Family Life Specialist

Title: Family Life Specialist

Summary: The individual may be responsible for foster care, family support, visitation, and drug screening. A Family Life Specialist’s job will vary based on caseload needs and required responsibilities to complete tasks at hand.

This position would require to work one day a week out of the Beatrice Office, and the others would be driving to clients. Home office location is in York. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Complete intakes within outlined timeframe. 
• Review and submission of documentation within the outlined time frame. 
• Be available to support In-home families, be available for crisis management, and other possible phone calls 24 hours per day. 
• Develop and implement corrective action plans to address skill areas needing further development to assist families in meeting their goals set forth by the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services.
• Guide and teach parents in addressing behavioral or other identified areas of improvement within the home. 
• Advocate for the family ensuring all physical and emotional needs are met.
• Support the family while assisting them to meet their needs with compassion. 
• Provide supervision, when required, to ensure safety for visits between child(ren) and his/her biological parents. 
• Provide transportation for children to and from visitation. 
• Assist families in locating community resources to assist their family needs.
• Participate in monthly team meetings as requested by the caseworker.
• Facilitate communication of pertinent information between NDHHS, Probation, and other service providers. 
• Participate in weekly staffing meetings.
• Seek guidance, as necessary in handling difficult client situations and establishing priorities for day to day workloads. 
• Attend classes, seminars, and other training opportunities that will foster individual development and professional growth. 
• Provide drug screenings appropriately and send to the lab if necessary. Drug screenings include oral, urine, sweat patch, and breathalyzer.

Position Qualifications:

• Must have a Bachelor’s Degree in human services, such as, but not limited to, a Degree in Social Work, Psychology, Sociology, and Early Childhood Development, or a related field. The Family Life Specialist may also be enrolled in college and be within two semesters of completing a Bachelor’s Degree in human services or a related field. A person who is on semester, summer, or other break, but was enrolled the previous semester and will be enrolled after the break, shall be considered to be enrolled in college.
• Must also possess strong relationship skills, organizational, and communication skills and have the ability to work with both internal and external teams and community partners.
• He/she must be at least 21 years old.
• Have the ability to work independently.
• He/she must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and possess a strong commitment to family centered practice.
• Have the ability to utilize Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook and be able to meet documentation guidelines.
• must possess a valid driver’s license with no more than three points assessed within the last two years, and have no major traffic violations within the last five years.
• Must have reliable transportation to transport clients to and from visits.