Children's Counsellor
- Employer
- Yellow Brick House
- Location
- York Region
- Salary
- Outlined as per the collective agreement
- Starts
- Closes
- Job Category
- Social Work
- Job Type
- Full-time
CHILDREN’S COUNSELLOR
YELLOW BRICK HOUSE/PROJECT HOSTEL
Purpose of Position: The Children’s Counsellor works directly with children who have been exposed to domestic violence. The Children’s Counsellor works closely with the mother/caregiver in addressing children’s needs and supporting the mother/caregiver in utilizing her parenting skills to address her children’s needs
Reporting to: Supervisor of Direct Services
Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week
Responsibilities:
- Provides counselling to children and youth who have been impacted by the presence of violence in their home
- Conducts intake and discharge interviews with clients as required
- Consults with other clinical staff as needed regarding children’s behaviour and needs
- Makes appropriate referrals to agencies within York Region and Metropolitan Toronto (eg. Ontario Works, Housing, Legal Aid, CAS, Police)
- Promotes a flexible, culturally sensitive and supportive intervention, focused directly on children coming from homes with domestic violence
- Facilitates family’s capacity to make decisions in an effort to strengthen family life
- Assists mothers/caregivers to identify and develop plans that will meet the needs of child and family as a whole, including safety plans
- Implements case plans sensitive to the needs of clients
- Assists mothers/caregivers to understand the cycle of violence and the effects of violence on children
- This role works with children who reside temporarily in our emergency shelters as well as children living in the community.
- Liaison with Children’s Aid Societies, to facilitate referrals, and maintain a positive relationship
- Presentations as required to educate about YBH and about the effect of witnessing violence on children
Case Management:
- Liaises and advocates with community agencies to facilitate an awareness and understanding of children’s needs
- Identifies geographically based referral bases, develops referring relationships
- Facilitates families’ connection to ethno-specific services
Maintenance and Administration:
- Maintains daily confidential, pertinent, accurate and non-judgemental logging on WISH (agency database) of all client contacts
- Ensures that intake/discharge and all other appropriate information is complete
- Ensures that stats and client notes are completed at the end of each week
- Provides quarterly reports on program delivery, effectiveness and initiatives
- Ensures health and safety standards of the office are met
- Plans programming expenditure within budget allocations
- Participates in ongoing program evaluation
General:
- Reads, understands and adheres to policies and procedures of PROJECT HOSTEL O/A Yellow Brick House
- Engages fully and openly in supervision; keeping Supervisor fully informed at all times
- Attends staff training sessions as required
- Identifies and sets professional development goals annually
- Works within a team environment; provides support and information to team members and assists other staff when required
- Maintains a positive approach and a professional manner at all times
- Fosters and maintains an anti-oppression working environment
- Performs any other duties as required
- Able to offer a combination of in person and virtual counselling sessions
Minimum Education/Experience Requirements:
- Completion of a clinically supervised undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited university (e.g. BSW, MSW)
- Fluency/competency in a second language either spoken by a large number of clients or that is required by Project Hostel
- 2 to 3 years counselling experience
- Experience working with children
- A specialized certificate in working with children would be an asset
- In depth knowledge of the dynamics of woman abuse and its effect on children is required
- Ability to work under pressure and within the context of the team structure
- Ability to work independently
- Ability to deal effectively with job related stress and handle crisis situations
- Ability to work within an anti-oppression framework
- Knowledge and understanding of trauma, mental health issues, advocacy, substance abuse, employment, child development and parenting would be an asset
- Ability to multi-task and prioritize workload
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Presentation skills
- Proficiency in Microsoft Word, e-mail and the Internet
Please submit covering letter and resume, providing your interest in applying to this position in confidence to Robinc@yellowbrickhouse.org
No phone calls please. Yellow Brick House would like to thank all applicants for their interest; however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
NOTE: This position is full-time. Staff are represented by CUPE and compensation is determined by the collective agreement. After successfully completing probation, staff receive a comprehensive benefits package.