Child Welfare Social Caseworker - Permanency - DHS

OVERVIEW OF MESA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES 

Mesa County Department of Human Services is a forward thinking agency that has over 300 employees serving the needs of nearly 40,000 residents. From the Colorado National Monument to the thriving agricultural lands and city centers, Mesa County contains a diverse, natural landscape that provides many outdoor activities and adventures. As individuals and an organization, we value and respect humanity, honesty, balance, inclusion and teamwork. We provide a level of flexibility for staff to be able to accommodate their lives outside of the office environment. We value family and the relationships that make our lives rewarding. 

Purpose:

Are you seeking more than a paycheck in your career? Mesa County wants to bring your attention to a position currently available in the Child Welfare Division.  This position provides you the opportunity to work for a county that thrives on working collaboratively with families and community partners for successful outcomes.   Our culture promotes professional development in an innovative and strength-based system. If you're a committed professional with proven experience and seeking a career in an honorable profession, we invite you to apply.

Description

For the first 12 months of employment, The social caseworker is a professional training level position with intensive supervision and/or coaching by the county department in which assignments are limited to fifty percent (50%) of the county’s average workload or ten (10) assessments and/or cases at any given time, whichever is less, and are planned and devised to develop and teach professional social casework techniques, basic foundations, and concepts appropriate to the assigned areas. 

 

Duties may include completing a family, safety and risk assessment, facilitate the process of gathering assessment information and jointly developing treatment plans with families and service providers. Ensuring shared decision-making, family involvement and movement of case toward resolution.  

Essential Job Functions:

(The following duty statements are illustrative of the essential functions of the job and do not include other non-essential or marginal duties that may be required.)

• Provide case management services in accordance with agency, state, and federal guidelines and laws. The caseload size will be no more than 10 cases. 
• Conduct various family, safety, and risk assessments.  
• Work collaboratively to establish and monitor treatment plans with families and service providers.
• Utilize solution focused practice to mitigate risk, enhance safety, and expedite case resolution.
• Complete comprehensive reports and extensive case documentation.
• Conduct home visits, attend community meetings, and participate in court hearings.
• Provide court testimony, as needed.
• Authorize and coordinate supportive services.
• Provide referrals to services within the community and collaborate with partner agencies.
• Work with, and advocate for, families in crisis situations and/or those impacted by trauma, substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, multi-generational poverty, child abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, etc.
• Demonstrate proficient writing skills
• Perform other related duties as assigned. 

Specialized Assessment Essential Job Functions:

• Answer the Child Protection Hotline and take thorough and complete referrals through enhanced screening techniques.
• Complete fatality, near fatality, egregious and institutional abuse assessments.
• Provide training to various audiences on how to identify and report child abuse and neglect.
• Act as a representative of Child Welfare at community interdisciplinary meetings.  

Assessment Social Caseworker Essential Job Functions:

• Conduct initial assessments regarding assigned abuse and neglect referrals
• Engage with families to maintain children safely in the home.
• Facilitate removing children from the home when safety cannot be maintained.

Permanency Social Caseworker Essential Job Functions:

• Collaborate with families, service providers, community, and courts to establish permanency for children through reunification, allocation, guardianship, or adoption.
• Monitor progress of treatment plans and identify barriers.

Family Empowerment Social Caseworker Essential Job Functions:

• Collaborate with families, service providers, and the community in non-court involved cases to mitigate risks, maintain safety of children and youth with their family and support well-being.
• Identify and address barriers to progress through intensive in-home engagement.

Adolescent Permanency Social Caseworker Essential Job Functions:

• Manage cases primarily overseen by the juvenile delinquency (JD) court system.
• Oversee youth placed in Residential Treatment facilities.

Youth in Transition Social Caseworker Essential Job Functions:

• Complete the training "engaging youth in a coach-like way" and implement these skills in all cases.
• Support youth with voluntary cases to locate housing.
• Assist youth in developing independent living skills.   

