Family Development Professional

About The Centers

The Centers fights for equity by healing, teaching, and inspiring individuals and families to reach their full potential. We provide health, family, and workforce services at 11 locations throughout Greater Cleveland, creating life-changing solutions for people to lead healthier and more successful lives.

Our Smart Start Home Visiting Program

The Centers’ Smart Start Home Visiting Program advocates and provides services for the healthy development for families from pregnancy through age 5, by building the strengths and capacities of families, care-giving professionals, and the communities in which they reside. 

By bringing the classroom into family homes, our trained Family Development Professionals educational materials and a nationally recognized curriculum, including social activities, partnering with families and caregivers to prepare the family for developmental milestones on a weekly basis. This position is responsible for recruitment of participants, planning and preparing activities appropriate for the developmental stage of participating children, facilitating and supporting learning in individual and group settings, identifying needs of families and connecting families with appropriate resources. This position supports parents as the best and first teachers of young children, and is proficient at working collaboratively with parents from diverse backgrounds. The Smart Start Home Visiting program is supported in part by Head Start & Early Head Start, Help Me Grow, United Way, UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, and PNC Bank.

 We strive to be an equitable, anti-racist, and service-oriented workplace that pioneers and co-creates solutions while fostering an inclusive community where our team members thrive.

Wellbeing and Benefits

Providing quality benefits to our staff is important to us. Just as important is our staff’s well-being. That’s why we offer a number of choices from medical to dental to vision plans to meet the different needs of our staff.

· Choice of medical and dental plans · Health Savings Account · Flexible Spending Account for Health and Dependent Care · Vision · Support for continuing education and credential renewal · Life Insurance · Retirement Savings (401k) with a company contribution · 457(b) Savings · Mental Health Support · Employee Assistance Program · Calm Subscription · Short and Long term Disability

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, Social Services or related.
• Valid Driver’s License, with proof of valid insurance and a way to travel around Cuyahoga County required.
• No record of child abuse or moral turpitude as determined by background check based on fingerprints
• Ability to engage children and families in mind stimulating activities that promote healthy development

Job Summary

Provide home visits to families eligible for Early Head Start and Head Start (0-5) through the Smart Start Home Visiting Program. Responsible for recruitment, enrollment, planning, care coordination, and implementation of all essential components of the curriculum, assisting assigned families in identifying, accessing, and utilizing community resources, while encouraging and promoting each family’s empowerment and self-sufficiency and reinforcing positive self-help skills.

Essential Job Duties & Responsibilities 

• Visit families once per week for 90 minutes per visit
• Ensure parent/guardian participation with child
• Cover at least three components during each visit, and all components over the course of a month
• Conduct make-up visits within two weeks with families unable to fulfill their scheduled visits
• Administer screening and assessments along with keeping accurate children’s records
• Collaborate with parents to prepare and implement weekly lesson plans
• Conduct Parent/Teacher conferences at least twice per year to review the child’s assessment and
• screening information in a safe and healthy environment.
• Collaborate with families transitioning to other program options and kindergarten.
• Collaborate with families on completing the Family Assessments as outlined in the Head Start Performance Standards.
• Collaborate with families on obtaining immunization records, well child checks, dental visits and follow-ups to comply with Head Start Performance Standards.
• Group Socialization
• Agency and Community Collaboration
• Recruit and maintain maximum caseload of 12 children throughout the entire year
• Maintain an active waiting list

Core Competencies

• Professional communication skills in both verbal and written form.
• Ability to Conceptualize.
• Attention to Detail.
• Coaches and Mentors.
• Client Focus.
• Continuous Learning.
• Empathetic of Others.
• Flexible/Adaptive.
• Gains Commitment.
• Maintains Perspective.
• Planning and Prioritizing.

The Centers is an Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.