Employment Specialist

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

Employment Specialist - EmployAbility Program 

Reports to: EmployAbility Manager

Are you passionate about making a meaningful impact in the lives of families facing disabilities? The Family Resource Network (FRN) invites you to join our dedicated team as we continue our mission of providing personalized, human-centric support to families across New Jersey. Established in 1970, FRN offers personalized services for epilepsy, autism, disabilities, and chronic illness. With over 50 programs, we've impacted thousands of lives in 54 years. As an FRN team member, you'll be part of a passionate community dedicated to making a difference every day.

The EmployAbility Program serves as an innovative approach to promote competitive, integrated employment for individuals with disabilities in Monmouth, Mercer, and Middlesex counties. This program maintains three components: (1) capacity building for Support Coordination Agencies on the importance of competitive, integrated employment and how to encourage individuals to engage in employment-related services; (2) a small group setting to provide ten participants with job skills and exposure through sessions to occur multiple days a week; (3) placement in internships for 120 hours as well as dedicated job development to assist participants in obtaining full-time or part-time competitive, integrated employment prior to their program completion.

The majority of programming will occur within Mercer County with some travel required throughout Mercer, Monmouth, and Middlesex County. Candidates must be willing to occasionally have a flexible schedule to accommodate internship or job development needs.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Ensure that all work is carried out in a manner that is both respectful and empowering to families and individuals with disabilities.
• As part of the assessment process, obtain and read all pertinent client information (Individual Plan for Employment, Medical, Evaluation Reports, etc.) and conduct an interview with both the referral source and job seeker.
• Develop an Employment Plan that is consistent with both existing Individual Employment Plans, other existing assessments, the referral sources input, and the job seeker’s interests, aptitudes, and stated employment goal.
• Design employment related preparatory training, such as resume development, interview skills, job search options, networking skills and on-the-job relationship protocol.
• Perform job development to obtain job exploration experience, internships, and job placements.
• Collect and review participant timesheets.

• Aid in actual job search, application submission, interviewing and assistive technology assessment and procurement.
• Identify and share pertinent resources for employment to include reliable transportation options.
• When necessary, negotiate with employers to obtain reasonable accommodations for job seekers.
• Work to make certain that all job seeker supports are in place in order to ensure job retention.
• Complete accurate reports, database entries, case notes, and documentation, etc. in a timely manner as required.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits of Working with FRN:

• Medical, Dental, Vision, life, and disability insurance
• 10 Paid holidays
• Up to 2 floating holidays
• Additional paid time off last week of December
• Up to 2 paid personal days
• Paid vacation time
• Up to 12 paid sick days
• Laptop, Cell Phone and Printer Provided
• Mileage Reimbursement 
• Ongoing training opportunities for all staff