Permanency Support Specialist

Do you want to use your skills and experience to help children and youth in care

find adoptive and permanency families? Would you like to work with a friendly and diverse team of colleagues who are dedicated to realizing the vision of “family for every child”? If you’ve answered yes, we’d love to talk to you

**About the Belonging Network**:
For almost 50 years, the Belonging Network has provided groundbreaking programs for families, children, and youth. We believe that everyone needs to belong. We’re working for a world where every child and youth has the love, stability, and support they need to reach their fullest potential.

The Belonging Network helps find families for the hundreds of children and youth in BC who are waiting for a permanent home. We provide education, support and connection for BC’s adoption and permanency community, which includes prospective and waiting adoptive parents, adoptive families, and families providing other forms of love and stability (such as guardianship, relatives raising relatives, and Indigenous customary forms of care). We support thousands of young people aging out of government care and navigating early adulthood.

**About the role**:
Reporting to the Manager, Permanency and Family Support, the Permanency Support Specialist (PSS) will work directly with children and youth to seek a permanent family and prepare them for permanency, transition and support following placement.

**This is a full-time position working 5 days/week (35 hours), with the flexibility to change hours based on travel needs** to meet children and youth in-person. When not meeting in person with children, youth, their families and caregivers, the PSS will work primarily from a home office, with some required attendance at our downtown office.

**Major duties and responsibilities**:

- Conduct in-depth case file reviews and document pertinent information regarding a child’s history, health and development, family, and connections.
- Create a permanency plan to be updated quarterly.
- Assess the child’s readiness for adoption quarterly.
- Attend meetings with other professionals regarding the child/youth’s wellbeing and participate in case planning.
- Document all work completed and keep case files up to date.
- Conduct a diligent search for a permanent family using a variety of methods, including:

- Search for the child’s biological family and engage with them regarding permanency goals.
- Connect with the band/culture in co-ordination with MCFD.
- Connect with those in the child or youth’s network (e.g., foster parent(s), youth workers, school officials, coaches, and other significant connections).
- Utilize general and targeted permanency programs and activities through the Belonging Network and MCFD.
- Create profiles and videos of children and youth to be shared, and review home studies.
- Build a trusting relationship with the child and prepare them for permanency. This can involve fun outings, life book work, and utilizing other resources to prepare them as needed.
- Support MCFD with intensive family finding and provide a final report
- Create children/youth’s life book
- Take an active role in transition planning by creating transition schedules and communicating logistics with all stakeholders.
- Provide transition support as needed to the child, foster family, permanency family, and professionals once a match has been made and the child is to be moved to the new family
- Monitor, track and evaluate program effectiveness, reporting to the Belonging Network and MCFD.
- Participates in ongoing agency accreditation.
- Promote awareness of the program and work with the team to review and allocate referrals.
- Perform other duties as required.

**Required qualifications and skills**
- Post-secondary education in social work, child and youth care, or related field.
- Minimum 1-2 years of experience working with child welfare and issues facing children and youth with special needs.
- An established home office with secure internet.
- A valid driver’s license and access to a vehicle.
- Ability to travel and work flexible hours.
- Strong written, verbal, and online communications skills.
- Able to use Microsoft Office and social media platforms such as Facebook.
- Able to handle confidential information with discretion and sensitivity.
- Able to organize, prioritize, manage work and travel with mínimal supervision.

**Desired qualifications, experience and skills**:

- Familiarity with adoption, child welfare, Indigenous cultures, child and adolescent development and issues facing children and youth with complex needs.
- Familiarity with culturally competent practices reflective of the diversity of the population served.
- Ability to work collaboratively with the management team towards strategic organizational goals.
- Ability to meet departmental contract deliverables and goals efficiently and effectively.
- Ability to learn new software and digital tools quickly and confidently, with a high