Parent Educator, PAT (Bilingual Spanish Speaking)

Family & Children’s Agency (FCA) is a nonprofit human service organization that is committed to increasing the social and emotional well-being of our clients – people throughout Fairfield County. Our Agency builds better lives by offering more than 30 programs that meet needs across all ages, delivering services to more than 13,000 people each year. Our clients reside primarily in Norwalk, Wilton, Darien, Westport, Weston, New Canaan, Stamford, and Greenwich. Our Home Care and Foster Care programs provide assistance to residents throughout Fairfield County, and the Adoption program is both nationwide and international.

Our Mission is to partner with individuals, families, organizations, and communities to build better lives.

FCA is proud to currently offer a hybrid working model to our employees. Employees enjoy a wide array of benefits that make up our competitive compensation package. We are proud to offer generous employer contributions to our medical plans, continued education credits offered at no cost, annual tuition reimbursement stipend, employer paid Life & LTD policies, FSA and Dependent Care, 401K with a match and a generous vacation and time off policy to include Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth! We also offer employee discounts to multiple organizations, events, and your cell phone plan. Our benefits don't stop there - we offer an EAP program, paid for CEUs and clinical supervision, summer Fridays and employee appreciation events, along with wellness incentives and challenges!

The Parents as Teachers (PAT) program is an evidence based home visiting model designed to ensure young children are healthy, safe and ready to learn. The goals of the program are to provide parents with child development knowledge and parenting support, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase children’s school readiness. The PAT model includes one-on-one home visits, monthly group meetings, developmental screenings, and a resource network for families. Parent educators conduct the home visits using structured visit plans and guided planning tools.

A certified parent educator implements the PAT model, emphasizing parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting and family well-being in their work with families. Utilizing the PAT Foundational Curriculum in culturally sensitive ways, the parent educator partners, facilitates and reflects with families living in Norwalk and Bridgeport. The parent educator implements the curriculum in the home through ongoing home visits to ensure the healthy development of children.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Engage in recruitment activities (as applicable)
• Complete an initial and annual family-centered assessment with each family
• Develop, monitor and review goals with each family
• Provide ongoing and consistent personal visits focused on parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting and family well-being (including planning, delivering and documenting the visit)
• Use the PAT Foundational curriculum to share research based information with families
• Provide group connections to give families an opportunity to build social connections with each other, engage in parent-child interaction activities, and increase their knowledge of ways to support children’s development.
• Complete ongoing developmental screenings and health reviews for each enrolled child
• Connect families to resources that help them to address their needs and reach their goals.
• Maintain and submit in accordance to deadlines all required documentation for program
• Participate in reflective supervision as well as biweekly staff meetings.
• Obtain competency based professional development and renew parent educator certification annually
• Participate in continuous quality improvement
• Work under the supervision of the PAT supervisor, Assistant Director of Adoption & Early Childhood, and Director of Child & Family Development.
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Essential Qualifications:

• Bilingual Spanish Speaking is required
• Bachelor’s degree preferred in child development, psychology, nursing, human services, or related field preferred. A minimum of an Associate’s degree required.
• Experience working with ethnically diverse families with young children under the age of six years.
• Experience working in the home and community sites.
• Strong commitment to the vision, mission, and goals of Parents as Teachers.
• Highly organized, self-motivated, flexible, (including willingness to work non-traditional hours), and able to work as part of a team.
• Familiarity with community services and supports, highly valued
• Vehicle and appropriate insurance
• Evening and weekend hours as needed
• Must hold valid Connecticut driver’s license and be willing to drive
• Home visits within the community and collaborative meetings and trainings within the state
• Ability to be flexible with work schedule