Family Services Worker

Education - Bachelor of Social Work (BSW)

A Family Services Worker at FACS-Elgin provides ongoing services to families involved with the Agency, and provides assistance to families once an investigation is complete and protection is deemed necessary.

Family Services Workers work with the intake department and families to develop a service plan. Plans are long-term and ongoing and involve a variety of departments, resources and people.

Their primary focus is the family. They are responsible for working with children in their homes or working with parents to acquire the skills to get their children back home.

The role of a Family Services Worker presents many challenges. They work with some voluntary clients, but also with non-voluntary clients, who are often resistant to CAS involvement. Resources and programs are a struggle, as they are not always available when people need them and often have long waiting lists.

Poverty issues and concerns with mental health are also challenges that have to be dealt with as a Family Services Worker.

The department tries to be proactive, and put services in place for families to avoid crises. The goal is to provide families with access to services before problems get out of hand. By foreseeing potential problems and providing help to families we are able to reduce protection concerns.

Qualifications & Skills

child and family assessment, diagnostic and investigatory skills competence in developing time limited goals and objectives as part of a case plan demonstrated high level assessment comfort in the use of authority in a child welfare setting an understanding of the principles of family systems theory and how this applies to service delivery in family ventred child welfare ability to engage clients in individual and family counselling strong belief in family centered child welfare practice including family preservation and permanence for children proven ability to provide high quality written reports within established deadlines aptitude for initiating various creative approaches to case-related problem-solving.