Chafee Program Coordinator Essential Job Functions:

• Assist youth in developing independent living skills.   
• Promote youth and agency participation in the Chafee program.  

Facilitator/ Family Search Essential Job Functions:

• Utilize concepts from several family engagement models, such as Family Group Conferencing, Family to Family, and Team Decision Making. 
• Conduct Permanency Roundtable (PRT) meetings for identified youth.  
• Conduct family searches to identify kinship supports and potential placement options.

Professional Development Coach Essential Job Functions:

• Develop and present group coaching sessions and trainings.
• Conduct individual coaching sessions utilizing the co-active coaching model.
• Oversee and enhance the mentorship program.
• Support staff professional development through creating and monitoring structured learning plans.  

Adoption Social Caseworker Essential Job Functions:

• Collaborate with permanency case managers to provide concurrent case planning prior to termination of parental rights (TPR).
• Manage cases after TPR has been court ordered.  
• Prepare legal and other required documents for adoption.
• Establish a child's eligibility for adoption assistance and complete assistance requirements.
• Recruit adoptive families for children.

Placement Resource Manager Essential Job Functions:

• Evaluate prospective foster, kinship, and adoptive families using standardized home studies, background investigations, home inspections, and interviews. 
• Certify and recertify foster, kinship, and adoptive families based on state requirements.
• Provide initial and ongoing training to placement resource families.  
• Ensure ongoing compliance of both certified and non-certified placement providers.   
• Participate in ongoing recruitment and retention events. 

**Transcripts for Bachelor's Degree Required.  Attach to the application to be considered.**

Education and Experience

• A bachelor’s degree from a higher education institution with coursework related to the job responsibilities of child welfare social caseworker.  Course work examples can include and are not limited to, the development of human behavior, child development, family intervention techniques, diagnostic measures, or therapeutic techniques; and
• Professional, internship, or volunteer work experience in a human services related agency.
• For Professional Development Coach, Facilitator/Diligent Search, and Family Empowerment Social Caseworker Positions: Prior Child Welfare Case Management experience preferred.
• For Adoption Social Caseworker Position: Prior Child Welfare Permanency Case Manager Experience preferred.

Physical Requirements and Working Environment:

• This position requires standing, stooping, sitting, bending, twisting, and lifting up to 50 pounds.
• Work is generally confined to a standard office environment.
• May be exposed to communicable diseases, infections, blood and bodily fluids.
• Occasional exposure of work time to hazardous situations which involve physically violent  persons, interviewing mentally or emotionally disturbed persons or bodily injury from biohazards, infections, or blood-borne pathogens.
• Includes some evening and weekend hours.
• Daily travel and periodic travel throughout and outside Colorado. 

Additional Information:

Offer of employment contingent on criminal history, MVR check and education verification. Must have valid driver's license, if you are from out of state, you must obtain a valid Colorado driver's license within 30 days of hire date, and you must not have any major violations, including DUI, DWI, and/or DWAI conviction(s) in the past three years. 

Bilingual (English/Spanish) (desired)

Promotional Opportunities

Social Case Worker Levels

• SCW I- Exempt/Salary
  • 1 yr of hire date and/or proficient to carry full workload
• SCW II- Exempt/Salary
  • 2 yrs from hire date and in good standing
• SCW III- Exempt/Salary
  • 4 years from hire date and in good standing

In compliance with the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act the following items can be used as a determining factor in the starting and ongoing wage of an employee working in this position:
 A seniority system that rewards employees based on length of employment.
A merit system that rewards employees for exceptional job performance.
Education, training, or experience to the extent that they are reasonably related to the work in question.
Another factor related to job performance or business operations, such as paying a shift differential to workers on less popular shifts
Travel, if the travel is a regular and necessary condition of the work performed

This position is eligible for the following Mesa County benefits:
- Medical
- Dental
- Vision
- Retirement
- Paid Sick and Vacation Leave
- Life insurance
- Long term disability

Salary : $26