Overview

Drs. Shabnam Javdani and Erin Godfrey are seeking a NY-state licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) to provide full-time intervention leadership and supervision on Systems Aligning for Equity (SAFE) Spaces, a clinical randomized control trial funded by The National Institute of Mental Health. Every day, 100,000+ youth are held in confinement in the United States. After release, between 50% and 75% of them will return, causing family separation, educational displacement, and serious health and mental health challenges. The adult staff members charged with caring for youth during their confinement are a key factor in youth’s wellbeing, yet these staff experience burnout and distress at alarming rates.

SAFE Spaces aims to address mental health disparities (e.g. suicide) across the juvenile legal and child welfare systems in New York City through providing counseling and coaching to staff to support their wellbeing, reduce burnout, and support their strengths and professional development. The overall goal of SAFE Spaces is to understand whether and how supporting staff can create safer spaces for the youth under staff’s care. SAFE Spaces is the first intervention of its kind to be launched and evaluated at a system-wide level, targeting the contexts in which juvenile legal system and child welfare youth reside through supporting staff. The primary goal of the Counseling and Coaching Supervisor will be to provide direct services counseling and coaching to staff in multiple facilities, and lead, train, supervise, and coordinate a team of counseling and coaching interns to provide direct services to staff.

The ideal candidate will service in a supervision / counseling social work leadership position, have a strong interest in providing mental health and counseling support to staff that often occupy marginalized racial and ethnic background and who provide critical services to youth in child welfare and juvenile legal settings; a strong desire to build, train, and support a team of future counseling and coaching trainees; and will be enthusiastic about coordinating with other SAFE Spaces subteams, including data management, data collection, and outreach. Candidates can expect to lead the counseling and coaching team, and provide direct counseling and coaching to staff in person (within legal facilities), in groups, and virtually. Strong interpersonal skills, dedication to social equity, and clear organizational and project management skills are required.

Specific responsibilities of the Counseling and Coaching Supervisor will include:

  • Develop and refine training protocols for future counseling and coaching interns
  • Develop and refine SAFE Spaces’ manualized curriculum and project protocol
  • Provide training using SAFE Spaces’ manualized curriculum and project protocol
  • Provide direct services through multi-modal virtual and in-person counseling and coaching to juvenile legal and child welfare staff
  • Provide clinical and administrative supervision and professional leadership to Master’s-level interns and/or full-time counselors or case planners
  • Lead and organize the rollout of counseling and coaching intervention across all juvenile legal and child welfare facilities enrolled in SAFE Spaces
  • Coordinate, track, and oversee field-based counseling and coaching activities and efforts across sites; travel to juvenile legal and child welfare justice settings across the 5 boroughs to provide and supervise counseling and coaching activities
  • Track staffs’ engagement in counseling and coaching and monitoring the provision of services via our data management system
  • Develop and facilitate workshops for staff, refine intervention implementation logs, and contribute to the intervention manual based on evidence-based approaches for addressing youth mental health, suicide, safety, rights and sociopolitical development

Qualifications:

  • The candidate must have a New York State LCSW
  • SIFI (Seminar in Field Instruction certified or eligible for SIFI certification
  • Excellent clinical skills, interpersonal skills and demonstrated prior experience working with and on behalf of communities seeking mental health and/or social services
  • Strong casework, group work, and supervisory skills
  • Excellent time management skills and ability to multi-task
  • Ability to evaluate and intervene in crisis situations
  • Comfort and capacity to work in a fast-paced team-oriented environment and communicate with a wide range of individuals, including juvenile legal and child welfare facility directors and staff, SAFE Spaces PIs, and intervention and research teams
  • Ability to work well independently and in a multidisciplinary team, strong organizational skills, attention to detail and oral and written communication skills
  • Demonstrated leadership abilities, including managing or supervising a small team
  • Track record of excellent performance in fast-paced collaborative settings that require innovation and flexibility

One year commitment required with option to continue contingent on excellent performance and availability of funding.

In compliance with NYC’s Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is $65,000-$80,000. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) the specific grant funding and the terms of the research grant when extending an offer.

Per NYU’s remote-work policy, this position is expected to be a fully in-person position.