Caseworker II - Prevention Specialist

Caseworker II - Prevention

Department: Human Services

Immediate Supervisor: Child & Adult Protection Program Manger

Supervises: N/A

Pay Grade: NE7- $20.63 - $28.89

Hiring Range: $20.63 - $24.76 - depending on experience

Status: Full-Time (40-hours per week)

Classification: Non-Exempt

Primary Place of Work: Gilpin County Human Services Building 15193 CO-119 Black Hawk, CO 80422

JOB DESCRIPTION: Caseworker II - Prevention

Primary Responsibility: The Prevention Caseworker position provides social casework services for a variety of program areas including child abuse and neglect cases, youth-in-conflict cases, and adults unable to protect their own interests. The goal of the prevention caseworker is to work with families in the community to increase support surrounding protective factors, decrease the risk associated with the likelihood of child abuse and neglect, and decrease the likelihood of entry or reentry in to the child welfare system, as well as to provide support to other caseworkers as needed.

Duties:

The duties listed below are representative of, but do not necessarily include, all the duties and responsibilities that an individual in this position may be called upon to perform.

• Carries a caseload of prevention cases, attempting to engage families who have child welfare concerns but do not meet criteria for formal child protection assessment.
• Coordinates and completes home visits with clients to assess individual and family needs to identify potential resources and/or services.
• Provides information on available services. Organizes services such as life skills, child care, financial assistance, physical and mental health services and legal services.
• Transports clients to services as requested.
• Prepares and maintains case records, reports and documents which comply with state and federal standards.
• Maintains and cultivates partnerships with other community-based agencies through outreach.
• Participates in regular child welfare meetings, supervision and training.
• Prepares and participates in the RED team process to direct referrals.
• Conducts or assists other caseworker to complete assessments of alleged abuse, neglect and parent conflicts, determines if situation warrants placing children outside the home, supervises placement of children in foster care and coordinates parenting time, and determines when and if to recommend that children return to the home.
• Provides or assists other caseworkers in providing intake assessments and evaluations, ongoing services and case planning to a variety of other cases including adults unable to protect their own interests, family conflicts and youth in conflict cases.
• Develops or assists other caseworkers to develop effective case plans and provides services to families regarding parenting skills, family dynamics, parent-child relationships, and conflict with the community. Assesses any new child abuse allegations and provides crisis intervention in these situations.
• Answers hotline calls for child welfare and adult protection. Receives incoming calls of a possible crisis nature. Gathers all information needed utilizing screening questions and documents in the statewide databases.
• May be required to testify in court on a variety of cases; makes recommendations to the courts on abuse and neglect cases, placement of children and guardianship of adults.

Additional Job Duties:

• Performs other appropriate duties as assigned and any duties needed to stabilize an emergency situation in the county.

Hours:

• Must be available for on-call coverage; including nights and weekends.

Ability to:

• Learn regulations, laws and procedures and develop knowledge of casework techniques and methodologies.
• Maintain effective collaborative relationships with professionals and other members of the community to develop effective treatment plans for clients and to help clients solve problems and to educate the community about protections of clients and services available.
• Recognize, investigate and analyze a variety of complex problems and to make effective recommendations for solutions.
• Willingness to work as a generalist caseworker in a small county which includes all child welfare and adult program areas and functions.
• Considerable travel is required in order to complete home visits with families, foster parents and clients in placement.
• Work with clients who may be angry, verbally abusive and hostile.
• Obtain a valid Colorado Driver’s License without any restrictions due to driving record. Must also be able to drive a county vehicle.

Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities)

• Experience and Work Ethic
• Experience in the public sector is helpful.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills.
• Creativity and ability to remain flexible in a changing environment while meeting required deadlines.
• High degree of ethics and integrity.
• Interest in ensuring County policies and procedures are adhered to regardless of personal feelings or relationship associated with individual matters.

Working knowledge of:

• Established theories, principles, and concepts of social casework practice related to the assigned program areas.
• Laws dealing with child abuse, neglect and other dependency conditions.
• Community resources, agency rules, regulations and procedures related to child and adult protection.

Education / Experience / Licensure

• Preference for Bachelor’s Degree in a Human Services Field.
• One year of full time professional social casework experience, preferably in a County Department of Human Services.
• Must successfully complete the requirements of the Colorado Child Welfare Training Academy as a condition of their continued employment with the County. Must complete annual training to maintain child welfare and adult protection certifications.

Mental/Physical Demands:

• Some work is performed in a standard office environment. Work also involves a considerable period of time away from a standard office environment, much of which consists of driving to and from home visits, collateral contacts and transporting clients; including children, families and adults.
• Work may occur in situations in which incumbent is threatened with physical harm by hostile, angry clients.
• Physical demands are described as mainly sedentary. Occasionally required to lift and carry infants and small children in the care and custody of the county, as well as the ability to carry large case files.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, talk or hear, walk and use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, or controls. The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms, stand, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, and crouch.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of requirements, duties and responsibilities. Gilpin County provides reasonable job-related accommodations for disabled persons. Must pass drug screen and pre-employment screening.

• Part-time and Temporary staff are ineligible for the following benefits; medical, dental, vision, 401A, Life Insurance, Short-term & Long-term Disability plans in additional to Long-term care. See the benefit details at the end of the job posting for part-time options.

Benefits for Full Time Employees:

Paid Holidays: Gilpin County provides 13 paid holidays per calendar year. An employee will be paid eight (8) hours per holiday.

