The Home Visitor provides child development services, social services, health services, parent support and parent involvement services to families including home visits, socializations, advocacy and crisis intervention in accordance with Head Start Performance Standards, Y in Central Maryland Child Care Philosophy and local licensing regulations.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Must have detail and multi-task orientation and be able to cope well with stress. 1 to 2 hours per day spent in strenuous physical activity, lifting up to 50 pounds two or three times in an 8-hour day.
● Capacity to problem solve, handle crisis, and work with families and children of various cultures from low-income backgrounds.
● Approach to working with families that is empathetic, nonjudgmental, respectful, and professional.
● Willingness to work primarily in the homes of families residing in high-risk communities.
● Must have knowledge of community resources and the skills to link families with appropriate agencies and services.
● Flexibility with respect to time and days able to work as well as to work tasks. ● Valid Maryland driver’s license. Daily driving is required.
● Must have own reliable transportation.
Education
● Bachelors or Associates degree in child development, education, social sciences or related field.
Experience
● At least two years of experience working with children and families in a human service setting.
Certifications
● Possess Pediatric First Aid and CPR certificate or obtain within 90 days of employment.
● Conduct weekly home visits to each assigned family and facilitate parent-child socialization and parent support groups.
● Provide resources on child development, parenting education and family support on home visits to families of infants/toddlers and pregnant women.
● Coordinate and develop linkages between other family support service agencies in the community to provide better service delivery to EHS families. Serve as an advocate for Early Head Start families within the community. Train and support EHS parents to advocate for themselves and their families.
● Implement a family-centered approach to assist families to build on their strengths and develop family partnership agreements to support families in identifying their concerns, priorities, and resources.
● Conducts developmental screenings and ongoing assessments of infants and toddlers to determine motor, language, social, cognitive and emotional skills. ● Provide developmentally appropriate curriculum and a caring, nurturing, and soothing environment for infants and toddlers.
● Develops an individual learning plan for each child with parental assistance. ● Maintain appropriate treatment records and documentation as required. ● Work collaboratively with Head Start/Early Head Start Coordinators, pediatric nurse,
physicians, and outside agencies regarding developmental and health related issues, as well as resources for families on caseload.
● Model positive interactions with infants and toddlers to promote parent-child bonding and nurturing parent-child relationships.
● Generate and submit weekly reports that identify progress in program goals and service delivery data like individualized learning plans, documentation of screenings, assessments, weekly health checklist, weekly home visit log, and other documentation required for providing quality services.
● Observes infants and toddlers to detect signs of illness, injury, abuse, neglect, emotional disturbance, or other special needs, and reports these signs immediately to the EHS Home Base Coach and Senior Director of Family Services.
● Work with Coordinators to provide developmentally appropriate Early Intervention services.
● Conduct ongoing monitoring to assure each enrolled child receives required developmental screenings within 45 days of enrollment.
● Attend case management meetings, parent conferences, case reviews, transition meetings, IEP/IFSP meetings, staff meetings, parent meetings, in-service and pre-service meetings, and other meetings as directed.
● Report to work at scheduled times and maintain good attendance.
● Takes advantage of training opportunities to continue professional growth.
● Models professional behavior and adherence to Y of Central Maryland Baltimore County Head Start/Early Head Start policies and procedures through behavior, appearance, and attitude.