Current Employment Opportunities:

1.) CASA Advocacy Supervisor

 1.) Title: CASA Advocacy Supervisor

Reports to: Program Manager

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

The mission of Voices for Children is to transform the lives of abused children by providing them with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs). VFC believes that every child deserves a safe and permanent home, and to that end, our vision is to provide a CASA to every child in foster care who needs one,

monitor every court file in the system, and advocate to improve the lives of San Diego County's foster children.

Recruited, trained, and supervised by VFC, our volunteer CASAs interface with key agencies, legal counsel, and community resources to identify and protect the best interests of each foster child. CASAs act as fact finders for the juvenile court judge to ensure decisions are based on the most current and pertinent information about each child's situation. CASAs also provide emotional support as they guide their case children through the complex foster care system. CASAs strive to ensure that each child's unique needs are met.

OVERVIEW OF THE POSITION

By 2016, as part of our Serve Every Child vision, Voices for Children will triple the number of children it serves with CASAs. This exciting and ambitious plan will ensure that the children who need CASAs the most, get them.

At its heart, Serve Every Child is a call to action for our community. We will ask thousands of San Diego citizens to make a commitment to becoming a CASA. This will require the rapid expansion of our program team: a group of highly talented professionals who supervise and support our volunteer child advocates. Advocacy Supervisors play a vital role in ensuring the very best outcomes for abused and neglected children.

Our Advocacy Supervisors are from diverse backgrounds with degrees ranging from criminal justice to early childhood education to political science to rhetoric to African American studies. Our staff has worked as congressional aides, as teachers, in law firms, in customer service, in athletics, in volunteer management and in a wide range of social service positions.

Despite this diversity, Advocacy Supervisors share common characteristics: they are bright and professional, insightful about human behavior, open to learning, comfortable in the courtroom and in a non-profit work environment, and persistent and strategic in their advocacy efforts. Their time is spent interacting with our volunteers and with professionals in the child welfare community, editing and revising reports to the court, and of course, dealing with a myriad of administrative tasks.

The ideal candidate shares these characteristics, hasa bachelor's or master's degree and at least two years of professional experience. The ideal candidate also has a strong background in volunteerism. This is a full time 40+ hours per week position with some night and weekend hours required.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Our hiring process is extremely competitive. In addition to your cover letter and resume, you must submit an essay of no more than 500 words describing a difficult decision you have made recently & how you made that decision.

All candidates will also undergo a background check, including a DMV record review, FBI and DOJ fingerprinting, and a check of the Child Abuse Central Index. Our hiring process includes an initial phone interview and all hires undergo at least three in person interviews with panels of current VFC employees. Salary is in the mid to upper 30,000's with full benefits. Please submit application materialsto Program Associate, Brandé Hutchinson, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

CASA ADVOCACY SUPERVISOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

The goals of the Advocacy Supervisor position include: (1) ensure that children assigned toCASAs receive the advocacy they need; (2) ensure that the children's best interests are presented to the Juvenile Court; (3) ensure that the needs of the volunteers are met and that the volunteers are satisfied; (4) ensure that the policies and procedures of VFC are followed by all volunteers; and(5) promote the mission of Voices for Children in the community.Specifically, Advocacy Supervisors will:

Maintain substantial knowledge regarding the CASA concept, Voices for Children policies and procedures, juvenile dependency law, special education law, and the Health and Human Services Agency.

Maintain an ongoing caseload involving a total of approximately 50 CASAs and provide supervision and support to those CASAs. Establish at least monthly contact with allCASAs and maintain detailed records concerning all contacts with CASAs and other parties involved in a child's case. Conduct annual evaluations with each volunteer and provide a written record of the evaluation in the volunteer file. Conduct a monthly "small group" meeting for volunteers. Attend and support CASAs at Treatment Team meetings, Team Decision Making meetings, and Individualized Education Program meetings. Participate in development and evaluation of volunteer training and continuing education curriculum.

Review and approve accuracy and appropriateness of court reports and related communications to the Court and other agencies.Maintain accurate records concerning upcoming court dates. Maintain knowledge about court policies and procedures and act as a liaison with the juvenile court. Attend court hearings in place of or to support volunteers as necessary.

Serve as on-duty supervisor with the VFC pager in rotation with other program staff.

Participate in case intake, case review, and the case matching/volunteer assignment process. Conduct file reviews and manage outlying court offices in rotation with other supervisors.

Provide support to the Volunteer Recruitment and Training staff as needed in the exercise of their duties. Act as an instructor for volunteer training. Participate in the volunteer candidate screening and selection process.