Social Services Specialist II

*$2,500 Sign-on Bonus

The salary offer will not exceed the mid-point of the advertised salary range ($91,828.46).

Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement. Positions will be located at one of two locations: 1) the Gerry Hyland Building located at 8350 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA 22309 or 2) the Pennino Building located at 12011 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, VA 22035.

Join our team at the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services and help support our mission to partner with communities, families, and individuals to provide opportunities to access a continuum of resources that promote equity and create positive outcomes for people of all ages and abilities. Our vision is to see connected communities where all individuals and families are supported and empowered to thrive.

• Community member Intake & Assessment: Receives direct community member calls via an Automated Call Distribution (ACD) system and process referrals from community providers to conduct broad-based assessments of individual and family needs.
• Service Planning: Collaborates with community members and professionals to develop service action plans focused on prevention, early intervention, and self-sufficiency.
• Resource Coordination: Identifies and leverages family, community, and public sector resources to provide appropriate service linkages and referrals.
• Case Management: Provides ongoing service coordination and case management, including referrals to intensive or specialized community-based management services when necessary.
• Advocacy: Advocates for and assist community members in navigating systems to obtain necessary services.
• Collaboration: Attends multi-disciplinary meetings with other human service professionals to coordinate wrap-around services and integrated case planning.
• Systems Management: Utilizes advanced telephone technology and automated systems for case documentation, referrals, and coordination.
• Program Improvement: Identifies gaps in available services and provide recommendations for systemic changes.

(The illustrative duties listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list. A complete list of position duties and unique physical requirements can be found in the position job description.)

Conducts comprehensive clinical assessments and prepares and implements service plans;
Works with clients to develop a plan of service to meet social, health, emotional and economic needs;
With the client, formulates objectives and identifies actions to resolve the clients' problems;
Advocates for and assists families and individuals in obtaining services (e.g., mental health, intellectual disability, alcohol and drug, housing referrals, financial assistance for basic needs, home based services, training and medical services);
Works with the community to identify families, children and individuals needing social services and coordinates these services using a wrap-around approach;
Provides family counseling and conducts mediation services to families in conflict;
Performs emergency removal of children from their homes when required, places children in foster homes and residential programs, and coordinates services for them as needed;
Investigates complaints of alleged abuse or neglect, and in consultation with supervisor, makes assessment of risks posed to clients in accordance with state and local policies, and works to ensure risks are eliminated or minimized;
Provides crisis intervention on a timely basis to clients or families whose well-being are seriously and imminently threatened, to include Adult Protective Services and Child Protective Services after-hours;
Represents the agency in court proceedings and prepares testimony and testifies in Juvenile, Circuit, Criminal, Civil and Federal Courts;
Interviews and counsels natural parents, adoptive parents, foster parents and children to be placed in foster homes or residential facilities and those involved in adoption placement;
Evaluates child's readiness for placement and recommends placement ensuring compliance with legal provisions;
Conducts and documents interstate and intrastate family home studies to evaluate and make recommendations on the family's ability to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children;
Evaluates and may assist in training foster and adoptive parents;
Communicates and works with colleagues, clients and the community in a manner that supports the agency and program goals and objectives;
Participates as a contributing member on interagency, multi-disciplinary teams, community groups and professional organizations;
Collaborates and contributes to child specific teams on non-agency cases as assigned to assist in identifying community resources and services for families;
Participates, collaborates and contributes to Comprehensive Services Act activities for families on caseload;
Provides training and community education on a variety of social work topics;
Assesses and authorizes purchase of social services to qualifying clients that will help to meet their social, health, emotional and economic needs;
Conducts home visits to families for the purpose of monitoring, counseling and supervision;
Recruits, develops, trains, and monitors individual service providers;
Recruits volunteers and manages volunteer services;
Uses automated technology and hard copy files to maintain and update case data, notes, documents, records, contacts and summaries of information;
Maintains case notes, documents and records, enters and updates case load data, contacts and summaries of information;
Prepares and provides reports on casework;
Performs or reviews initial assessment of client's presenting need and conducts additional assessment as necessary to develop a coordinated service plan that establishes goals, tasks, and time frames with appropriate county and community-based service providers;
Addresses, and if necessary diffuses, initial crisis situation with clients, assesses safety issues and refers clients to emergency services as needed (e.g., mental health services, child protective services, adult protective services, women's shelter, homeless shelter);
Demonstrates expertise in community service resources to identify, classify and describe services that address a broad array of client service needs-collaborates with service delivery professionals from all disciplines to identify service resource information requirements-translates those requirements into an automated catalog of resources necessary for client referrals and the development of client service plans;
Negotiates, facilitates, and coordinates the creative use of limited community-based service alternatives and assists staff from other county human service agencies in creative use of community resources;
Consults with community-based organizations (CBO) staff on resources and service strategies that support service area work with individuals and families.

(The knowledge, skills and abilities listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list.)

Knowledge of the principles and practices of social work;
Knowledge of current social service problems and methods/approaches to address issues;
Knowledge of regulations and guidelines relating to the assigned area of social service specialization;
Ability to analyze case information and to reach sound decisions on the basis of such information;
Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing;
Ability to use automated technology to establish and maintain case records;
Ability to maintain professional ethics and confidentiality of client information;
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a variety of individuals;
Ability to schedule and manage workload sufficiently to meet deadlines.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Minimum of a bachelor's degree in a human services field OR minimum of a bachelor's degree in any field with a minimum of two years of appropriate and related experience in a human services area (Section 22VAC40-670-20 of the Administrative Code of Virginia).

In order to be evaluated for positions in the Family Services Occupational Group, individuals who do not meet the degree requirement at the time of application for employment must be in their last semester of a degree program that will meet the requirements listed above.

Contingent upon the area of assignment, some positions within this class may require specific certification(s) or experience prior to employment and/or the ability to acquire necessary certification(s) within a specified time period following employment. The certifications and preferred qualifications are identified in the position description and employment advertisement.

NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:
The appointee to this position will be required to complete a criminal background check and a Child Protective Services Registry check to the satisfaction of the employer.

• Experience with multidisciplinary human services system work and hands on experience using computer technology in the process of client service delivery.
• Experience in case management.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating or coordinating across human services agencies including local government, non-profits, and/or community-based organizations.
• Experience working in a call center environment.
• Experience managing and assessing complex cases, along with accurately documenting detailed information in a database.

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