide mandated Child Protective Services alongside the case carrying Social Worker.
- Transport families to needed appointments.
- Link Temporary Safety Providers with support services.
- Attending Child and Family Team meetings.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
- CFTs are facilitated onsite at Health and Human Services, offsite in family’s homes and community settings, and virtually providing preparation, facilitation, and the documentation for all Child and Family Team meetings for which referrals are received from Child Welfare Social Workers.
- Implement Resiliency Coordination services which include: one – on – one peer support, facilitate peer conversations related to secondary trauma and resiliency, facilitate Critical Incident Stress Debriefings, and other programming supporting the organizational care of Social Workers and agency staff.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
- Knowledge and thorough understanding of System of Care protocol and operations.
- Knowledge of basic community systems including mental health, adult and juvenile justice, health, substance abuse, domestic violence, housing, education, and other applicable areas to facilitate understanding of roles of team members and building trust.
- Knowledge and understanding of child welfare practices and service delivery; to specifically include Child and Family Team Policy
- Ability to: Work in a team setting; be aware of individual and group dynamics; assist colleagues to work together more effectively; facilitate interpersonal communication, collaborative problem solving and planning, consensus building, and conflict resolution; assist a group in thinking deeply about its assumptions, beliefs, and values and about its systemic process and context.
- Ability to apply skills that strengthen trust among all team members and model the utilization of strengths to elicit parent and child engagement, ideas, and solutions.
- Ability to identify and address any unsafe or inappropriate behaviors of the parent, child, or other person present at the facilitated meeting immediately and redirecting when possible.
- Ability to understand what the job entails daily for employees, the impact their work has on their wellbeing and safety, and the impact of secondary stress and trauma.
- Ability to empathize with staff, hold space and confidentiality, and offer support by listening and/or problem solving. Possess group facilitation skills for peer support groups for staff.
- Ability to understanding the complexities of stress, trauma, secondary trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout, and to provide support, skills, and tools for staff to prevent and recover from them.
- Ability to advocate agency wide for a system of care for all staff
In order to uphold internal pay parity and equity, salaries are non-negotiable for new and current Buncombe County employees. All new employees are paid according to their years of relevant education and experience above minimum requirements for the position and employees have the opportunity to obtain pay increases via cost of living increases and promotions.
Buncombe County Government realizes the importance of a diverse professional workforce and the need to foster a responsive and innovative organizational culture, one that fully engages all of our employees, honoring and building on each employee's unique experiences, opinions, and perspective.
It is the policy of Buncombe County to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, age, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other legally protected class under federal or NC State law. In addition, Buncombe County expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment or discrimination.
Applicants for employment are invited to participate in the affirmative action program by reporting their status as a protected veteran or other minority. In extending this invitation, we advise you that: (a) workers (applicants) are under no obligation to respond but may do so in the future if they choose; (b) responses will remain confidential within the human resource department; and (c) responses will be used only for the necessary information to include in our affirmative action program. We are a company that values diversity. We actively encourage women, minorities, veterans and disabled employees to apply. Refusal to provide this information will have no bearing on your application and will not subject you to any adverse treatment.
Salary : $26 - $36
