The Fund for Social Change is recruiting and employing Family Mentors to work within the New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services’ START (Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams) initiative in the Bronx. START will work with children and families with ACS involvement in which one of the parents is abusing drugs. The purpose of this program is to keep children safe and to prevent placement in foster care whenever possible; to develop a safe, nurturing, and stable living situation for them as rapidly and responsibly as possible; and to help their parents overcome their drug problems.

Specific Duties of the Family Mentor
-- Drawing on personal experience as a client of the child welfare system and/or as a person in recovery, provide emotional support to START clients, including phone calls and visits with clients in home or office settings;
-- Advise START Team on the needs and experiences of ACS clients who are active substance users; participate in case conferences/reviews, service planning meetings, and joint training sessions;
-- Accompany parents and/or child(ren) to services, including but not limited to substance abuse treatment sessions, court, and health/mental health related, educational, and social services appointments;
-- Participate in and take guidance from individual and group supervision sessions;
-- Record activities in case files and contribute to data gathering for the START Team;
-- Complete correspondence, records or reports;
-- Attend staff meetings, agency trainings and conferences; and
-- Perform other related duties as required.

Required Qualifications
The preferred candidate should posses the following:
1) Strong communication/interpersonal skills.
2) Commitment to and passion for working with families and children, engaging clients, and making a difference.
3) Ability to use a productive problem-solving approach; help others develop unique sobriety approaches for themselves; utilize supervision and work well with social workers; think about challenges they may face in their job and come up with ideas on how to address those challenges.
4) Confidence about, and commitment to, staying clean.
5) Knowledge of or familiarity with basic office practices, how to carry out instructions in written or oral form, dealing with complex family issues, completing routine forms, and answering routine telephone inquires.
6) High School Degree, GED, or equivalent.

Preferred Qualifications
1) Experience as a former ACS client.
2) Prior substance abuse history, including demonstrable and sustained sobriety.
3) Experience as a parent advocate/ family mentor in any system.
4) Bilingual Spanish and English.

Salary and Benefits
1) This is a full-time position
2) Starting salary: $25,000
3) Full benefits package available

**Application Deadline is January 10, 2010**

To Apply click Here

Qualified candidates will be contacted upon satisfactory completion and submission of job application.