Bilingual Youth Counselor / Gang Prevention Specialist - Spanish required

Working at Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) means doing work that matters every day because of the difference you will make in the lives of children and families in Northern Virginia. NVFS’ breadth, depth and scope of services offer the resources and support to ensure that everyone in need, at every stage of life, maximizes their potential and fully contributes to a thriving community. At NVFS, we value the diversity of backgrounds, experience, perspectives, and skillsets that we collectively provide to our community, clients and coworkers. We celebrate and thrive on our differences and welcome everyone’s unique contributions.

Join the NVFS Family : We are looking to hire a Bilingual Youth Counselor to join the NVFS Youth Initiatives team! As a Youth Counselor in the Intervention, Prevention and Education (IPE) Program, you will work with referred youths’ parents or guardians to increase effective communication and appropriate limit-setting, provide education about the signs of gang involvement or other negative behaviors, and provide information about the ways in which families can support their children so that they are less vulnerable to gang involvement and other unhealthy relationships. You will also provide referrals for any needed services, ensuring that families are connected to a supportive network and formal and informal resources in their community.

As an IPE Youth Counselor, you will provide short-term, therapeutic case management services and services to address their unique gang-intervention (for example safety planning on how to leave a gang safely, or refusal and resistance skills training to resist recruitment efforts). In this position you will be working in person with clients in home, community, and school settings with some remote work.

Your Future Team : The Youth Initiatives Programs of NVFS utilize a highly effective, trauma-informed, culturally relevant service model to provide multi-modal “neighborhood based-school connected” services designed to ensure that at-risk youth and families are able to thrive in their chosen communities; succeed academically and socially; and that the communities themselves are equipped to prevent future community and family violence.

The IPE (Intervention, Prevention and Education) Program of NVFS is an asset development intervention designed to increase the protective factors that ensure that gang involved youth, and youth at risk for gang involvement, have increased abilities to resist the destructiveness of gang involvement. The program strives to ensure that parents of at-risk youth and community members are able to provide the support and structure needed to keep these vulnerable youth safe from the negative influence of gangs. IPE serves youth ages 10-21 and their families.

Benefits and Compensation : We want you to be well, have work / life flexibility, grow your career with us, and have the resources and support you need. Check out our comprehensive benefit offerings here in support of various dimensions of your wellbeing. Salary ranges from low to mid 50s.

In this role, you will :

• Conduct intake for all referred clients for clients in Prince William or Fairfax.
• Provide short-term intensive case management services to assigned case load, in accordance with IPE Service Delivery Model, including assessment, goal plan development, and referral. This includes referring all clients with trauma-recovery related mental health needs to the VPIP / FRP Mental Health Counselor where available.
• Provide life skills education and intervention in accordance with clients’ goal plan and resource needs.
• Provide gang awareness education to IPE referred youth and their parents.
• Participate actively in team meetings and collaborative service delivery models with other team members to effectively address community, family, and individual violence prevention and intervention needs in assigned neighborhood.
• Initiate and maintain collaborative contact with other agencies working with the youth and their family, including the referral source, and appropriate school personnel in order to effectively coordinate service delivery and monitor clients’ progress towards goals.
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with other community services providing services for youth and families.
• Develop and implement plans to educate and increase gang awareness in the community, which may include providing workshops and groups in schools and community-based settings as needed.
• Assure confidentiality policies and procedures are followed to protect the rights of clients, that reports to authorities occur in the mandated time frames and that critical incident reviews related to these procedures are completed and filed.
• Participate effectively and positively in required Program and Agency meetings and trainings.

Your Background : We understand that you may obtain skills through a variety of professional, personal, educational, and volunteer experiences.

Associate’s degree with at least four (4) years of related work experience preferred.

Additional Requirements :

NVFS is committed to advancing equity, embracing diversity, and promoting inclusion and is an equal opportunity employer. NVFS is an E-Verify participant and drug-free workplace.

NVFS values diversity in our workforce. We strongly encourage all interested individuals to apply, including people of color, all genders and gender identities, people of all abilities, LGBTQ individuals, other members of marginalized communities, veterans and national service alumni.