Residential Facilitator

Residential Facilitator

The Administration for Children's Services (ACS) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of children and families through child welfare and juvenile justice services and community supports. ACS manages community-based supports and foster care services, and provides subsidized child care vouchers. ACS child protection staff respond to allegations of child maltreatment. In juvenile justice, ACS oversees detention, placement and programs for youth in the community. The Children's Center is a 24-hour shift-based operation providing services for New York City's highly vulnerable population of abused and/or neglected children who have been removed from their parents/caregivers. On average, the Children's Center serves approximately 2500 unique children entering or re-entering the foster care system as they await transition to return home, stay with kin, or placement in longer-term foster care settings. The Child and Family Specialist are responsible for the assessment, evaluation and determinations of the Level of Care (LOC) for children who are entering and/or re-entering into foster care placements. Positioned at the Nicholas Scoppetta Children's Center (NSCC), CFS provide valuable therapeutic support to children awaiting placement. CFS are integral members of one of the country's premier children's services agencies dedicated to strengthening NYC's families and their 1.8 million children. CFS provides psychosocial services to children and families using casework, clinical interventions, and community resources. The NSCC Residential Facilitator will be responsible for performing the following duties but not limited to:

• Identify, assess and recommend resources and LOC for children/youth based on the least restrictive placement setting that a child requires.
• Conduct and participate in child intake to obtain information regarding children's social, emotional, and academic strengths, medical and mental health needs, family dynamics/history which assists in the development of Care plans and crisis plans to address high risk behaviors and safety considerations.
• Facilitates conferences/meetings with children, NSCC team members, service providers, community members and other ACS staff when necessary.
• Consult with professionals from different disciplines to facilitate a multi-disciplinary team approach of care within the NSCC.
• Ensures safety, risk and permanency concerns are identified and addressed during team meetings and external conferences with service providers.
• Serve as program liaison to ACS Field Office, Family Court Legal Services (FCLS) Foster Care, Mental Health and Community Based Providers as related to placement and behavioral concerns of the child.
• Utilize a trauma informed lens to serve as the primary resource for emotional support for a child/youth.
• Orient children/youth to the NSCC program, behavior management program, and to the Child Welfare System, explaining the purpose of the NSCC, steps toward securing placement and LOC recommendations as appropriate.