Treatment Foster Care Worker - Full-time

At Children’s Wisconsin, we believe kids deserve the best.

Every child deserves a safe and loving home. When parents are unable to provide this on their own, intervention is needed to ensure these children are free of abuse and neglect.

We provide child well-being services to help children live in a safe and nurturing environment. We provide services to parents needing education and guidance to improve their parenting skills so their children can remain with them. We also provide services to children who are placed with foster families until they can return home or become part of an adoptive family.

Our experienced professionals provide the following services to families in Milwaukee County and at locations throughout Wisconsin.

• Foster Care
• Treatment Foster Care
• Adoption
• Respite Care
• Child Advocacy Centers
• Family Case Management
• Family Finding

We offer a wide variety of rewarding career opportunities and are seeking individuals dedicated to helping us achieve our vision of the healthiest kids in the country. If you want to work for an organization that makes a difference for children and families, and encourages you to be at your best every day, please apply today.

Please follow this link for a closer look at what it’s like to work at Children’s Wisconsin:

Essential Functions

• Provides service in a manner that demonstrates awareness and sensitivity the client’s cultural values and beliefs.
• Facilitates and works as part of a team and coordinates team membership and involvement.
• Maintains positive working relationships with referral source and community organizations to best serve the needs of the clients.
• Provides face-to-face contact with children minimally every other week.
• Intervenes in a therapeutic manner with TFC children and families.
• Develops treatment plans with appropriate goal setting, and measures outlined goals on a quarterly basis.
• Encourages and supports client participation to develop competence and confidence.
• Provides necessary support and services to the foster families, while maintaining open communication with the birth parents as the process progresses.
• Must be able to handle multiple responsibilities with varying deadlines, and be flexible to accept other responsibilities as assigned and as the position caseload demands.
• Completes required paperwork/documentation.

OTHER FUNCTIONS AS REQUIRED BY REGION

• Dependent on region, the role of this position could be multi-facetted to include all or some of the following: foster home licensing responsibilities, retention of foster homes, foster parent education, coordination of placement of children into foster homes, and community involvement with the ability to secure new foster homes. The placement coordinator role matches the needs of children awaiting placement with families who are best suited to meet each child’s unique needs. Placement coordination ensures timely and well-coordinated foster placements and the best use of placement resources. Serves as an outreach liaison to surrounding counties/referral sources to develop relationships, share information about placement resources, and facilitate placement referrals. Efficient, consistent communication and partnership with referral sources is an important element to the placement coordination role.
• Recruits, trains and licenses foster homes in a timely manner.
• Engages potential foster parents in the foster home licensing and education process.
• Completes assessment of potential foster families as part of licensing home study process.
• Completes background checks on foster home applicants.
• Coordinates marketing efforts with Foster Home Recruiter.
• Schedules and coordinates foster parent education sessions, either by presenting on topics or coordinating outside trainers/speakers to teach on topic areas related to Treatment Foster Care. Obtains supervisor’s approval for speaker fee prior to formalizing the training date.
• As needed, provides one to one education to foster parents at the foster parent’s home or at the agency.
• Develops specific education plans for families who are out of compliance with education requirements.
• Develops education plans with foster parents which are reflective of the type of treatment issues of children the foster family identifies an interest in caring for.
• Functions as part of treatment teams as needed to help support, educate and train foster parents on child-specific issues. This support could occur during the pre-placement process to help prepare foster parents for a placement as well as on an ongoing basis post-placement to assist the child/family with transition issues and ongoing care needs.
• Prepares communication materials – internal, community and client relations in coordination with Foster Home Recruiter.
• Accepts and assesses referrals for TFC placement. Matches children into available treatment foster homes and completes all requirements of the intake and placement process.
• Coordinates pre-placement activities and placement of children.
• Coordinates placement plans with foster parents and team members to ensure smooth and timely TFC placement.
• Communicates effectively, timely and consistently with multiple referral sources.

Education

• Master's Degree in Social Work or related field preferred or
• Bachelor's Degree in Social Work or related field required

Experience

• 2+ years post degree experience required
• Child welfare experience preferred
• Experience working with families of diverse ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds strongly preferred

Licenses and Certifications

• License Driver's License - State of Wisconsin required

Schedule

• First Shift with flexible hours
• Hybrid/Remote

Children's Wisconsin is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment for all employees. We treat everyone with dignity, respect, and fairness. We do not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status or condition protected by the law.