Vacation: The first year of employment, (based on the anniversary of the hire date) full-time employees shall earn 3 hours of paid vacation leave bi-weekly. After that time, leave shall accrue as follows:

• Two through five years – four (4) hours each bi-weekly pay period.
• Six through ten years – six (6) hours each bi-weekly pay period.
• Eleven years and more – eight (8) hours each bi-weekly pay period.

Full-Time employees are encouraged to take their earned vacation leave each year. At the end of the last pay period in December, each regular full-time employee’s accrued vacation leave hours will be reduced to 208 hours and will be carried overed into the next calendar year.

Sick Leave: Full-Time employees shall accrue four (4) hours of sick leave each bi-weekly pay period. The maximum sick leave that may be accumulated by such an employee is 600 hours.

Personal Leave: Full time employees will receive 30 hours of personal leave per year. Personal time cannot be rolled over to the following year and will not be paid out. Personal time will be added to employees balance the first pay period of the new year. Employees hired throughout the year will receive personal time on a pro-rated basis, based on the quarter year that they are hired. Q1 30 hours, Q2 22.5 hours, Q3 15 hours, Q4 7.5 hours.

Medical Plans: Gilpin County offers two medical plans with Kaiser and United Health Care. Gilpin County offers a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) for all employees to cover co-pays, deductibles, and other medical expenses. Employees are eligible for benefits the first of the month following 30 days of service. This HRA card will have $3,000.00 on it for an individual or $6,000.00 for a family. Both plans have a max out of pocket for $1,000 individual or $2,000 per family after the use of the HRA card.

United Health Care cost monthly:

Employee Only Employee and Spouse Employee and Child(ren) Employee and Family

$44.90 $94.30 $83.00 $130.15

Kaiser Permanente cost monthly:

Employee Only Employee and Spouse Employee and Child(ren) Employee and Family

$40.35 $84.80 $74.70 $117.15

Dental Plan: Gilpin County offers dental coverage through Delta Dental. Individual deductible at $50 and family deductible at $150. In network and at a PPO provider coverage for preventative and diagnostic services are covered 100%, basic services covered at 80%, major services at 50%, and ortho covered at 50% with a $2,000 max. The plan offers a “Right Start 4 Kids” plan that covers children up to their 13th birthday at 100% with no deductible. Annual max out of pocket for this plan is $2,000.

Delta Dental costs monthly:

Employee Only Employee and Spouse Employee and Child(ren) Employee and Family

$0.00 $19.00 $47.00 $63.00

Vision Plan: Gilpin County offers vision coverage through VSP. In network coverage includes copays at $10, $175 per pair of either one prescription eyeglasses or contacts yearly and discounts on Lasik.

VSP Vision costs monthly:

Employee Only Employee and Spouse Employee and Child(ren) Employee and Family

$0.00 $3.60 $3.80 $6.20

Retirement: Gilpin County offers a mandatory 401(A) plan as well as optional 457b or 457 Roth plans. You are immediately 100% vested day 1 into your retirement accounts. The mandatory 401a plan requires that you contribute 5% and Gilpin County will match 5% into your retirement account. The optional 457b plans may be started, stopped, and changed anytime during your employment

Life Insurance: Gilpin County provides at no cost to you a $50,000 life insurance policy for yourself. Supplemental employee coverage in increments of $10,000 with a max of $500,000. Supplemental spouse coverage in increments of $5,000 with a max of $150,000. Supplement child(ren) policy with a benefit amount of $20,000 per child. Guarantee issue amounts of $150,000 for employee, $30,000 for spouse without having to complete evidence of insurability valid during new hire enrollment.

Short-Term Disability: Short-term disability pays 60% of your earnings with a max of $1,000 per week for up to 11 weeks. Benefits begin on day 15 and your first two weeks you will have to cover with sick or vacation time.

Long-Term Disability: Long-term disability kicks in after 90 consecutive calendar days of a qualified disability. The plan will pay 60% of your earnings with a max of $5,000 monthly.

Long Term Care: In the event that you are injured and need to be treated at a care facility, Gilpin County provides coverage at no cost to you. The plan provides up to $2,000 per month, and up to 3 years in a facility. If you would like to add supplements coverage for a greater amount per month or a longer term, supplemental coverage is available for you to purchase.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP): EAP is provided through Triad for employees and members of your household. Services are confidential and available 24/7. A wide variety of services including but not limited to: Emotion well-being support with up to 6 Counseling sessions per issue each year. Daily life assistance guidance on a variety of topics. Online resources with articles, assessments, search tools, webinars. Free 30-minute consultations on legal services and financial services. A discount center to find deals on products, services, travel and more!

Gilpin County Parks & Recreation Discount: You will receive 20% most services such as childcare, leagues, rentals, gym memberships, in house classes but does not include contract classes.

Benefits for Part Time and Temporary Employees:

Sick Leave: Leave accrues at the rate of 1 hours of sick leave per 30 hours worked to a maximum of 45 hours per year.

Retirement: As a part time or temporary employee you may participate in the optional 457b or 457 Roth plan. These plans may be started, stopped, and changed anytime during your employment.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP): EAP is provided through Triad for employees and members of your household. Services are confidential and available 24/7. A wide variety of services including but not limited to: Emotion well-being support with up to 6 Counseling sessions per issue each year. Daily life assistance guidance on a variety of topics. Online resources with articles, assessments, search tools, webinars. Free 30-minute consultations on legal services and financial services. A discount center to find deals on products, services, travel and more!

Gilpin County Parks & Recreation Discount: You will receive 20% most services such as childcare, leagues, rentals, gym memberships, in house classes but does not include contract classes.