Home Visitor

Harbor Area Healthy Families Massachusetts Home Visitor Spanish Speaking highly preferred.

Believing in proper work/life balance, Bridges Homeward operates on a 33.5 hour (4 1/2 day) work week!!

PURPOSE & SCOPE: The Home Visitor of Healthy Families-Massachusetts (HFM) is a member of the Bridges Homeward Team who utilizes a strengths-based, skill-building framework of service. Healthy Families Massachusetts includes the whole family in service delivery, engaging fathers, mothers, babies, and extended family members. 'Extended family' is defined by the participant and may include significant support systems such as those individuals the family has identified as their kinship network. Through attuned interactions, Healthy Families Massachusetts home visitors encourage participants at their own pace to develop the knowledge, skills, and support networks that will enable them to be strong, resilient parents with access to the resources needed to successfully manage their lives and be the best advocates for themselves and their children.

The Healthy Families Program's goals are to:

• Prevent child abuse and neglect by supporting positive, effective parenting skills

• Achieve optimal health, growth, and development in infancy and early childhood
• Promote increased educational attainment, job, and life skills
• Reduce unintended repeat teen pregnancies
• Promote optimal parental health and wellness

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Healthy Families Massachusetts Home Visitor:

• Provides parenting education and support in-home and in group settings
• Helps to Reduce violent, impulsive, and risky behaviors among adolescent parents
• Promotes safe and healthy homes
• Improves family self-sufficiency while helping the most vulnerable families
• Utilizes the Protective Factors Framework to provide in home services in order to support families in increasing resiliencies, resources, knowledge, skills, and support systems
• Organizes and manages a caseload of families and children referred to Healthy Families Massachusetts
• Collaborates with parents, children, community resources, and HFM staff in developing plans, specifying resources and services needed, making referrals, and monitoring service provision
• Maintains regular contact with collaborating partners
• Provides conflict resolution and mediation for families
• Monitors safety of children in the home
• Maintains complete, detailed, and accurate records
• Helps support or present information alone or with other team members at parenting workshops

Duties and responsibilities are carried out in conformance with relevant Competences (attached).

REQUIRED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:

• • Highschool Diploma
  • Minimum of one year of experience providing case management and/or counseling services to children, adolescents, and families; preference given to those with experience working with pregnant or parenting teens or young adults
  • Lived parenting experience preferred
  • Bilingual required; we are seeking candidates that speak English and at least one of the following languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole.
  • An ability to establish trusting relationships with program participants
  • Experience and humility to work with the culturally diverse families in our catchment area and demonstrated acceptance of individual differences.
  • Knowledge of infant and child development
  • Willing to engage in building reflective capacity
  • Infant mental health endorsement preferred

Other requirements:

• Valid drivers license and car

CORI/SORI/Finger printing required