Family Development Specialist - Help Me Grow

About The Centers

The Centers fights for equity by healing, teaching, and inspiring individuals and families to reach their full potential. We provide health, family, and workforce services at 11 locations throughout Greater Cleveland, creating life-changing solutions for people to lead healthier and more successful lives.

Our Smart Start Home Visiting Program 

The Centers’ Smart Start Home Visiting Program advocates and provides services for the healthy development for families from pregnancy through age 5, by building the strengths and capacities of families, care-giving professionals, and the communities in which they reside. 

By bringing the classroom into family homes, our trained Family Development Professionals educational materials and a nationally recognized curriculum, including social activities, partnering with families and caregivers to prepare the family for developmental milestones on a weekly basis. This position is responsible for recruitment of participants, planning and preparing activities appropriate for the developmental stage of participating children, facilitating and supporting learning in individual and group settings, identifying needs of families and connecting families with appropriate resources. This position supports parents as the best and first teachers of young children, and is proficient at working collaboratively with parents from diverse backgrounds. The Smart Start Home Visiting program is supported in part by Head Start & Early Head Start, Help Me Grow, United Way, UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, and PNC Bank.

We strive to be an equitable, anti-racist, and service-oriented workplace that pioneers and co-creates solutions while fostering an inclusive community where our team members thrive.

Wellbeing and Benefits

Providing quality benefits to our staff is important to us. Just as important is our staff’s well-being. That’s why we offer a number of choices from medical to dental to vision plans to meet the different needs of our staff.

· Choice of medical and dental plans · Health Savings Account · Flexible Spending Account for Health and Dependent Care · Vision · Support for continuing education and credential renewal · Life Insurance · Retirement Savings (401k) with a company contribution · 457(b) Savings · Mental Health Support · Employee Assistance Program · Calm Subscription · Short and Long term Disability

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, Social Services or related.
• Minimum 1 year home visiting experience.
• Must be able to complete the Growing Great Kids P-3 Training and Growing Great Kids Preschool Training.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain ODH Home Visiting Certification.
• Must be able to complete required Help Me Grow trainings.
• Ability to complete required documentation in a timely and accurate manner.
• Experience in child development and early childhood education.
• Certification in First Aide, communicable disease and child abuse recognition required after hire.
• Valid Driver’s License, with proof of valid insurance required.
• No record of child abuse or moral turpitude as determined by background check based on fingerprints.
• Bilingual (Spanish/English) a plus, but not required.
• Proficiency with technology.

Job Summary

Provide home visits to women and their families eligible for the Smart Start Home Visiting Program funded through Help Me Grow.  Responsible for enrollment, planning, care coordination, implementation of all essential components of the curriculum, assisting assigned families in identifying, accessing, and utilizing community resources. Encouraging and promoting each family’s empowerment and self-sufficiency while reinforcing positive self-help skills.

Essential Job Duties & Task 

• Traveling, scheduling and conducting requirement home visits for families in accordance with Ohio Department of Health (ODH)and Healthy Families America (HFA) standards
• Ensure parent/guardian participation with child
• Assist families with strengthening the parent- child relationship, with improving their skills to optimize the home environment, improving their family support system, increasing their ability to problem solve and assume the role of advocate for themselves and their family.
• Implement the Growing Great Kids Curriculum during visits.
• Offer home visits according to the family level status.

• Link assigned families with a medical home; facilitate application of community resources, client follow-up for prenatal care and immunizations, mental health and nutrition.       

• Delivers evidence based home visiting services according to ODH and HFA policies and procedures
• Establishes individual eligibility by conducting the initial assessment tool identified by ODH and HFA.
• Initiates and maintains regular contact and support with families, primarily within the family’s home.
• Administer screening and assessments along with keeping accurate children’s records 
• Develop family goals; provide referrals and resources that are documented in the families’ electronic record in OCHIDS.
• Provided transportation as needed.
• Plan and implement group experiences once a month for families.
• Plan and implement field trips for the families
• Provide an environment that is safe and healthy
• Plan with the component Managers and Supervisor for providing all the Help Me Grow component services to the families
• Participate in agency recruitment activities throughout the school year, i.e. open enrollment, special events in order to maintain funded enrollment of Smart Start Home Visiting Program.
• Work cooperatively with community resource agencies, connecting families as appropriate to meet their individual needs.
• Attends collaborative meetings as assigned.
• Recruit and maintain maximum waited caseload of 30 points (Level 1=2 points, Level 2= 1 point and Level 3= ½ point), which include children and prenatal women, throughout the entire year
• Completing required activities, reports, paperwork within set Help Me Grow timelines.

Core Competencies

• Professional communication skills in both verbal and written form.
• Ability to Conceptualize.
• Attention to Detail.
• Coaches and Mentors.
• Client Focus.
• Continuous Learning.
• Empathetic of Others.
• Flexible/Adaptive.
• Gains Commitment.
• Maintains Perspective.
• Planning and Prioritizing.

The Centers is an Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.