Foster Care Home Study Assessor - FT

Encourage Foster Care is seeking a Home Study Assessor to facilitate licensing requirements for Encourage families, including home studies, half-ways, fast-track families, and re-certifications. Facilitates approval of alternative caregivers for foster care homes. Assists with adoptions in the department.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES: It is the responsibility of each employee to be a consistent witness for Jesus Christ and to adhere to the Standard of Moral Conduct and Statement of Faith. Further, each employee is responsible for dealing with others with a Christ-like attitude while helping them experience their worth in Christ, and for demonstrating behaviors reflecting CCHO's core values of Relentless Commitment, Selflessness, and Kindness.

Job-specific essential functions include the following:

• TEAM FIRST: Makes every effort to maintain a 'team first' spirit and atmosphere within the workplace environment, maintaining appropriate working relationships and promoting collaboration.
• Facilitates new home studies and any additional licensing needs on assigned caseload and completion of documentation in SACWIS/Extended Reach (sending out 1331, recertifications, amendments, approving alternative caregivers, rules investigations, tracking training needs).
• Follows the home study procedure to license foster family within 3-4 months:
• Initiation will be within 1 week of being assigned to assessor.
• Visits: 1st visit within 2 weeks- remind family to have FBI/BCI completed for next visit; 2nd visit within 30 days of 1st visit. 3rd visit within 30 days of 2nd visit.
• Within 24 hours of being licensed, assessor emails the team to introduce family, attaches license on Extended Reach, and moves the family to the open bed list on Extended Reach.
• Within 1 week of being licensed, assessor sends family's information to Cuyahoga County for approval.
• Facilitates the fast-track process: Completes two interviews before foster family completes Pre-Service training. Completes one interview following the completion of training classes. License foster family within 30 days of finishing training. Timeline under discretion of Director depending on the foster family's situation.
• Attends and participates in Encourage Team meetings and Quality Improvement activities.

Other duties may be assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: None.

REQUIRED SKILLS & ABILITIES:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, especially with foster families, general public, supervisor, and teammates. Ability to effectively respond to questions via telephone and/or email. Ability to effectively present information/respond to questions from agencies, families, clients, donors, and the general public.
• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations. Ability to write professional quality reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
• Ability to work independently (as directed), multitask, and prioritize and carry out assignments.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. Ability to apply common sense.
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret a variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with abstract and concrete variables.
• Competency with a personal computer, and Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel. Ability to use and/or learn SACWIS, Extended Reach, etc.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, CERTIFICATIONS/LICENSES:

• Bachelor's degree in accredited social work program with active Ohio LSW required OR no less than current/prior two years of experience as an Assessor with a public children services agency.
• Level I Assessor Certification required and must be actively maintained in the state of Ohio.
• Valid Ohio Driver's License and a driving record that allows that individual to be insurable on agency policy, as job includes regular travel.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Ability to sit, often for long periods at the time; use hands to finger, handle, or feel vehicle controls; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus to drive car and use a computer.
• Regularly required to answer telephones and speak clearly and hear clients and the general public.
• Occasionally able to lift/move up to 50 pounds, crouch, stoop, and bend.
• Must be able to legally drive a passenger vehicle in the state of Ohio. Must be able to drive long distances at all hours and conditions, including, but not limited to driving in darkness.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to outside weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. 

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

All Agency staff are expected to focus on Quality improvement as a part of their job responsibilities, in an effort to make the Agency a safe and healing environment for clients and staff. This expectation includes, but is not limited to: teamwork, improving service delivery, fulfilling department goals, and other job-specific tasks that encourage excellence.

This position is contingent upon the satisfactory completion of all of the following: background checks (fingerprints required), drug test, reference checks, Department of Justice National sex offender search, Ohio (and other states of residence) Alleged Perpetrator Search, as well as other checks as required by our licensing agency.

Candidates for most jobs must be 21 or older to apply. References, background checks, and drug screenings will be completed on all potential candidates. Direct care positions will require a pre-employment physical, as required by our licensing agency. Must be able to commute reliably for all on-site positions. Some roles require a valid Ohio driver's license and an insurable driving record. EOE.