Walton County Sheriff's Office - Family Finder Specialist
Job Overview
Department:
Walton County Sheriff's Office
Type:Certified
Civilian
Job Title:Family Finder Specialist
Salary:$45,759 to $50,521 annually (based on experience)
Contact:hr@waltonso.org
Location:
Defuniak Springs , FL
Job Announcement
General Statement of Job –
This position is professional and administrative work that performs advanced family finding program efforts to discover, engage, plan, make decisions, and evaluate strategies to locate relatives and fictive kin.
Qualifications –
· Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice, Education, Guidance/Counseling, Social Work, Psychology, Business or Public Administrative or a closely related field.
· Applicant must be a certified Child Welfare Protective Investigator through the Florida Certification Board.
· Must possess and maintain a valid driver’s license.
Essential Job Functions –
· This list of functions, duties, responsibilities, skills and physical abilities is not intended to be all-inclusive. The employer reserves the right to assign additional functions and responsibilities as deemed necessary.
· Regular and prompt job attendance.
· Attend court hearings as necessary to obtain additional information
· Conducts extensive/advanced searches, such as case mining, mobility mapping, internet searches, and cold calls, to locate adult relatives and fictive kin.
· Conduct background checks using FCIC/NCIC on placement options and assist with completing emergency home studies.
· Collaborate with the child protective investigator to identify and build positive connections between the child and the child's relatives and fictive kin.
· Identify and build positive connections between the child and the child's relatives and fictive kin.
· Attends and participates in family finding group decision making, which may include conducting a multidisciplinary meeting with all parties involved and prospective family members or fictive kin.
· Attend Case Transfer Staffing as needed to inform Child Welfare Professionals of the current status of family finding efforts.
· Establishes and maintains cooperative working relationships with organizations and other agencies involved with child welfare, such as community-based care providers, Children's Legal Services, Guardian ad Litem, schools, clinical professionals, and other community agency resources.
· Regularly reviews and identifies any changes to Florida Statutes, DCF Operational Procedures, Administrative Rule, and policies. Ensures participants are aware of changes, confidentiality, and HIPAA and identifies potential problems related to case specifics.
· Other related duties as assigned
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities –
Knowledge of Florida's Practice Model and Florida's official electronic system of record, Florida Safe Family Network (FSFN). Experience in Microsoft Office, familiar with the child welfare system, excellent written and oral communication skills, and strong interpersonal skills relative to diverse populations in academic, public health, and community settings. Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with multiple competing deadlines. Analytical, decision-making, and organizational skills.
Standards to Perform Job Functions:
Working Conditions: The work environment for this position has a heavy emphasis in fieldwork. Other work is performed in an office atmosphere. The incumbent performs duties in both a sedentary and standing/walking position. They must be flexible in their schedule to work shift work, nights, weekends, holidays, and be available for frequent after-hours on-call duty to make contact with caregivers of the victim child(ren) and relatives or fictive kin for placement. The incumbent may be assigned a take-home vehicle within agency guidelines to facilitate these meetings and frequent after-hours call-outs.
Physical Requirements: Must be able to sit, stand, and bend the body forward at the waist. Use hands, handle and feel. Must be able to reach with hands and arms. Must be able to hear and understand communications through a telephone. Must have clear vision to view a computer monitor. Requires the ability to talk and/or hear; (talking: expressing or exchanging ideas by means of spoken words; Hearing: perceiving nature of sounds by ear). Must be able to lift up to twenty pounds; carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects.
The Walton County Sheriff's Office is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Walton County Sheriff's Office will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer. Veterans are encouraged to apply. Pursuant to applicable state and federal law, preference and priority shall be given to certain service members and veterans (including spouses and family members of such service members and veterans), and certain service members may be eligible for waiver of post-secondary educational requirements as provided in Chapter 295, Florida Statutes.
Please direct questions regarding this position to hr@waltonso.org
Jobs close at 11:59 PM (Eastern) on the deadline date specified, or when the position capacity has been met, or unless otherwise specified in the announcement. If the deadline date is not specified in the announcement, the agency has sole discretion on setting the deadline and jobs may close without notice. It is the applicant's responsibility to thoroughly read and understand the deadline requirements and capacity limits as outlined by the agency.
Applicants are responsible for checking their email and logging into their PoliceApp, PublicSafetyApp, FireFighterApp or EmployementApp account to monitor for emails, scheduling and process updates.