Employment: School and Community Resource Advocate

July 12, 2024

Employment: School and Community Resource Advocate

Job Description, Salary and Benefits

Position Title: School and Community Resource Advocate

Reports To: United Way of Mason County Executive Director

General Description: The School and Community Resource Advocate is an employee of United Way of Mason County and supports student achievement by providing outreach services to students and their families to ensure they receive access to needed health and human services. Services are provided on-site, at school, and available to all students regardless of county of residency.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

on a regular the school/college administrators and counselors/student success specialist, on a regular basis, to review needed human, behavioral health and medical health services to support student success.
Facilitate Mason County Family Link meetings as a means of coordinating services to students and families within the Mason County Family Links Program, as applicable.
Assist school staff in the identification of students in need of human, behavioral health and medical health services.
Identify, recruit and connect local resources to meet the school’s human, behavioral health and medical health service needs.
Advocate on behalf of students and family in meeting their needs with human, behavioral health and medical health service providers.
Serve as the primary advocate for human, behavioral health and medical health service providers by ensuring appropriate access to the school when providing needed services to students.
Actively promote improved communication regarding human, behavior health and medical health services between parents, school/college administrators/staff and other Mason County Family Link providers.
Provide home visitation type services, as needed.
Complete all required paperwork in a timely manner.
Any other pertinent duties assigned by the Executive Director.

Qualifications: The successful candidate will possess the abilities needed to effectively perform each of the essential duties listed above. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions. Specific education, experience and skill requirements are outlined below.

Education: A Bachelor’s degree in a health or human services related field or education is preferred. Three to five years of employment experience within a health or human services or education field of work. Fluently bilingual in Spanish a plus. Computer literacy is required (word, excel and power point). Familiarity with database software is preferred.

Reasoning: Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions. Ability to think analytically when solving practical problems and dealing with a variety of concrete variables in situations where limited standardization exists.

Language: Ability to express thoughts in a thorough and concise manner in both oral and written form. Ability to read and interpret general business information. Ability to write effective reports and correspondence. Ability to present information and respond to questions from private and professional members of the community. Ability to communicate and interact with individuals from diverse educational, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

Mathematical: Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals.

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform essential job functions. The employee is regularly required to talk and hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and the ability to adjust focus. The employee frequently is required to sit and use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools or controls. The employee is occasionally required to stand and talk. The employee may be required to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. The employee must have a valid Michigan Drivers License, reliable transportation and be able to travel in all kinds of weather. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

Other Skills and Abilities:

Extensive knowledge of community resources.
Desire to work as part of a team.
Strong collaborative, problem-solving and organizational skills.
Ability to maintain confidentiality.
Ability and willingness to adapt to changing circumstances and priorities.
Ability to manage a variety of tasks simultaneously along with prioritizing efforts to achieve the most urgent tasks.
Willingness to seek out innovative approaches to improve the organization’s operations.
Positive and “can-do” attitude that can tolerate a high level of frustration.

Salary and Benefits

The salary is based on working 220 days a year. The person doing this job has school holidays and breaks, along with the month of July. In addition to the following benefits: