Child Welfare Case Manager

Wellpoint is deeply committed to the welfare and protection of children, and our goal is to strengthen and support families. In every effort, from receiving hotline calls to reaching family reunification or foster care and adoption, children and families are our focus. We are seeking competent, compassionate, and career-oriented human service professionals to serve as a Child Welfare Case Manager on our Child and Family Well-being team. 

Job Purpose:

The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services contracts with Wellpoint to provide child welfare services to about 900 families including nearly 1,200 children. Our next Child Welfare Case Manager will work diligently to provide services that ensure safety, permanence, and well-being.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Social Work (BSW) or a related field required; Master's Degree (MSW) preferred.
• Minimum one (1) year of Experience in child welfare and/or a related human services field preferred.
• Experience working in diverse communities with youth and families
• Knowledge of community resources.
• Ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Maintain accurate and timely collaborative documentation.
• Demonstrates ability to work independently and effectively with staff, clients, caregivers, and purchasers.
• Must be honest, dependable, and able to meet deadlines; Self-motivated and able to work independently.
• A valid Wisconsin Driver’s License or occupational driver’s license, reliable transportation and insurance is required. Required reliable transportation to conduct on-site learning throughout the state.
• Ability to demonstrate critical thinking skills, detail oriented, highly effective verbal, and written communication skills.
• Demonstrate an ability to effective understanding and practice of cultural humility and ability work and communicate respectfully with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
• Proficient in the usage of computer software; demonstrate an understanding of computer file systems and databases, e.g., Microsoft Office, Excel, Outlook, Teams, ADP, etc.
• Physical exam, drug screen, motor vehicle report, and background checks are required for this position.

Duties:

Safety

• Consistently monitors the safety of children as the priority of all work and is able to assess for present and impending dangers, and the general safety of children in a variety of environments and articulate findings to others.
• Conduct at least monthly attempts to communicate or visit with all parents, including birth fathers and incarcerated parents, and assess their ability to demonstrate increased protective capacities that impact child safety.
• Conduct and document face to face safety assessment for all children on assigned case load ages 4 and older on a monthly basis, and twice monthly face to face safety assessment on all children on case load age 3 and younger and children identified as medically fragile (or attempts to communicate or visit).

Permanency

• Facilitate and monitor change planning by ensuring that families have the opportunity to enhance parental protective capacities by creating goals with families, connecting families to resources, continuously measuring progress, and clearly articulating what specific outcome is to be achieved in accordance with the Comprehensive Assessment Process.
• Refer for Transfer of Guardianship/Subsidized Guardianship/Termination of Parental Rights to the District Attorney’s Office or document an exception in WISACWIS per timelines to ensure compliance with the Adoptions and Safe Families Act.
• Supports children and families in the post-TPR process through adoption finalization.
• Supports transition of youth exiting out of home care with goals of vocation and/or education.

Well-being

• Facilitates client access to community resources, makes appropriate referrals and reinforces long term community connections for family stability
• Identify and provide referral to appropriate community and insurance network providers, authorize network services or non-network providers.
• Enters planned actions and approves progress notes timely in the Care Manager system
• Ensure children and families are receiving appropriate medical, dental, mental health, educational services, and other identified well-being needs.

Documentation

• Provides accurate and professional documentation in all case notes, summaries, assessments, and paperwork.
• Documentation clearly reflects the CAP by using concepts, strengths, needs and strategies.
• Documentation gives the reader including the court a solid understanding of goals developed with the family as well as progress made towards these goals. Barriers are articulated as well as a plan to overcome barriers.

Agency Representation

• Effectively works as a member of the Child Welfare team and other teams while providing customer friendly service at all times.
• Communicates effectively through verbal, non-verbal and written communications. Effective communication involves the timely exchange of accurate and relevant information.

Teamwork

• Regularly collaborates with child welfare and foster care colleagues to best meet the needs of children and foster families. Participates in the recruitment and retention of foster families.

Agency Engagement

• All employees will be evaluated on their demonstration of a consistent commitment to the Agency’s Seven Essential Ingredients, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and engagement in the strategic initiatives of the organization. This will be measured by their active participation in committees and workgroups, and by their communication and practice within their daily work and in the community.

Position Details & Extras:

• Full time.
• Onsite / Hybrid work is available with reliable broadband connection.
• Moderate exposure to noise.
• Subject to frequent interruptions with ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the cultural differences among diverse groups and the need to adapt service provision to match these differences in respectful ways.
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) - Wellpoint employees may be eligible for loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
• Regular travel in personal vehicles is required with the ability to move intermittently throughout the workday.