This position includes a signing bonus of $2,500 (full-time) for new county hires. If your goal is to build a career that makes a difference, consider joining the dedicated practitioners in the Division of Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) of the Department of Family Services (DFS). You will work as part of our dedicated, multi-disciplinary team. In this role, you would provide clinical casework services to support the permanency of children in foster care as well as their parents and caregivers. We hire only the most caring and motivated individuals to serve families and children in our community.Learn more{tabindex="0" target="_blank"}about the culture of DFS, meet our director and some of our employees, watch videos about our programs, and check out the great health benefits offered by Fairfax County.

Grow your career with Fairfax County! With more than 16,000 employees, Fairfax County is a diverse workforce offering employees stimulating and challenging opportunities across a broad scope of career opportunities. As a Fairfax County employee, you impact the well-being of our community every day.

This is an exciting time to join Fairfax County Government as we shape racial and social equity policies in the county through the One Fairfax Policy. Using this framework, we intentionally consider equity when making policies or delivering programs and services. To learn more, we highly encourage you to watch the Becoming One FairfaxAn Introduction to Key Concepts video and visit the One Fairfax webpagehere{tabindex="0" target="_blank"}.

The Department of Family Services (DFS) is committed to strengthening the well-being of its diverse community by protecting and improving the lives of all children, adults, and families through assistance, partnership, advocacy, outreach, and quality services. To learn more about DFS and its Mission, Vision, and Values, please clickhere.{tabindex="0"}

As an integral member of the FCandA Program, performs a vital role to achieve permanent living arrangements for children in foster care and adoption. Work hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., however, evening and/or weekend work is required.

Duties and responsibilities include the following:

• Conducts face-to-face contacts and attends home visits to ensure children in foster care and adoption are safe and that their physical, emotional, and educational needs are being met
• Conducts comprehensive assessments to include but not limited to the following areas: safety, permanency, and wellbeing; educational, social, and independent living skills; substance abuse, and developmental concerns; family relationships such as parent-child conflict and domestic violence; assessing the family (i.e., parenting capacity, family relationships, social supports, physical health challenges and disabilities, and basic needs such as shelter, food, and clothing)
• Collaborates with the parents, prior custodians, foster parents, and children when appropriate, to develop a family-centered, solution focused service plan ensure safety, permanency, and wellbeing of the children in foster care
• Coordinates and collaborates with foster families and others to deliver services (i.e., home-based family and individual counseling, health insurance and medical care, parenting support, and domestic violence interventions) to children and parents/fa ily members
• Responds and intervenes in emergency crisis around placement of children in foster home, congregate care facilities, and trial home placements with parent or relative caregivers
• Conducts court-related services to include writing and submitting service plans to court, consulting with county attorney, writing affidavits, filing petitions, and testifying in court
• Documents assessments, critical incident reports, detailed case contacts, progress notes, and service plans in a timely manner in accordance with local and state policy
• Participates in required trainings and meetings and serves as a representative on workgroups and contributes to development of written product
• Coordinates and attends intra-agency and inter-agency meetings
• May be required to be on-call rotation that includes evening, overnight, weekend, and holiday hours which may require immediate response into the field
• Performs other duties as assigned to ensure child safety and improve outcomes in families

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Knowledge of child protection laws, rules, and regulations
• Knowledge of foster care and adoption laws, rules, and regulations
• Ability to interview, assess needs, counsel, and refer clients to other resource as needed
• Knowledge of childhood trauma and attachment
• Knowledge of the principles and practices of social work
• Knowledge of current social service problems and methods/approaches to address issues
• Ability to analyze case information and to reach sound decisions on the basis of such information
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing
• Ability to use automated technology to establish and maintain case records
• Ability to maintain professional ethics and confidentiality of client information
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a variety of individuals
• Ability to schedule and manage workload sufficiently to meet deadlines.

Note:All Fairfax County Government employees are expected to adhere to the Standards of Conduct. In maintaining a drug free workplace, employees are prohibited from manufacturing, distributing, possessing, using or being under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs while at work or on county premises.

Illustrative Duties

(The illustrative duties listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list. A complete list of position duties and unique physical requirements can be found in the position job description.) Conducts comprehensive clinical assessments and prepares and implements service plans; Works with clients to develop a plan of service to meet social, health, emotional and economic needs. With the client, formulates objectives and identifies actions to resolve the clients' problems; Advocates for and assists families and individuals in obtaining services (e.g., mental health, intellectual disability, alcohol and drug, housing referrals, financial assistance for basic needs, home based services, training and medical services); Works with the community to identify families, children and individuals needing social services and coordinates these services using a wrap-around approach; Provides family counseling and conducts mediation services to families in conflict; Performs emergency removal of children from their homes when required, places children in foster homes and residential programs, and coordinates services for them as needed; Investigates complaints of alleged abuse or neglect, and in consultation with supervisor, makes assessment of risks posed to clients in accordance with state and l