Parent Advocate – Foster Care (Brooklyn| 35 hrs/wk | Fulltime)

At The New York Foundling, we trust in the power and potential of people, and we deliberately invest in proven practices. From bold beginnings in 1869, our New York-based nonprofit has supported hundreds of thousands of our neighbors on their own paths to stability, strength, and independence.  We help children and families navigate through and beyond foster care. We help families struggling with conflict and poverty grow strong. We help individuals with developmental disabilities live their best lives, and we help our neighbors access quality health and mental health services—core to building lifelong resilience and wellbeing. Together, our interrelated programs provide a whole-person, whole-family, and whole-life approach that unlocks solutions for a lifetime.

The Parent Advocate will support parents with children in foster care to understand and navigate the foster care system, make decisions for their families, remain hopeful, and address family challenges so that they can accomplish their goal of reunification. The focus of this job is building connections with parents and working collaboratively with case planners.

• Build relationships and support parents in coping with the trauma of foster care involvement, making decisions for their families, communicating effectively with those involved in their case, and maintaining relationships with their children during foster care placement.
• Prepare parents and participate in Case Planning Meetings, Family Team Conferences including but not limited to Transitional, 20 Day, Six Month Service Plan Review, Placement Change Conferences, Trial Discharge and Final Discharge conferences.
• Collaborate with foster care unit supervisor and work alongside case planners. Educate birth parents on the birth parent/client experience including what requirements of them are and the services they can receive
• Provide advocacy, support and referral services for Birth Parents in areas such as housing, public assistance and court preparation
• Maintain frequent contacts Birth Parents to provide ongoing support
• Participate in Birth Parent Orientation with Case planners
• Meet with families during Family Time (Family Visiting) as a support to encourage visits and to help parent’s problem solve obstacles to healthy effective time with their children.
• Support and Monitor family/sibling family time visits.
• Facilitate a Parent Support Circle for birth parents in order to address common needs
• Be trained by Rise as part of a group of parent advocates newly hired to work in foster care agencies, with a focus on healing and self-care; building knowledge of child welfare law, policy and practice; building relationships for support and mentorship with other advocates; and creating an ongoing support and advocacy network.
• Learn to use Rise’s TIPS handouts and resources to inform and support parents.
• Contribute to defining and achieving success for this effort to build effective and meaningful roles for parent advocates in foster care agencies.
• Recognize and celebrate parents’ progress toward reunification.
• Encourage parents to engage in supportive interventions that will strengthen their families.
• Help families navigate resources.
• Coach parents to strengthen problem-solving skills while discovering their strengths, hopes, dreams and priorities.
• Respond to emergencies as needed and/or directed
• Respond to Client requests for information.
• Maintain appropriate boundaries
• Perform all other related duties as assigned.

Requirements:

• High School Diploma or GED equivalent
• Previous life experience being impacted by the child welfare system as a parent including having had a child placed in foster care or having had a court-ordered supervision case. Other prior child welfare involvement such as having personally experienced child welfare investigations may also qualify. Previous child welfare cases must be closed for at least one year.
• A natural collaborator.
• Warm, enthusiastic, able to engage and positively impact individuals.
• Someone who has a sincere appreciation for people and how they are each uniquely motivated.
• Strong interpersonal skills to assist with parent engagement and are geared towards working sensitively on topics involving trauma, stress, and healing.
• Writing skills.
• Computer skills conducting Google searches and using Microsoft Office.
• Skilled at working in a fast-paced environment on multiple projects occurring simultaneously.
• Passion for parent leadership and preventing child welfare involvement.
• Able to maintain high level of confidentiality.
• Able to travel extensively to all NYC boroughs.
• Have experience holding challenging conversations and facilitating meetings
• Preferred Bilingual
• Able to uphold the mission and values of the New York Foundling

Scheduled Work Hours Per Week: 35

Schedule: Monday-Friday 9-5pm with flexibility for evenings and weekends

Salary Range: $23.53 – $27.54

The New York Foundling is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse employee population, the Foundling will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.