Youth Pathways Coordinated Care Advocate

REPORTS TO: Youth Pathways Wraparound Services Manager

FLSA STATUS: Non-Exempt, Full-Time (40 Hours)

JOINT INITIATIVES FOR YOUTH FAMILIES (JI) – An Equal Opportunity Employer

Joint Initiatives for Youth Families (JI) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, serving the Pikes Peak region. JI’s work centers on empowering individuals to advance a safe, healthy, and flourishing community by preventing, reducing, intervening, and solving the social problems when families have limited (or fragmented) access to thrive. JI leads the charge to bring over 60 different community organizations, local leaders, and government agencies to the table, working collaboratively to solve data-driven community issues embraced with an equity lens and collective impact focus.

JI’s three primary programs offer a range of services for youth (birth-21) and their families, extending from a preventive focus to more intensive intervention services.

JI is the umbrella organization for three statutorily required state councils: the Early Childhood Council (Alliance for Kids), the Interagency Oversight Group (IOG), and the Juvenile Services and Planning Committee (JSPC). The IOG and JSPC have joined to become the REACH Committee.

YOUTH PATHWAYS PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Youth Pathways commenced in 2017 with a focus on providing delinquent, truant, or municipal court-involved youth with a team of professionals assembled and designed to support the unique needs of the identified youth and their family. This multi-agency team approach creates customized plans to ensure each young person’s success. JI has Memorandums of Understanding or MOUs with over 20 partnering organizations selected to participate on the teams that share their expertise and organizational resources. JI supplements these plans with a variety of family supports and flexible funding streams. Additionally, Joint Initiatives is opening a Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) and short-term youth shelter to enhance local access to assessment and coordinated wraparound services.

SUMMARY OF POSITION

Provides care coordination services for children, youth, or families that have been referred to JI’s Pathways program. Administers assessment tool(s) to determine a youth’s internal and external assets, development needs, and/or risks. Facilitates Individual Service Support Team (ISST) meetings when determined appropriate. Proactively assists clients with the implementation of their unique ISST and/or care plans as a means of ensuring that needs are met, and quality care is provided through case closure. Identifies, overcomes, and reports care barriers to the Pathways team to support system change efforts and to address equity issues regarding client access and care.

RESPONSIBILITIES DUTIES

• Provides ongoing care coordination for a caseload of approximately 20 children, youth and/or families.
• Conducts care follow-up with cases to determine service engagement, to assist with overcoming barriers, to support navigation of resources, to gauge overall experience, and to ensure completion of case.
• Keeps quality care files and ensures the confidentiality of all client records.
• Enters service delivery into appropriate state and/or JI databases (e.g., Colorado Youth Services Network (CYSN), Colorado Trails, Microsoft Access, or Excel).
• Participates in community collaborative and prevention efforts as they relate to the population tasked with serving.
• Performs intake assessment, on a rotating schedule, to determine the needs of youth accessing the JAC, and their families.
• Facilitates ISST meetings to ensure multi-system coordination planning and follow through, including preparation and submission of written plan and related documentation to all team members and the courts if necessary.
• Supports elevation of a case/issue for complex decision-making/problem-solving and allocation of resources.
• Cultivates and maintains strong working relationships with all system professionals and community partners.
• Works cooperatively with other agencies and individuals involved with client youth to ensure that they receive comprehensive service delivery as determined in the team meetings.
• Represents JI at community meetings relating to youth and family services as requested.
• Participates in cross-training and fills in when needed to support JAC operations, including Shelter operations.
• Delivers programs and services in a manner that is respectful and sensitive to the family and child’s cultural experience.
• Utilizes trauma-informed best practices with youth/families and interacts with them in a supportive manner.
• Treats youth and families with respect, dignity, and empathy.
• Maintains productive and continuous lines of communication, informing and collaborating both internally and externally.
• Engages in cross-training and fulfills JAC-related responsibilities when needed.
• Maintains confidentiality and family-related information and data.
• Supports the Youth Pathways Wraparound Services Manager and/or additional team members with program implementation, data reporting, and care delivery.
• Displays a positive attitude, works well with others, and accepts direction well.
• Works well under stressful and emotionally taxing circumstances and engages in effective self-care.
• Embraces the importance of racial equity, supports JI’s strategies and culture to support equity in court systems, and implements JI’s Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP) as requested.
• Commits to JI’s organizational mission, vision, and operating philosophies in compliance with instructions, policies, and guidance.
• Represents the program and agency in a professional manner within JI policy, with internal and external stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels.
• Works effectively with those representing a variety of needs and abilities, with varying socioeconomic, cultural, and racial backgrounds.
• Recognizes that we hold attitudes and beliefs that can detrimentally influence our perceptions of and interactions with individuals who are diverse from ourselves.
• Works productively with JI’s management team to pursue policy changes and recommendations driven by data and Collective Impact discussions.
• Assumes other tasks and projects as assigned.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ABILITIES

• Works with diverse individuals and agencies.
• Promotes consensus among diverse opinions.
• Balances multiple priorities, various goals, and needs.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to empathize, listen, encourage, and guide.

EDUCATION EXPERIENCE

A minimum of a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college is required; one year of related experience and/or training; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

SALARY RANGE

$23-$25 per hour, with an additional 15.35% benefits stipend to provide for health insurance and savings plans.

COMPUTER SKILLS

To perform this job successfully, an individual should be adept at all Microsoft Office applications (e.g., Outlook, Word, Excel, One Note, Teams) as well as internet tools (e.g., Google Chrome, Zoom). Basic knowledge or use of database software is desirable.

LANGUAGE MATH REASONING ABILITY

• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, providers, and the general public.
• Ability to engage clients in an authentic, friendly, and approachable manner.
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.

CERTIFICATES LICENSES

Current, valid Colorado driver’s license, and proof of auto insurance.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Remote working may be necessary; travel is primarily within the Pikes Peak region, with occasional travel to surrounding areas in Colorado. For positions that do not have a dedicated JI office, work will be conducted at home, in JI’s open office space, and/or within the community. Staff working at the youth shelter will be required to work indoors as well as outside. A laptop computer and cell phone will be provided for every employee regardless of office space designation.

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 accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds intermittently.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision.
• While performing duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear.
• The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
• The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $23.00 - $25.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Employee assistance program

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift
• Day shift

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

License/Certification:

• Driver's License (Required)

Ability to Commute:

• Colorado Springs, CO 80909 (Required)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $23 - $25