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Parent Partner

T

The Village Family Services

Parent Partner

Los Angeles, CA
Full Time
Paid
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  • Responsibilities

    Job Description

    POSITION DESCRIPTION: PARENT PARTNER will provide active, hands-on peer support to parents/caregivers of youth receiving services. Effective peer support should be friendly, helpful, accessible and flexible. Peer support may be delivered in individual or group settings at the agency, in family homes or in community environments. The role of the Parent Partner is to provide peer support but also to work collaboratively to support systems change by increasing family involvement and decreasing unintentional, bias about parents.

    REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS:

    • Must provide evidence of full COVID-19 Vaccination
    • Bachelor’s Degree and 1 + yr. of experience OR
    • AA Degree and 2 + yrs. of experience working with children or families with complex needs.
    • Bilingual English/Spanish Required
    • Registered and Insured automobile
    • Valid CA Driver’s License.
    • Must be the biological, adoptive, kin parent, or non-related family member of a youth with emotional or behavioral challenges or has had systems experience with their child in a child serving system (i.e. mental health, child welfare, probation and special education).
    • Must have direct experiences with child serving systems (i.e. mental health, child welfare, probation and special education).
    • It is optimal for the Parent Partner to have experienced the level of care with their youth equivalent to program assignment.
    • Must have life experience as the parent of a youth with emotional or behavioral challenges. Education in the area of social services is optimal but not necessary
    • Demonstrates an ability to maintain a non-judgmental attitude towards families.

    DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

    ALL OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES LISTED BELOW ARE CONSIDERED ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF THIS POSITION. ADDITIONALLY, THIS POSITION IS EXPECTED TO ENSURE THAT THE CORE OPERATING VALUES AND THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF THE AGENCY ARE ADHERED TO.

    I. ENGAGEMENT PHASE CORE SKILLS

    • Decide collaboratively with the facilitator details about the initial engagement meeting with the family
    • Introduce yourself as a peer who is the parent of a child with emotional or behavioral challenges and explain the role of the Parent Partner.
    • Encourage the family to share their own story including their culture, beliefs, and situation.
    • Consider the family’s story to identify family strengths, possible team members, and what parts of the Parent Partner’s story would be helpful for the family to hear.
    • Effectively share your own story in a way which builds connection, confidence, and hope for the family relevant to the family’s culture, beliefs and situation.
    • Participate collaboratively in identifying potential team members and what might motivate them to participate in the team process.
    • Explore the parent’s situation regarding the need for rest, relief, and safety and work collaboratively with the facilitator to develop and support stabilization.
    • Work collaboratively with the family and facilitator to determine potential team members, both formal and informal, and decide who will invite them.
    • Decide with facilitator who will contact potential team members to hear their perspectives on family strengths and needs.
    • Secure agreement with family about the attendance of team members at the first child and family team meeting.

    II. PLANNING PHASE CORE SKILLS

    • Explain the parent’s perspective, culture, and beliefs in a way that increases understanding by others while decreasing differences and highlighting similarities.
    • Check with team members to ensure they understand the parent’s perspective and reassure others that having differences is acceptable.
    • Periodically facilitating the Wraparound process, as appropriate, including presenting and explaining the list of strengths prepared prior to the meeting and asking the team to identify additional strengths during the meeting.
    • Assess the level of support that is needed by the parent based on the families support network, their ability to involve their support network, and the ability of the parent to be heard by others.
    • Meet with the family regularly and consistently in order to encourage and support an understanding of their vision for the future.
    • Work with the parent to develop plans/strategies of how the Parent Partner can support the parent during meetings to ensure the parent’s culture, beliefs, experience, voice and choice are heard by the team and are incorporated into the Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care.
    • Share information with other wraparound team members about the parent’s perspective, culture, and beliefs including how the parent experiences being heard by the team.
    • Participate with the facilitator and the family in planning and developing a family team meeting agenda that includes timelines.
    • Assist the team in recognizing and acknowledging the family’s lived experience, culture, and beliefs to build agreement for a common team vision statement.
    • Assist the team to reach agreement about underlying unmet needs that may be driving the situation in the family. Clarify unmet needs versus service provision.
    • Actively participate as needed, by speaking up and through actions, to support the family’s perspective during the family team meeting.
    • Assist the team during brainstorming with identifying additional needs and strengths.
    • Participate with the team in brainstorming a wide range of interventions to prioritize needs, reminding team members of potential family strengths that will match interventions.
    • Volunteer for tasks if the Parent Partner’s strengths match the intervention and encourage all team members to do the same. Document the action into the written Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care.
    • Actively participate with the family and other team members in the development of the initial Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care.
    • Assist the team in making sure that the family’s culture, beliefs, voice and choice is reflected in the final Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care.

    III. IMPLEMENTATION PHASE CORE SKILLS

    • Provide individualized, peer to peer support to parents.
    • Attend and participate in all Child and Family Team meetings.
    • Develop plans/strategies with family to ensure their concerns are heard and understood.
    • Communicate on a regular basis with families, according to their identified needs.
    • Support, respond, and/or implement proactive responses to families in crisis, both during and after business hours as designated in the safety/crisis plan.
    • Connect the family with identified community resources. Assist in introducing and engaging the family with the community resource, ensuring they can access the service after transition.
    • Provide direct interventions as specified in the Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care.
    • Maintain direct communication with the parent between team meetings on the effectiveness of the interventions.
    • Develop communication strategies with the family to ensure their perspective is being heard.
    • Communicate information about the effectiveness of the interventions/process related to the Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care with the facilitator for inclusion on team meeting agendas.
    • Work with parents and other team members to continue to identify unmet needs that the team has agreed to address.
    • Recognize, celebrate and document team strengths and successes collaboratively with the team.

    IV. TRANSITION PHASE CORE SKILLS

    • Help introduce the transition phase of Wraparound and the completion of the Wraparound process to the family and team members.
    • Discuss the transition planning phase with the family related to their culture and beliefs, their mission statement and their identified needs.
    • Practice implementation and rehearse crisis responses with the family as identified in the Child and Family Team Plan or Plan of Care.
    • Continue to assist the family in accessing needed resources/supports utilizing the family’s culture and beliefs and each team member’s individual strengths ensuring that the family is engaged with new resources.
    • Assist the facilitator in preparing the transition phase of the Wraparound process by ensuring the family’s culture; beliefs, voice and choice are evident in the process.
    • Celebrate the family accomplishments with a Transition/Family Achievement Portfolio and event that highlights their progress always considering the family’s culture.

    Job Type: Full-time

    COVID-19 considerations: All applicants must provide evidence of full COVID-19 Vaccination.

    Company Description

    The Village Family Services is Southern California's leading bilingual family wellness agency providing a comprehensive range of services to achieve permanency and safety for neglected and abused children and youth. Our approach centers on family wellness amid client-centered, strength-focused, trauma-informed, evidence-based and culturally competent care delivered by a compassionate, bilingual staff. The Village Family Services envisions a day where all children and youth are free of social, emotional, verbal and physical harm.