Kinship Specialist - North FL

Kinship Specialist

Join our team at FSS and enjoy comprehensive benefits including but not limited to:

• Tuition Reimbursement: Earn up to $5,250 per qualifying year to invest in your education.
• Health Insurance: Choose from three comprehensive Florida Blue health insurance plans to keep you and your family covered.
• Dental Plan: Enjoy an employer-paid dental plan for our valued employees.
• Life Insurance: Your peace of mind matters to us. We provide employer-paid life insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): a free, confidential resource, available to assist employees and their families in dealing with life’s challenges, and the demands of work/life balance.
• Paid Time Off (PTO): Relax and recharge with our generous PTO plan.
• Paid Holidays: Enjoy the 12 holidays (to include 1 floating holiday) and unwind with family and friends to celebrate and rejuvenate!
• Well-Being Program: Stay healthy and engaged with our highly interactive well-being program. Employees can earn three additional days per plan year by simply participating.
• 401k Plan: Secure your financial future with our 401k plan with employer contribution of 3%.
• Additional Benefits: Explore our range of benefits, including Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), Vision Plan, Short & Long-Term Disability coverage, Employee Discounts, and more.
  
  

The mission of Family Support Services is to be the leader in providing safety, stability, and quality of life for all children by working with the community to strengthen the family unit.

Job Summary

The major function of this position includes the initial licensing for level I kinship family foster homes and ensuring statutory licensing requirements and guidelines are met within a restricted timeframe. This position is responsible for working directly with caregivers to educate them of the benefits of the Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP) and working in respectful partnership to assist them in understanding and meeting the requirements for licensure to be eligible for the GAP program. This position will be working in partnership with child welfare professionals from the Department of Children and Families, Family Support Services and our subcontracted case management organizations. This position will work closely with the FSS licensing and placement teams.

Essential Job Duties

• Responsible for contacting kinship caregivers within 48 business hours of assignment to schedule initial home visit to begin licensing process.
• Conduct initial home visit to kinship home to complete information gathering, assessment of home, complete required documents to begin writing of unified home study. Prepares team presentations, and designs internal flyers, posters, invitations.
• Assist caregivers with completing licensing documentation as needed.
• Assist caregiver with accessing training modules and ensuring completion of required training.
• Conduct final home visit to kinship home to collect paperwork, take photos of home, verify training completion, and obtain signature on unified home study for packet finalization and submission to Kinship Supervisor within required timeframe.
• Responsible for timely submission of licensing packets to DCF with 100% of all completed licensing packets meeting FSS and DCF timeframe standards.
• Complete follow-up on deficient packets timely as directed, usually within 24 hours.
• Responsible for ensuring effective communication and collaboration between professionals internal and external to organization.
• Ensures that records are maintained on all licensed homes and that all licensing information is correct. Responsible for ensuring that all foster homes are complying with Florida state standards.
• All other duties as assigned.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
• Prior experience with licensing and working with at risk children preferred.
• Valid driver’s license. Current certification in First Aid and CPR is recommended. Florida child welfare case management certification is required for this position- active certification or ability to meet criteria for certification. Licensing certification preferred.
  
  

Schedule & Hours

Flexible Schedule Monday-Friday typically 8:30am-5pm. After-hours work may be required based on the caregiver’s availability. Hybrid schedule post training -2 days in office required for minimum of 5 hours per office day.

Family Support Services Team Members Follow 5 Core Values

Partnership: At FSS, a belief that we are better together is core to who we are. Partnership is an essential component of a healthy system of care. Our team is committed to a respectful, open-minded, collaborative approach to co-creating solutions with the community. This extends to the children and families we serve as well.

Excellence: FSS challenges ourselves to always strive for better on behalf of those we serve. We foster innovative practices, encourage continuous quality improvement, and engage in strategic planning with our partners to achieve the highest possible outcomes for children, families, and the community.

Accountability: FSS recognizes our leadership role within the system of care and strives to be accountable to the community by being trustworthy partners. FSS is committed to ethical and transparent practices, and to operate with integrity as we pursue positive outcomes.

Compassion: We recognize that we often meet families at their most challenging moment and people are more than the sum of their circumstances. We provide trauma-sensitive care for the children and families in our system to reach their full potential. We embrace a service leadership approach and commit to finding the strengths in everyone we encounter while we foster resiliency.

Equity: Equity goes beyond the fair treatment of all people. For FSS, equity is the commitment to recognize the social justice issues intrinsic to our work with marginalized communities. We strive to amplify the voices of individuals and families impacted by poverty, racism, and discrimination in any form. We obligate ourselves to a belief that none of these factors should be a predictor of child welfare involvement or outcomes.

FSS provides equal employment and advancement opportunity for all individuals without discrimination because of race, creed, color, gender, religion, age, national origin, disability, military status, marital status, or the other protected categories as defined by the EEOC and takes affirmative action in the implementation of this policy. If accommodation is needed in order to participate in the application process, please contact the Human Resources department at FSSHRDepartment@fssnf.org for our Duval and Nassau counties.