Employment Specialist

Birch Family Services is a leading provider of education, employment, and community support services for individuals with autism and developmental disabilities and their families in New York City. Every year, the organization supports more than 2,000 people across 31 locations in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. From preschool to graduation, employment, housing, and beyond, Birch Family Services provides fully integrated programs and services to support individuals in achieving their goals across their lifetime.

Purpose: To provide all assistance, support, training and coaching on needed skills necessary to enable program participants to obtain or maintain competitive employment in integrated work settings. This work is performed in services such as Supported Employment (SEMP), ACCES-VR or Community Based Pre-Vocational (Pre-Voc) training.

Screening

You may be responsible for participating in the screening of applicants for supported employment or pre-vocational training services. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Developing key questions or learning experiences to assess present levels of skills with a potential program member.
• Providing feedback/ input to Birch leadership on appropriateness of Birch services for the individual.

Assessment and Planning Prior to Beginning Services

Prior to beginning services, you are responsible for developing assessment opportunities and experiences to better understand top strengths and areas for growth (e.g. top reasons why the person is likely not, yet, ready for employment). Additionally, you are responsible for:

• Developing a scope and sequence (a learning plan) for the individual that will help drive skill development for the individual to meet their life plan goals.
• Working with and seeking out feedback from your direct manage to ensure your plan, tactics and approach are effective for helping drive results for the program member.
• Devising internal learning plan goals and monitoring progress towards meeting those goals by an established date.

Pre-Employment Training and/ or Completing Discovery

It is your responsibility to teach skills and create learning experiences for the program member that will lead to greater independence in the job search process and/ or becoming more ready for employment. You are required to:

• Proactively share plans and seek feedback from your direct manager/ coach to ensure that your plans, strategy, approach, and tactics are as effective as possible.
• If necessary, complete a discovery report for the Employment Training Program (ETP) within the allotted timeframe that will yield a clear plan of top strengths, areas of growth and best fit job opportunities for the program member. If completing discovery for a person in ETP, you are required to attend OPWDD Innovations trainings (named ETP 101) and seek support from your supervisor/ coach on effective strategies for completing discovery.

Opportunity and Experience Development

As the expert on the program members you work with, you are responsible for leading efforts to create and develop work (paid or unpaid) experiences that are aligned with service/ program goals (SEMP and pre-voc) goals, along with the identified goals and interests of the program member. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Developing volunteer experiences in a field of interest, internship opportunities, situational assessment sites that meet ETP program requirements and paid work opportunities in an integrated, competitive setting. While you may work with your supervisor and/ or a job developer to help you create opportunities, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring opportunities and experiences are created in a timely manner.
• Contacting and convincing potential employers and work experience sites (going in-person, calling, emailing, leveraging other sites like LinkedIn), helping modify existing jobs to better meet the program member's needs (customization), provide information on incentives and supports available to employers.

Personal Organization

As someone who is teaching job skills to program members, you are required to maintain personal organization systems that ensure you meet all deliverables for your position. This includes but is not limited to:

• Maintaining your calendar to clearly identify all billable time (direct and indirect hours) worked
• Task/ to-do lists for work with your supervisor/ coach and with each program member (e.g. next steps after a meeting or observation)
• Completing data collection (progress notes) within 48 hours of providing services
• Reminders for drafting Staff Action Plans (SAPs) within 2 weeks after a Life Plan meeting and completing monthly progress reports (along with any additional required documentation that is asked of your position at the time)

Work (paid or unpaid) Placement and Coaching

You are responsible for:

• Assisting program participants in securing work opportunities
• Supporting individuals in applying for paid employment
• Serving as a liaison between a potential employer, program member and other supports/ stakeholders
• Assisting an employer, as necessary, with position modifications

This work also similarly applies to individuals needing unpaid work experiences. As needed, you are also responsible for teaching program members the skills and knowledge required to navigate the job search process more independently.

When at a work site (paid or unpaid), you are tasked with providing training and intermittent/ongoing monitoring of the participant's general work skills and specific to the job. This includes but is not limited to ensuring the person is:

• Learning their work requirements
• Learning new skills to seek out career advancement opportunities
• Continuing to develop the social skills necessary to perform their work and an integrated setting

As needed, you will provide travel training and/or assist in securing alternative means of transportation to and from worksite. You will foster a relationship with and maintain ongoing contact with employer to identify any problems which arise and assist the individual in identify and addressing concerns in order to successfully maintain the work opportunity.

Communication and Documentation

You are required, as needed, to maintain necessary contact with family members, residence managers and service coordinators for the individual. This includes:

• Participating in and sending a recap/ notes for Life Plan meetings
• Drafting Staff Action Plans
• Writing detailed data collection notes to Precision Care
• Writing thorough monthly updates
• Completing ACCES-VR billing forms (if needed)
• Completing Pre-Voc annual assessments and/ or ETP discovery documentation

Support

You will have the opportunity to meet with a coach/ supervisor at least once per week. You are expected to proactively 1. Name progress towards the goals outlined for your position 2. Identify what's on track and not on track and 3. Propose solutions and next steps that will help you meet goals and intended outcomes for the position. Your coach is a resource towards meeting your goals, not in charge of your goals. You are encouraged to seek out advice from colleagues and external partners to continue to support your own development and progress towards goals for your position.

Miscellaneous

You are required to participate in all required/mandated trainings, maintain all certifications related to job responsibilities (transcript for OPWDD and/ or ACCES-VR trainings, as needed)

NOTE: Examples are for illustrative purposes. Responsibilities are not limited to specific examples cited.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with individuals with autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities
• Background, passion and proven results for teaching other people
• Passion for helping make the job landscape more equitable for people with disabilities
• Demonstrated effective written and oral communication skills
• Basic computer proficiency

Education

Minimum HS Diploma/GED