PAC Parent Advocate

Job Description

Title: PAC Parent Advocate

Mission: The mission of the Parent Advocacy Connection (PAC) Program is to empower, educate, encourage, and equip families to partner with professionals in promoting access to services that are family-centered, community-based, comprehensive, and culturally competent.

Purpose: When children require services from multiple sources (i.e., mental health, schools, juvenile courts, developmental disabilities, and alcohol/drug addiction services agencies), it can be difficult for parents to navigate their way through these various service systems.  Families may become overwhelmed and have difficulty expressing their concerns and the needs of their child(ren). Parent Advocates support parents through understanding and accessing services for their child(ren) and help them to understand the necessary processes.

Roles and Responsibilities

  • Provide support, information, and guidance for navigating child serving systems
  • Develop strong partnerships with parents and agencies based on mutual trust and respect
  • Explain policies, procedures and laws to parents related to various child-serving systems
  • Continuously evaluate families’ needs
  • Meaningfully involve parents in the process of linking them to agencies, services and other parents
  • Deliver services in a respectful, culturally competent, and non-judgmental way
  • Encourage the expression of families’ ideas, preferences, and decisions while acknowledging families’ struggles, efforts, and successes
  • Utilize hands-on training, role modeling, mentorship, and other activities to support parents with building skills to help families create a safe environment that fosters growth and empowerment
  • Increase parent knowledge by providing up to date information about effective interventions, local resources, and referrals.
  • Focus on problem solving through identifying the families’ strengths and past successes
  • Be a credible source of information

Skills

  • Good listener and able to create a comfortable environment for families
  • Goal-oriented and focuses on outcomes
  • Able to set boundaries to avoid becoming overwhelmed with work responsibilities
  • Functions with an awareness of one’s own assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, and biases that might influence work patterns, relationships or partnerships
  • Able to explain policies, procedures and laws to parents related to various child-serving systems
  • Able to set priorities to achieve program tasks
  • Able to research various child-serving systems (mental health, school systems, and special education)
  • Able to utilize technology (email, Microsoft suite, data entry into a database)
  • Able to adhere to standard office etiquette

Qualifications

  • A Parent Advocate must have personal lived experience navigating multiple child serving systems
  • Must have a High School Diploma or GED
  • Some office experience preferred
  • Must have reliable transportation and a valid driver’s license
  • Willing to travel between Lucas, Wood, and Hancock County on a regular basis

 

7/15/2022: Job Closes

7/18-7/19/2022: Interviews

7/22/2022: Background Check required

8/1-8/5/2022: Training

 

To apply: Click Here