Job o' the Day: Supporting Child Advocates in Philly
By Lauren Forbes
The Support Center for Child Advocates (Child Advocates) is seeking a full-time Coordinator of the Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project. Work for a premier child advocacy program with outstanding staff collegiality and commitment to quality service. Organize and administer this Project in all aspects of the grant-funded program.
Agency: The Support Center for Child Advocates is Philadelphia’s volunteer lawyer program for abused and neglected children, providing legal and social service advocacy, through the service of volunteer attorneys, paralegal and legal assistants, who work in conjunction with staff social workers, attorneys and other staff. Child Advocates seeks to protect children by securing social services, finding alternative homes and helping them testify in court. For all of the children committed to our care, we work to ensure safety, health, education, family permanency and access to justice. Systemically, we promote collaborative, multi-disciplinary casework and solutions to recurrent problems. For the community, we provide educational programs to increase awareness about the problems of and ways to prevent child abuse. Whenever possible, Child Advocates seeks to maintain children and families in their own homes. Respected for diligent and effective advocacy throughout its more than 34 years of service, Child Advocates attorneys and social workers move public systems to deliver entitled services and private systems to open their doors to needy children and their families.
Position Summary: In continuing the work of the Pew-funded Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project, Child Advocates will improve access to work on the twin tracks of internal agency strategy and wider, multi-county engagement and system reform. Focus on: support and improve case management functions with cross-system access to information and commitment to trauma-focused care; engagement of system leadership to improve timeliness and appropriate service delivery, quality of behavioral health assessments, and other identified systemic barriers; and training professionals and other caregivers responsible for the well-being of children involved in the child welfare system. Utilize tools of client engagement, direct representation and advocacy, and specially-designed training sessions in a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary approach, to advance and reach goal of improving access to and participation in behavioral health services for this needy and chronically underserved population.
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