Healthy Steps Early Childhood Social Worker

Salary: $60,000-$75,000

Position Summary: This position is an excellent opportunity for a licensed social worker or a candidate pursuing licensing who is motivated to pursue a specialty in early childhood child and family support services. Based in a pediatric Community Health Center that serves both community members and children in foster care, the Child Development Specialist will be an integrated member of primary care and behavioral health teams. The Child Development Specialist will provide support to children and families through case management during the Early Intervention referral process for children with developmental delays and family counseling for children experiencing developmental challenges due to family or other social hardships.

While experience in early childhood is highly valued, training through the HealthySteps program is an integral part of this position and can work to bring anyone with a genuine interest in early childhood the training needed to shape that interest into solid skills. The Child Development Specialist will work hand in hand with medical providers offering developmental support, brief interventions, referrals, and follow-up for families with children ages 0-3. This role focuses on promoting nurturing caregiver-child relationships, supporting families, and fostering the healthy development and school readiness of infants and toddlers.

Essential Duties:

Preventive and Responsive Support

• Participate in team-based well-child visits alongside pediatric medical providers, with an emphasis on supporting healthy development, social-emotional growth, and caregiver-child relationships.
• Provide short-term consultations for developmental and behavioral concerns such as sleep, feeding, and parenting strategies.
• Maintain a family support line, responding to and tracking call requests within designated response times.
• Facilitate parent/caregiver groups and, when needed, conduct home visits or accompany families to key appointments.

Referrals and Community Collaborations

• Create and maintain a community resource directory/database.
• Provide referrals and track follow-up to ensure successful connections to community resources, especially Early Intervention and developmental pediatrics.
• Engage with community providers to support referrals, warm handoffs, and ensure appropriate referral criteria are met.
• Participate in community-wide early childhood and/or mental health meetings as appropriate.

Support Early Development for Children in Foster Care

• Develop individualized person-centered treatment plans for children under 3 who are in foster care.
• Collaborate with birth parents and foster families to create strengths-based interdisciplinary treatment plans that reflect each child's unique needs and developmental goals.
• When indicated, provide hands-on support and skill-building interventions that promote healthy social and emotional development for young children and their caregivers.
• Help ensure continuity of care by coordinating with pediatric providers and tracking any outside evaluation.
• Regularly assess progress and update goals to support each child's growth and resilience over time.

Team-Based Care

• Lead the HealthySteps Implementation Team with support from clinical champions and hold regular team meetings.
• Coordinate scheduling with administrative staff to align with provider visits.
• Lead development-related Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiatives to ensure fidelity to the HealthySteps model.
• Collaborate with the implementation team to deliver all eight Core Components, including universal screenings and providing parenting and early learning guidance.
• Maintain open communication with all members of the primary care team.
• Provide consultation and training to clinic staff on early childhood development and trauma-informed practices.

Caseload Tracking, Record Keeping, and Reporting

• Maintain databases required to meet HealthySteps fidelity metrics, including tracking internal and external referrals.
• Completed reporting requirements related to the HealthySteps program.
• Document all patient clinical activity and care coordination in the Electronic Health Record.
• Monitor caseload to ensure capacity to deliver services within the risk-stratified service delivery model.

Additional Responsibilities

• Participate in Program, Division and Agency-wide activities (meetings, events, etc.)
• Attend trainings as required
• Other duties as assigned by supervisor

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• Masters in social work or mental health counseling with license or license-eligible
• Organized self-starter
• Experience in serving children and families in child welfare, developmental disabilities, mental health, and or healthcare
• Excellent organizational and time management skills
• Comfortable working in the field utilizing public transportation
• Strong communication skills; written and verbal
• Ability to engage disenfranchised population
• Ability to multitask
• Empathetic
• Comfortable working in digital platforms including data entry, analysis and documentation in medical record
• Ability to work flexible hours, some nights and weekends may be required
• Bilingual Spanish preferred

It is the policy of Children's Aid to provide equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment and is dedicated to maintaining a work environment that is free from harassment and discrimination. Children's Aid will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or retaliation on any basis, including race, creed, color, national origin, ethnicity, alienage or citizenship status, gender/sex (including pregnancy), disability, religion, source of income, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, familial status, caregiver status, military status, marital or partnership status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking, predisposing genetic characteristics, arrest or conviction record, credit history, unemployment status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Children's Aid is committed to complying with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Children's Aid will conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of all allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or any violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy in a confidential manner and will take appropriate corrective action, if and where warranted. Children's Aid prohibits retaliation against employees who provide information about, complain about, or assist in the investigation of any complaint of discrimination or violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy.