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. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. 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 7 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 CFR 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.

 

Current opening:

CFR is committed to providing robust supervision to program staff and we expect to have an opening for an additional Social Work Supervisor in Queens. Under the supervision of the Social Work Director, the Social Work Supervisor’s primary responsibility will be to supervise four to five social work staff of varying degrees of experience who work in interdisciplinary teams with attorneys and paralegals to represent parents in Family Court, as well as in Home for Good practice areas. Social Work Supervisors are responsible for helping social work staff, including senior staff, develop mastery as well as reinforcing and building upon skills and values introduced in initial and ongoing training.

The Social Work Supervisor will also work with other supervisors and senior staff as well as with HR and Development staff, Training Supervisor, and Executive Director to inform decisions on strategic planning and overall program development and improvement for the entire agency. In those areas, activities may include participation in administration, fundraising efforts, training, policy work, development, progressive discipline, internships, recruitment and/or hiring. All Supervisors are expected to demonstrate an aptitude for productive problem-solving, a commitment to CFR’s current DEI 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, including progressive discipline if necessary. Candidates for supervisor also need to be well organized in order to work efficiently and effectively beyond their own caseload and to effectively supervise multiple staff, with possibly varying levels of experience.

 

Responsibilities May Include:

  • Reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates for various positions at CFR;
  • Direct supervision or back-up supervision of social work staff and interns, and holding/writing professional development reviews for any directly-supervised staff;
  • Participation in training for new and seasoned staff as well as trainings and technical assistance for outside practitioners and professionals;
  • Coordination of monthly Case Practice and/or Social Work meetings;
  • Facilitation of group supervision sessions for social work staff members and interns;
  • Reviewing policy statements and working with ACS staff and staff from other agencies to address substantive issues impacting CFR’s clients;
  • Managing Social Work Help Desk Requests for reassignments as well as immediate assistance;
  • Maintaining the intake calendar;
  • Participating in CMS work groups and related work to enhance CFR’s data collection;
  • Supervise special projects such as Home For Good, or other expanding practice area;
  • Capturing client stories for development and advocacy around policy issues;
  • Input and assistance with development efforts and management of grants;
  • Participation in additional meetings and professional development opportunities geared towards senior staff and supervisors.

Qualifications

  • Candidates for the Social Work Supervisor position must have obtained their LMSW and have at least four to six years of experience at CFR and/or in related work with child welfare, court systems or other relevant advocacy roles.
  • Prior supervisory experience and SIFI eligibility is preferred.
  • Candidates for the Social Work Supervisor position should be able to demonstrate strong client counseling and programmatic skills, the ability to model best practices, and a willingness and aptitude for taking on a leadership and managerial role at CFR.
  • The candidate also needs to be well organized in order to work efficiently and effectively beyond their own caseload.
  • Deadline to apply: This application will close at 11:59pm on August 11, 2024.