Family Support Specialist for Early Childhood

Description:

SCO Family of Services:
FirstStepNYC Early Childhood Center

FirstStepNYC at P.S/I.S. 41 is a high quality, state of the art birth-5 early childhood center collocated at P.S./I.S.41, a K-8 elementary school in one of the most at-risk neighborhoods - Brownsville, Brooklyn. The model affords an exceptional opportunity to change the life paths of New York City’s most vulnerable, at-risk children and tackle the achievement gap before it begins.  This unique public-private partnership brings together the NYC Department of Education (DOE), NYC Administration for Children Services (ACS), SCO Family of Services, and a wide range of local organizations.  FirstStepNYC, a demonstration project with an emphasis on both early childhood and adult leadership development, will advance citywide efforts to ensure all children enter kindergarten on a path to be college and career ready by the time they graduate our schools. 

Responsibilities:

The Family Support Specialist will work on a team led by the Director of Family of Support (LMSW) to provide needs assessments and goal setting with the families of children enrolled in the birth-five early childhood center. The Family Support Specialist will help to create opportunities for family engagement, family programming, and services to support the healthy development of the family unit. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Use the Powerful Interactions Approach to build relationships with children, families, and staff at FirstStepNYC
• Manage eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance meeting the needs of income-eligible families and in response to community assessment.
• Ensure program maintains funded enrollment level and waiting list, fill vacancies as needed at the individual sites and analyze enrollment data to inform the planning process
• Develop and maintain a system through which eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance is managed.
• Collaborate with classroom teachers to facilitate children's transitions and progress in the classroom
• Provide classroom support to teachers in infant/toddler, preschool and pre-k classrooms. 
• Develop and maintain meaningful, productive relationships with families
• Assess strengths and needs of the program’s families utilizing the Family Strength Assessment
• Refer and link children and parents to needed services including health and social services, disabilities, early childhood education and care services, and a range of parent development training opportunities
• Assist parents with understanding and implementing the Family Partnership Agreement in order to encourage and promote their overall development including achievement of self-sufficiency as well as positive developmental outcomes for their children
• Assist in planning parent activities, encourage parent participation in program activities and obtain feedback from parents regarding the level of satisfaction with the services they receive
• Promote and maintain parent involvement in program governance, activities, and services
• In collaboration with Director of Family Support, facilitate parent committee meetings
• Attend family support team meetings, staff meetings, staff trainings, collaborations and planning meetings
• Collaborates with Master Teachers to meet the needs of children and families from both a family support and school readiness perspective
• Assist program leadership in implementation of all program requirements in adherence to performance outcome standards as prescribed by the multiple funding model requirements—includes attendance of recruitment activities, maintaining the wait list, implementing ERSEA policies, attending necessary trainings, using ChildPlus for ongoing monitoring reporting and maintaining child/family files.
• Develop relationships with other community-based service providers that provide needed services to families
• Enter service data into the management information system
• Reports to the Director of Family Support
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications: