Family Support Worker- Benefits Case Manager
About Us:
The Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) is a community development organization founded on the radically simple idea that all people deserve to live in healthy, vibrant communities. We build award-winning, sustainable, affordable homes – but our work is not over when our buildings are complete. WHEDco believes that to be successful, affordable housing must be anchored in strong communities of which residents can be proud. WHEDco’s mission is to create and bridge access to resources in the South Bronx that support thriving neighborhoods – from high-quality early education and after-school programs, to fresh, healthy food, cultural programming, and economic opportunity. See www.whedco.org for more information.
Job Summary:
WHEDco seeks a Family Support Worker who demonstrates appropriate goal setting and effective practice skills in a collaborative model with WHEDco’s on-site programs. The population to be served is building and community residents and WHEDco’s program participants. The Family Support Worker will manage a caseload, providing individual case management services, advocacy, resource, and referral services to a diverse population. A central focus of this role will be to work with clients to screen and apply for public benefits to ensure financial stability and to connect clients with internal and external referrals, including legal assistance (through our partnership with Legal Aid), vocational/employment, mental health services, and health insurance advocacy.
Primary Responsibilities:
• Screen individuals for services such as public benefits, counseling, mental health referrals, substance abuse, domestic violence, legal matters, and housing.
• Assist individuals with accessing all public benefits by completing necessary applications via Access-HRA and other applications.
• Translate and mediate on behalf of clients to enroll them in programs they qualify for.
• Provide advocacy and mediation around public benefits access.
• Connect individuals needing legal services to Robin Hood’s and WHEDco’s partnership with Legal Aid.
• Connect Individuals to WHEDco’s internal or external resources as needed.
• Develop and maintain linkages with other organizations for the purposes of mutual referrals.
• Communicate on behalf of clients to request status of their cases and follow up with clients and/or partner agencies regarding client’s outcome.
• Document client appointments and tasks weekly on a tracker.
• Maintain client files in WHEDco’s Client Tracking System and other external databases (i.e., Trax8 and Salesforce).
• Assist with conducting community outreach to engage new clients.
• Provide written and computerized reports of clients and prepare reports for Director’s review.
• Attend all meetings including team meetings, case conferences, interdisciplinary meetings, and scheduled supervisory meetings.
• Participate in in-house and external staff development and training activities.
• Perform other related duties as may be requested by Director.
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Minimum of 1-2 years of experience in the social service field is preferred.
• Knowledge of case management, advocacy, family/youth services and childcare, preferably in a community environment, is required.
• Basic computer skills is required.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish is preferred.
Excellent benefits and competitive salary ($40,000 – $42,000) based on experience.
To apply, please submit a cover letter and resume to [email protected]. Please include Family Support Worker and your name in subject line.
WHEDco affords all qualified applicants equal employment opportunities without discrimination because of race, creed (religion), color, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, age, disability, predisposing genetic characteristic, marital status or domestic violence victim status, or any other category protected by law. WHEDco follows the requirements of the New York Human Rights Law with regard to non-discrimination on the basis of prior criminal conviction and prior arrest.
WHEDco is an E-Verify employer. E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares information entered by an employer from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to confirm employment eligibility