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Adoption specialist - lead

Applying for:

Job Summary: 

This is a professional lead position responsible for assisting case management organizations in processing and finalizing timely adoptions, provide recruitment assistance for children who are available for adoption in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties.  This position will assist the Program Manager and provide supervision to the adoption team as needed. 

Essential Functions:

  • Establishes and maintains positive working relationship with HFC internal and external customers

  • Plan and execute targeted marketing strategies to find families to adopt

  • Provide technical assistance necessary to case management organizations to ensure a child’s timely navigation through the dependency system.

  • Train, support and prepare unmatched families during the adoption process

  • Coordinate and/or participates in recruitment and retention activities including promoting local children available for adoption in the community

  • Recruits and prescreens prospective adoptive families

  • Assesses permanency needs of the children and youth

  • Assesses strengths and limitations of placement options

  • Assists in meeting or exceeding HFC’s annual adoption goals for matched and unmatched children

  • Develops family systems and community supports for placement options

  • Teach adoption/specialized classes and information night meetings for prospective families

  • Arranges and conducts meetings with potential adoptive families

  • Reviews all adoption home studies for potential child matches

  • Facilitates or participates in match meetings/staffings and interviews with case management and adoptive families

  • Provides recommendations for placement match including at-risk placements

  • Supports pre-adoptive families through the adoption to assure stability

  • Assists in the development and maintenance of tracking systems

  • Creates content and collateral materials that helps promote sharing child specific information about children available for adoption

  • Monitors and/or maintains the adoption websites and recruitment systems ensuring children available for adoption are displayed, and identifying and moving forward with a possible adoption match timely

  • Provides timely follow up with all interested families who inquire about adoption or generated via the recruitment displays including providing up-to-date Child Studies and/or Comprehensive Behavioral Health Assessments (CBHA) when appropriate

  • Provides supports and works collaboratively with case management regarding families who have active home studies 

  • Assists with Enhanced Subsidy Requests

  • Assists with Private Adoption’s Subsidy Requests

  • Participates in statewide adoption related calls, trainings and the campaign initiatives

  • Participates in and/or facilitate case management staffings to include family team conferencing, multi-disciplinary, reunification, permanency, adoption and post adoptions staffings, AARC Staffings, separated sibling staffings and presentations promoting and supporting adoption

  • Evaluates the rationale for services, assessments of current placement including the need for additional evaluations through the consideration of the child/family’s circumstance and the provider’s ability to meet the service need or provide alternate settings

  • Assists with maintaining and updating recruitment displays, the Heart Gallery

  • Will provide adoption competency training

  • Performs special projects as assigned

Required Qualifications: 

Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work or Human Services field, child welfare certified and a minimum of three years’ child welfare experience in child welfare required.

Preferred Qualifications: 

Demonstrates professional application of social work theories and methods in a child protection or child welfare environment, adoption competency training and  Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) training preferred.

Benefits:

Excellent benefits package with tuition assistance, domestic partner coverage, retirement and generous paid time off. 

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Additional Information:

Drug free workplace.  Drug testing required.  EOE/M/F/D/V. 

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