Family Worker

HS Family Worker

Under the supervision of the Family Worker Coordinator/ERSEA Coordinator, the HS Family Worker integrates parent and family engagement strategies into all systems and program services to support family well-being and promote children's learning and development. The Family Worker will carry a caseload of children and families – enrolling the children and creating family partnerships. Family Worker will implement intentional strategies to recruit and enroll children, engage parents in their children's learning and development, support parent children relationships and integrate specific strategies for father engagement and involve parents in the governance of the program.

The Family Worker will:

• Develop and participate in a recruitment process to enroll children with the most need in the HS program.
• Develop and conduct a recruitment process, to include specific efforts to actively locate and recruit children with disabilities and other vulnerable children.
• Maintain Recruitment Verifications and Binder.
• Conduct interpersonal interviews (Face-to-face) with each family to verify information and create an eligibility determination for enrolled participants
  • Collect complete and accurate eligibility information, incorporating strategies for treating families respectfully.
  • Ensure all participants meet the age requirements identified in HSPPS 1302.12(b). The verification of age must follow program policies and procedures.
  • Ensure all participants meet the income requirements.
  • Prepare Over-Income Packets.
  • Provide the Application to the Family Worker Coordinator/ERSEA for Review after enter the application in Child Plus.
• Keep eligibility determination records for each participant.
• Select Eligible Children for services. (Child Plus waiting list only).
• Develop a waiting list each enrollment year and maintain during the year following selection criterial.
• Ensure that enrollment has at least 10% percent of its total funded enrollment filled by children eligible for services under IDEA.
• Ascertain that families with children with disabilities referred by outside agencies complete the application process.
• Organize, secure and maintain Head Start Folders.
• Maintain funded enrollment and fill any vacancy according to the program's policies and procedures; all programs must fill vacancies within 30 days.
• Ensure 85% of attendance. Complete the ERSEA Attendance Report when attendance falls below 85%.
• Enter Daily Attendance in Child Plus.
• Make contact with family within 1 hour of school being in session and the whereabouts of the child are unknown (enter notes in Child Plus) and make a follow up home visit.
• Conduct a home visit with excessive/sporadic absences and begin the attendance action plan.
• Distribute and collect all the documentation needed for returning children and update all files of returning children (create a log of all returning children for each new enrollment year).
• Provide teachers a list of all new children.
• Transfer and withdrawal children in Child Plus.
• Ensure that families access health insurance for themselves and their children; ensure families have access to continuous and accessible health care.
• Identify uninsured children enrolled in the program and link them to health insurance and/or to necessary medical and dental services.
• Ensure that VPK COEs are obtained from all returning families. Assist families in obtaining VPK COEs, as needed.

Parent and Family Engagement

The Family Worker will:

• Complete the 2nd part of the enrollment process together with parent; all documents and consents will be reviewed and explained in detail to the parent for signature.
  • All documents and consents need to be filled, date and sign by parent and family worker before the child/student sits in classroom.
• Complete Family Assessment Questionnaire (identifying and assessing family's strengths, needs and interests)- initial at time of enrollment, and Final due date at the end of enrollment year.
• Establish and monitor progress with the Family Partnership Agreements.
  • Follow-up on Goals Monthly
• Ensure that Family Partnership agreements are completed, input in ChildPlus, and signed by parent.
• Provide services/referrals to families (e.g. employment, education, emergency food)
• Schedule and facilitate transition meetings from HS to Kindergarten.
  • Deliver Head Start folder to the receiving childcare facility.
• Distribute & collect Parent Surveys.
• Develop and maintain Parent Bulletin Board.
• Contact appropriate coordinator when making referrals.
• Provide information about the benefits of regular attendance and support families to promote regular attendance. Conduct a home visit with parents with patterns of absence, including multiple unexplained absences.
• Facilitate monthly parent meetings/trainings.
• Create and maintain Parent meetings binder.
• Enter parent attendance for meetings, trainings and activities in Child Plus under entry express.
• Complete and maintain minutes of parent meetings.
• Complete the monthly parent involvement summary form.
• Assist families with needs referrals and notate in Child Plus. (Social Services, Mental Health, Disability, Health, Nutrition and Education).
• Follow-up with all referrals, and keep line of communication with families and the component facilitators.
• Create notes for follow-ups in Child Plus.
• Engage in mutually-respectful goal-oriented partnerships with families to promote parent-child relationships and family well-being.
  • Show respect for different family structures and culture
  • Work with families to jointly set goals that are meaningful to families and follows up on such goals.
• Ensure goals and family plans are documented in the appropriate database
• Support families' life goals and aspirations by connecting families with opportunities that support safety, financial literacy, health, and family wellness.
  • Link parents to training that contributes to self-sufficiency and to reaching education/career goals.
  • Provide parents with the opportunities to attend training on topics (to include but not limited to) protective factors, risks, stressors, effective ways to manage risks/stressors, family literacy, financial literacy, child development.
  • Enhance the parent-child relationship and support parents' role as the first and lifelong educators of their children.
  • Develop strong relationships with community child care, preschools, and public schools.
• Educate parents on the Policy Committee and/or community opportunities to promote parent leadership and advocacy.
  • Include parents as active participants in groups and training to share and develop skills.
• Encourage families to participate in the program as employees or volunteers through collaborating with management in the hiring process.

Program Governance/Record-Keeping and Reporting

• Provides assistance in establishing an effective form of program governance.
• Maintains programmatic data in the organization's database(s).
• Perform effective recording and internal and external reports to track individual family progress and aggregate family outcomes data.
• Prepare, distribute, analyze and use feedback forms regarding workshops, trainings, and other group activities.
• Assist other Family Workers through individual and group conferences in analyzing case problems.

General

• Read and adhere to all of Le Jardin's Policies and Procedures, as well as all HSPPS (Head Start Program Performance Standards).
• Additional duties may be assigned as needed for the benefit of the agency.

Knowledge, Abilities, and Skills

• Ability to communicate in English professionally both orally in in writing.
• Ability to prepare and deliver professional presentations.
• Knowledge of the ChildPlus Information System preferred.
• Knowledge of Head Start and Early Head Start is preferred.

Qualifications:

• Associates Degree or higher in social work, human services, family services, counseling or a related field, an out-of-area degree field will require a Family Services Certification within 18 months