Creative Associates International – Family Counselor  

Creative Associates International - Family Counselor

Family Counselor

Position Location: Saint Lucia

Program Summary

The Community, Family and Youth Resilience (CFYR) Program, financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Creative Associates International, offers a holistic public health approach to violence prevention, using primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention interventions. Interventions are targeted to reducing youth’s risk factors while building resilience through specialized services aimed at increasing youth’s protective factors. The program is based in Saint Lucia, with satellite offices in St. Kitts and Guyana. In Saint Lucia the program, including the Family Counseling Intervention, will focus on the following Districts: Anse La Raye, Dennery, Soufriere, Vieux Fort. In addition, certain neighborhoods in Castries Central will also be participating. The Family Counseling Intervention, targeting youth ages 10-17 and their families, will be implemented through a partnership between CFYR and the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment, Youth Development, Sports, Culture and Local Government.

Position Summary:

The role of the Family Counselor is to improve outcomes for children and families who have met the Youth Service Eligibility Tool (YSET) secondary prevention thresholds. Using a combination of individual and group interventions with children, young people and their families.
To work in partnership with parents/care givers to strengthen parental capacity and family relationships; to build resilience, protective factors and to increase parental engagement in their local community and in their children/ young people’s lives.

Primary responsibilities

1. Supporting Families

• To assist in identifying level of need of child/young person using the YSET;
• To engage with families to develop and maintain a supportive empowering relationship founded on mutual respect and trust;
• To assess, plan, implement and review intervention processes with each family using the tools provided;
• To provide the child/young person and family with correct support according to level of need;
• To assist families in determining their own strengths and resilience to independently seek advice, access services and manage issues that affect their safety, health and well-being;
• To provide information and practical support that will assist parents in developing parenting skills to improve relationships within the family;
• To work in partnership with families to develop tools that will help strengthen their ability to develop their own strategies, for managing crisis situations as well as a range of social and personal issues; to explore targeted activities that reduce child/young person’s risk-taking behaviors and to enable them to make their own positive choices;
• Knowledge on protecting and promoting the rights of the child / young person through a) developing support networks b) accessing additional services.

2. Community based work

• To provide a mixture of targeted community based work that will assist families;
• To establish clearly defined relationship parameters with all stakeholders.

3. Essential qualifications and skills

• Associate Degree in Social Work, Teaching or related fields, or extensive field experience in family support work;
• At least 3 years of experience in the field for example children and families, assessment and planning, youth violence prevention, youth development or community work; plus 2 years of general work experience;
• Knowledge of the issues affecting children, families and youths living in the Caribbean;
• Demonstrated ability to work with teams as well as the communities in some challenging environments;
• Basic knowledge of secondary prevention working with at risk children, families and youth;
• Excellent interpersonal, technical and analytical skills;
• Basic IT skills.

4. Administrative responsibilities

• To contribute to CFYR and M & E process and other compliance data requests;
• To maintain an up to date diary, case-load / family action plans and records;
• To report to CFYR concerning issues relating to casework undertaken;
• To attend meetings, training and supervision as required.

5. Desirables

• Understanding of Kweyol (Saint Lucia);
• Experience of working with families with complex needs that find it hard to engage with services.
Citizens of OECS member states are strongly encouraged to apply.
Interested candidates should email their CV, with the position stated in the subject line, to: info-stlucia@crea.cfyr.com. Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.