Children’s Home & Aid invites you to join our team of mission-driven staff who share a common vision: an equitable world where all children and families thrive in strong communities. As a leading child and family service agency with more than 20 locations across Illinois, our mission is to advance the well-being of children by investing in families to disrupt the systemic and multi-generational cycle of racial, social and economic inequality.

Our full-time staff receive competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, including a paid leave accrual rate that starts at two weeks annually and grows to more than five weeks of paid time off each year, as well as a paid winter break that occurs the week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. We strive to hold ourselves and each other accountable for fostering an inclusive work culture where we can be our authentic selves, where we create and have equitable opportunities, and where our voices are supported and encouraged.

The Juvenile Justice Specialist is a critical member of Children’s Home & Aid’s Redeploy Illinois team, providing strength-based, trauma-informed case management services to juvenile justice-involved youth. The Redeploy Illinois program relies on a collaborative, wraparound approach to services, focusing on increasing protective factors, including emotional regulation and educational and vocational goals, to set youth up for a safe and successful future, free of incarceration. As a Juvenile Justice Specialist, you will meet with youth and families in their homes and other community-based locations, providing individualized services aimed at strengthening relationships, addressing trauma, and building positive community connections.

What you’ll do:

• Meet with youth and families in their homes, providing strength-based, trauma-informed case management focused on individualized, collaboratively developed goals.
• Assist youth and families in navigating the Juvenile Justice System.
• Work closely with other service providers such as educational and workforce readiness programs, local probation departments, and mental health and substance abuse treatment providers to ensure coordination of services.
• Complete thorough and timely documentation, including assessment and service notes, using a web-based client services platform.

Who you are:

• You have at least a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, Psychology, or a closely related social services field.
• Experience working with juvenile justice-involved youth highly desirable.
• You are able to meet with families in their homes, and you have a valid driver's license, insurance, and a reliable vehicle.
• You recognize that juvenile justice-involved youth have experienced trauma that must be understood and addressed to support healing and thriving.
• You are relentlessly driven to align with youth, looking beyond off-putting surface behaviors to effectively support them in meeting their needs in healthy ways.
• You are an intuitive, nonjudgmental listener who easily builds relationships built on respect, trust and positive regard.
• You have a clear and strength-based communication style, both verbally and in your written communication.
• You are detail-driven and enjoy working autonomously but are also excited by big-picture outcomes and working with a team to reach shared goals.

The details:

• Location: Hybrid (remote/in office). Juvenile Justice Specialists have the opportunity to work from the office or a remote location between client visits. In-home services provided in St. Clair and surrounding counties (Monroe, Perry, Washington, Randolph)
• Schedule: Full-time, hourly; general business hours with flexibility for evening appointments to accommodate clients’ schedules. Juvenile Justice Specialists participate in an on-call after-hours crisis rotation.
• Staff are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to submit proof of their vaccination status before their start date unless they have an agency approved medical or religious exemption.

Compensation & Benefits:

• Salary: Range starts at $20/hr; offers are commensurate with experience
• Noncash benefits: Medical/dental/vision insurance, paid time off plus 11 paid holidays, supplemental insurance options, 401(k) with match (more benefits details here).
• Winter Break: The agency is closed between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. This paid break allows staff to spend time with their families around the holidays without using their accrued time off balances.
• Student Loan Forgiveness: Children's Home & Aid is an approved agency for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Where you work matters.

You’re considering a new position, so no one knows better than you that where you work matters. We believe that by building diverse teams of passionate advocates for youth and families, we can continue to show up for Illinois families, putting those families at the center of every decision, and strengthening the communities where we all work, play, and live together. (More about who we are here.)

We invite you to become an active member of a team that supports, inspires, and challenges each other, and grow your career in an organization that celebrates emerging leaders and provides development and training opportunities aligned with your individual goals and aspirations. If you are looking for an opportunity to do meaningful work, including raising your voice to disrupt the status quo, we encourage you to apply today.

Review our agency’s blueprint for impact:

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)