Family Stability Manager

Title: Family Stability Manager

Reporting to: Executive Director

Employment status: Full-time (exempt)

Schedule: 40 hours weekly Monday to Friday (plus some evenings and occasional weekend)

Locations: Prince George’s county with travel across MD and DC

WHO WE ARE

The mission of Playtime Project (Playtime) is to cultivate resilience in children experiencing family housing insecurity by providing and expanding access to transformative play experiences.

We do this by:

• • Creating ongoing play opportunities that nurture healthy child development
  • Challenging systemic injustice by advocating for policies and practices that reduce the risk of chronic homelessness
  • Connecting families with critical support services and supplies in the community to meet their concrete needs

We are a 23-year-old community-based nonprofit based in D.C. and Prince George’s County, MD. The Family Support Manager is a social work position coordinating Playtime’s continuum of care for families needing resources and referrals beyond housing. Playtime’s focus is on supporting the social-emotional health and stability for the families we serve. This includes ensuring that Playtime families have the resources and support they need to access child care, educational advocacy, disability services, and meet concrete needs. We fund this position primarily through private foundation support, individual donations and some county grants.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a dedicated social worker who is looking for a non-traditional environment where you can make an impact, rather than be bogged down by bureaucracy and excessive caseloads. Successful candidates will come with knowledge of evidence-based practices grounded in therapeutic play techniques, research on Adverse Childhood Experiences, and multicultural competency. Experience with systemic advocacy, community partnership building and trauma-informed and responsive practices is key. Excellent rapport-building skills and ability to motivate and support vulnerable families is also important. Knowledge of child and youth development, domestic violence, homelessness, mental health, and solution-focused case management and motivational interviewing techniques are ideal.

WHAT YOU’D DO

The Family Support Manager will lead our social work services including coordinating a caseload of priority families from the programs we serve. Outreach to community providers to vet and provide resources and referral support focused on children’s wellbeing is key. Needs assessments and referrals for parents will center on such domains as early childhood development, educational advocacy, disability services, and meeting concrete. With guidance from the Executive Director, the Family Support Manager will also supervise social work interns working individually and in groups with children during Playtime’s programs. Partnering with Playtime’s program team and outside agencies to establish family wellbeing initiatives will be a great opportunity to infuse Playtime’s model with social work best practices. In addition, you can grow your skills by helping to design trainings for staff, volunteers and interns.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• • Master’s degree in social work (MSW) from an accredited program
  • 5 years of professional social work experience with children and families
  • Licensure in DC (LICSW) or MD (LMSW/LCSW-C)
  • Experience with crisis management, strengths-based assessment and case management, and therapeutic interventions that are trauma-responsive
  • Knowledge and connections with resources, services and programs that benefit children and families experiencing homelessness in Prince George’s County especially
  • Access to car and ability to travel to our sites in Prince George’s county several times per week to include evening hours. Occasional travel to DC and occasional Saturday events
  • Demonstrated ability to build, nurture and sustain community partnerships and inspire agencies and partners to act on behalf of vulnerable children and families
  • Pro-active problem solving who is organized, follows-through, meets deadlines, and takes initiative
  • Ability to work in an agile and evolving environment, both independently and collaboratively with others
  • Experiencing supervising, training, mentoring, supporting and holding social work interns accountable for deliverables

COMPUTER/TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

• PC proficient, including extensive experience with MS Office software (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint, and Word) as well as database systems
• Efficient at typing and accurate in keeping client progress notes
• Writing and submitting timely reports
• Professional writing, proofreading and communication skills
• Data reporting experience

PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to touch or feel a computer, keyboard, monitor, telephone, Smart Phone, and talk or hear when interacting with colleagues, partners or clients. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk and sit. The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms. The employee may regularly lift and/or move 15 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 pounds, for example lifting boxes up and down stairs. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Travel primarily between Playtime’s program hub in Greenbelt and other site locations expected around four days per week with occasional trips to client’s homes and Playtime’s DC office and other sites in Prince George’s County as needed. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Some remote and phone work is expected.

PAY BAND: $85,000-$90,000/annually with generous benefit package,including PTO, one week summer break, one week winter break and fully paid health insurance.

ANTICIPATED START DATE: November to January (flexible)

TO APPLY: Send a cover letter and resume as soon as possible; applications are considered on a rolling basis. Your cover letter should address your evening availability for this position, preferred start date, and how you meet the competencies we are looking for. Minority candidates and those with lived experience are especially encouraged to apply.

DISCLAIMER:

The information presented indicates the general nature and level of work expected of employees in this classification. It is not designed to contain, nor to be interpreted as, a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and objectives required of employees assigned to this job.

Generous benefit package, including PTO, one week summer break, one week winter break, 401K plan and fully paid health insurance.

Spanish proficiency preferred