Parent Advocate

Overview

At The New York Foundling, we trust in the power and potential of people, and we deliberately invest in proven practices. From bold beginnings in 1869, our New York-based nonprofit has supported hundreds of thousands of our neighbors on their own paths to stability, strength, and independence.  We help children and families navigate through and beyond foster care. We help families struggling with conflict and poverty grow strong. We help individuals with developmental disabilities live their best lives, and we help our neighbors access quality health and mental health services—core to building lifelong resilience and wellbeing. Together, our interrelated programs provide a whole-person, whole-family, and whole-life approach that unlocks solutions for a lifetime.

Responsibilities

The Parent Advocate will support parents with children in foster care to understand and navigate the foster care system, make decisions for their families, remain hopeful, and address family challenges so that they can accomplish their goal of reunification. The focus of this job is building connections with parents and working collaboratively with case planners.This position will ensure that birth parents have an adequate voice for their concerns regarding their children in the foster care system, and that they will navigate the foster care system as effectively and efficiently as possible. The Parent Advocate (PA) is expected to collaborate with the Foster Care on all issues related to birth parents. 

Required lived experience as a birth parent or a foster parent who had involvement with child welfare.

• Collaborates with foster care staff on all issues related to the successful engagement of birth parents;
• Provides direct support to birth parents including conducting home and community visits;
• Prepares parents for and participates at Family Team Conferences;
• Assists parents in utilizing community services, communicating effectively about their foster care case and meeting their service plan goals;
• Informs parents of their rights, and educates and advocates for parents in family court;
• Assists parents in remaining connected to their children during foster care placement including supporting family time;
• Supports the “Parent to Parent” concept, and educates and sensitizes foster parents to the issues and feelings common to parents whose children are in foster care
• Acts as agency representative at Community Partner Initiative meetings;
• Attends NAC, ACS and RISE training sessions as appropriate;
• Performs all of job duties as assignedThe New York Foundling is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse employee population, the Foundling will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming. 

Qualifications

Education Required?YesDegreeHS Graduate or Equivalent

Education Required

High School / G.E.D.

Recruitment Tagline

Hiring Impact, Changing Lives Together

Salary Range:

48,695.31 (+ Education Additive 3,800) + (Bilingual Additive 3,500)