Social Worker

Buncombe County is a caring community in harmony with its environment where citizens succeed, thrive, and realize their potential. Our mission is to promote a healthy, safe, well-educated, and thriving community with a sustainable quality of life; to provide effective and efficient government our citizens can trust; and to deliver needed service through a responsive work force committed to excellence, integrity, and teamwork.

Job Title:  Social Worker

This posting is for ongoing recruitment in the Foster Care & Adoptions and Family In-Home Social Work divisions.

Transcripts are required to be submitted with your application in order to be considered for Social Work positions.

Purpose of the position:

The primary purpose of this position is to provide direct adoption & Foster Care services to children and resource families to ensure a safe and permanent placement of children in agency custody. Family In-Home Services provides direct services to children and families to ensure safety and prevent removal from families.

Essential Functions of the position:

• Ensure children who cannot safely return to their birth families achieve a safe and legally secure placement via adoption or guardianship.
• Provide services through which a plan for temporary substitute care appropriate to a child’s needs is evaluated, arranged, maintained and supervised in Court sanctioned placement or a licensed facility when the child’s own family is unable to care for him/her adequately due to safety/risk factors.
• Provide direct services to children and their pre-adoptive caregivers to ensure the protection, safety and permanency of the children.
• Assess, prepare, place and monitor children cleared for adoption.
• Provide state mandated case management services for children in DSS Legal Custody.
• Develop and monitor service plans with families and provide or refer services as needed.
• Make recommendations to the court, including services needed, progress and barriers to permanent plan.
• Establish rapport with children, families and appropriate professionals/non-professionals in the community to provide a strengths-based, family centered approach in working with families throughout child welfare involvement.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Education, Training and/or Experience: Master’s degree in social work from an accredited school of social work; or a Bachelor’s degree in social work from an accredited school of social work and completion of the Child Welfare Collaborative; or a Bachelor’s degree in social work from an accredited school of social work and one (1) year directly related experience; or a Master’s degree in a human services field and one (1) year of directly related experience; or a Bachelor’s degree in a human services field from an accredited college or university and two (2) years directly related experience; or a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and three (3) years of directly related experience.

Additional Training and Experience: English/Spanish bi-lingual speakers preferred.

License or Certification Required by Statute or Regulation: A current, valid North Carolina driver’s license.

Successful FIH/Permanency Planning Social Workers:

• Engage and work collaboratively with children and family members who have often experienced significant trauma, are angry and/or scared.
• Promote and demonstrate competency and respect for cultural diversity among clients, coworkers, and all other work-related contacts.
• Demonstrate the ability to work in an emotionally charged environment and conduct home visits in isolated or high crime areas, involving exposure to substandard and unsanitary living conditions.
• Assess protective capacities of caretakers, develop Family Service Agreements, and identify and advocate for resources and community supports to minimize risk and provide for safety of the child.  Assist parents to identify behaviors that led to child abuse and/or neglect and support parents to identify ways to make the necessary behavioral changes.
• Document all relevant and appropriate information gathered during services and complete all required forms accurately and in a timely manner.

Utilize critical thinking skills to identify and address immediate threat to the child which may include:

• Working with families to identify family supports who can assist with keeping the child safe
• Testifying in court to seek emergency protective services
• Placing children in substitute care
• Supervise Visits to maintain connections between children and Caretakers
• Removing child from caretakers.

Applicants will be given credit only for information provided in response to this announcement. No additional information will be solicited or considered by this office; therefore, persons who submit incomplete applications may not receive full credit for their education, training, and experience. Applicants will not automatically be given credit based on their position title. If work history involves part time work, you must state the number of hours per week to receive credit. All applicants will be considered for both day and night hours.

In order to uphold internal pay parity and equity, salaries are non-negotiable for new and current Buncombe County employes. All new employees are paid according to their years of relevant education and experience above minimum requirements for the position and employees have the opportunity to obtain pay increases via Cost of Living increases and promotions.

Department:Health and Human Services

Location: Asheville, NC

Job Posting End Date:

Salary Range: $26.70 – $32.05

Buncombe County Government realizes the importance of a diverse professional workforce and the need to foster a responsive and innovative organizational culture, one that fully engages all of our employees, honoring and building on each employee’s unique experiences, opinions, and perspective.

It is the policy of Buncombe County to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, age, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other legally protected class under federal or NC State law. In addition the Agency expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment or discrimination.

Applicants for employment are invited to participate in the affirmative action program by reporting their status as a protected veteran or other minority. In extending this invitation, we advise you that: (a) workers (applicants) are under no obligation to respond but may do so in the future if they choose; (b) responses will remain confidential within the human resource department; and (c) responses will be used only for the necessary information to include in our affirmative action program. We are a company that values diversity. We actively encourage women, minorities, veterans and disabled employees to apply. Refusal to provide this information will have no bearing on your application and will not subject you to any adverse treatment.