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SalaryTITLE: Bilingual Doula (Spanish/English)
DEPARTMENT: Doula Services
SUPERVISOR: Doula Supervisor
LOCATION: Family Focus- Cicero
Job Summary: The Doula is responsible for initiating and maintaining regular contact and support with participant families. The Doula is responsible for promoting healthy pregnancies, breastfeeding, and building a trusting relationship that offers strength-based services for families. The Doula will provide continuous emotional, physical, and informational support to the expecting parent before, during and after childbirth to help accomplish the healthiest, satisfying experience possible.
Responsibilities and Duties:
- Perform initial assessment of family.
- Assist family in initiating and strengthening the parent-child relationship prenatally by incorporating a strength- based model. Suggest parent child interactions accordingly.
- These activities will take place primarily within the family’s home, doctor’s office, hospitals.
- The Doula will advocate for families, provide community outreach, prenatal education activities, and assist the family in preparing for childbirth
- through both home visiting and group-based services.
- Assist parents in improving skills to optimize the home environment.
- Help families to improve support system.
- Increase family’s ability to problem solve and advocate for themselves and their children.
- Identify and refer family for contact/appointments at other supportive agencies, including health care appointments.
- Monitors the well-being of the children in the home and reports and concerns to the immediate supervisor.
- Attends relevant lectures, courses, workshops, training courses and conferences to further professional growth, as approved by supervisor.
- Participate in the on-going development and related activities of a comprehensive quality improvement process within the Child and Family Services division.
- Performs other relevant duties as assigned by supervisor.
- Perform documentation of services provided in participant files, logs and the Data tracking system in a timely manner, meeting funders’ requirements for deadlines.
- Participate in all team meetings, present case materials and request information from other staff during team meetings.
- Attend all required trainings.
- Assist with agency sponsored events.
- Maintain a minimum of capacity caseload of 8 families at any given time
- Maintains a minimum 80% of the home visits expected completed
- Submit weekly calendar schedule to supervisor by the end of the week
- Provide information, education, and resources that will prepare the parent and her family for the birth process during home visits.
- Identify needs and refer families to additional community resources, including health care and other necessities.
- Responsible for assisting families in establishing goals and a birth plan for accomplishing those goals.
- Attend and support the laboring mother and her family and/or support person(s) at the hospital setting.
- Communicate all births attendance and progress with Supervisor via text or phone call.
- Conduct outreach activities and educate the community.
- Maintain postpartum contact for eight weeks post delivery at least once or twice a week, plus regular phone contact and supports breast feeding and infant care as well as provide support to the new mom.
- Plan, facilitate, and document prenatal groups. The prenatal group is open to the community. Doula will conduct 24 groups in a fiscal year, (three sessions of 8 weeks each).
Education and Experience:
- Associate’s Degree or higher in social service or related field (preferred), or equivalent experience.
- Doulas without a college degree will be considered if they have previous experience.
- Must be on-call 24/7 to Doula participant families.
- Bilingual in English/Spanish.
- Must have dependable transportation, valid driver’s license, and proof of auto insurance.
- Must have completed the Doula 20-session training program or must complete the 20-session training within 3 months of employment.
- Self-starter, capable of producing excellent work with minimal supervision.
- Ability to multi-task and manage time effectively.
- Excellent interpersonal and organization skills.
- Experience working with highly stressed families in overburdened communities.
- Knowledge of issues related to maternal/child health and child abuse risk.
- Knowledge of child development; particularly infant/toddlers.
- Commitment to prevention and strength-based interventions.
- Demonstrated written and oral communication skills.
- Sensitivity to working with families of diverse cultural backgrounds.
- Considerable experience working with children, adolescents, and families: Experience working with teen mothers a plus.
- Strong team building capabilities.
- Strong technology and computer skills.
This is a full time exempt position.
Expected Salary: Not to exceed $50,000/year.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Family Focus is an Equal Opportunity Employer that invests in strengthening families and their children in Chicago and NE Illinois, so they build social capital and achieve upward economic mobility through high-quality innovative programs and services, grounded in anti-racism and social justice.
