Overview

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system. CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 6 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

CFR seeks a Social Work Training Supervisor to oversee the development, coordination and implementation of CFR’s training needs for all offices in coordination with the current Litigation and Training Supervisor and the Managing Directors of Litigation and Social Work.   This person will work in partnership with Directors, supervisors, senior and program staff on a range of CFR’s internal and external training initiatives.  As part of the training team, the Social Work Training Supervisor will educate interdisciplinary teams of attorneys, social workers, parent advocates, family advocates, paralegals, and others as hiring needs require. The Social Work Training Supervisor’s primary responsibility will be to develop and sustain a well-trained, ethical, skilled, knowledgeable, creative, and passionate staff, and to provide support to supervisors and senior staff in all boroughs in advancing this goal.  The person will be responsible, with the Litigation and Training Supervisor, to ensure learners understand and can access applicable law, regulations, and city and state policies to creatively and fiercely advocate for parents against the Family Policing system.  Responsibilities may include: 

 

  • In collaboration with the current Litigation and Training Supervisor and Paralegals, scheduling, coordinating and organizing all CFR training, including new staff training, all staff training, and regular training for experienced staff
  • Coordination and administration of MCLE for attorneys and CE for social work staff
  • Creating customized presentations for new staff depending on experience level 
  • In collaboration with the Litigation and Training Supervisor and the Managing Directors of Litigation and Social Work, reviewing, organizing, updating and improving existing training materials to make sure they are current and consistent with laws, ethics, regulations and ACS and other policies and procedures
  • In collaboration with the Litigation and Training Supervisor and the DEIB Training Sub-Committee, reviewing all training outlines and materials to ensure the curriculum reflects our DEIB initiatives
  • In collaboration with the Litigation and Training Supervisor, supervisors and senior staff, create new trainer outlines as needed and add relevant materials for any new and current training sessions.  Ensure all trainer outlines and materials focus on how best to highlight the social work role on our cases, at every case stage, and on the skills and activities of the role of social work staff
  • Regularly remind staff about the location and substance of training materials, including when observing or supporting staff on intake, and in out of court conferences or court.
  • Regularly communicating with staff about upcoming training scheduled at CFR and, to the extent appropriate, with outside practitioners seeking training and guidance from CFR
  • With Directors, Supervisors and Senior Staff, create and coordinate ongoing refresher trainings and simulations to enhance the skills of experienced attorneys and social work staff on topics across all of CFR’s practice areas 
  • Work with the Managing Director of Social Work to enhance the MSW Social Work intern program.  Coordinate with university MSW programs to inquire about interns (speak with coordinators, participate in job fairs, etc.), develop training materials and curriculum for MSW interns, etc. 
  • Assist in identifying outside trainings or conferences appropriate for all staff and coordinate equitable and needed participation in outside trainings or conferences; insure that information learned at outside trainings is disseminated appropriately to the entire staff
  • Administering periodic surveys (or other assessment tools) for staff at all levels to assess training needs and the efficacy of training programs; this may be in collaboration with HR staff
  • If needed, coordinating trainings for Case Practice and other meetings with a goal of affording as many opportunities for our social work staff who need CE credits and our attorney staff who need MCLE credits to obtain them
  • In collaboration with the Training and Litigation Supervisor, the Chief Operating Officer, the Managing Directors of Litigation and Social Work and the DEIB Training Committee, plan, organize and execute two All Staff Training Sessions in February and November.   
  • Communicating with the New York Office of the Professions about renewal of CFR’s CE provider accreditation and gathering and submitting the renewal applications
  • Learning the New York State Education Department’s requirements for the creation of new CE courses and ensuring that any new CE course satisfies those requirements
  • Appearing in multiple boroughs on Intake and out-of-court conferences with new social work or litigation family defense staff, especially in their first few months at CFR; provide back up to social work or litigation supervisors and senior staff in multiple boroughs on a planned (leaves or vacations) or ad hoc (illness) basis
  • Coordinating outside trainings with the other family defense providers and assisting with training for outside practitioners, including in other states
  • Working with Development staff, the CFR policy team, pertinent program staff and the Executive Director, coordinate and support community based presentations and training presentations for government partners and other funders
  • Working with Development staff and the Executive Director to create web-based training resources for outside practitioners and possibly clients; regularly refresh and update training tools used for clients and outside practitioners and where appropriate, materials on our website 
  • Fielding inquiries from practitioners interested in replicating CFR’s model around the state, county, and internationally, and coordinating these external trainings and technical assistance for these practitioners; work with the Executive Director and fiscal staff to create a budget, and identify and create training materials and identify CFR teams to present the materials; assist teams in preparing for external presentations
  • Along with the Executive Director and Development, coordinate and recruit staff to write articles and other practice materials designed for outside practitioners, particularly those that could precede or accompany external training and TA sessions
  • Work with supervisors and senior staff as well as with HR and Development staff, the current Litigation and Training Supervisor, and Executive Director to inform decisions on strategic planning for the training unit and overall program development and improvement for the entire agency

Qualifications

  • Candidates for the Training Supervisor position must have a LMSW or LCSW, be SIFI certified and have strong supervisory and client counseling skills.
  • Candidates must be passionate about helping parents navigate and fight the Family Policing system and about educating professionals on how to be strong advocates and collaborative colleagues 
  • Candidates must have outstanding verbal, written and interpersonal communication and presentation skills and some experience developing and presenting substantive training 
  • The ideal candidate must be patient and have solid teaching skills.  They should be comfortable learning and utilizing new technologies that relate to virtual meetings, training presentations and the storage of training materials, and be a good manager of time.  

 

All Supervisors are expected to demonstrate an aptitude for productive problem-solving, the integration of feedback, a commitment to CFR’s current DEI and anti-racism work, and a desire to contribute to the stewardship of CFR; this includes the ability to positively and productively contribute to the work culture at CFR in communications and work with staff at all levels.

 

Candidates may be asked to work on a writing sample, writing exercise or a sample training program as part of the selection process.

 

Deadline to apply: May 21, 2024