Youth Peer Advocate

Liberty Resources is a dynamic and growing human services agency that is a great place to work!  Our employees have passion around the services they provide and our corporate values of excellence and staff support. We pride ourselves on high quality, integrated, community-based services that meet the evolving needs of our communities. We’re committed to building a diverse workforce that values contributions of all team members and work to recognize cultural beliefs, values, traditions, language preferences, and health practices of the communities that we serve and how they apply to provision of positive health outcomes.

We are currently seeking a Youth Peer Advocate to work in our Federally Qualified Health Care Clinic in Syracuse, NY.

Position Summary:

Youth Peer Advocates are individuals between 18-30 years of age who self-identify as a person with first-hand experience with social, emotional, medical, developmental, substance use, and/or behavioral challenges as a young person or have received services in a child-serving system.  The Youth Peer Advocate provides formal and informal services and supports provided to youth who are experiencing social, medical, emotional, developmental, substance use, and/or behavioral challenges in their home, school, placement and/or community centered services. Support is intended to ensure engagement and active participation of the youth in the treatment planning process and with the ongoing implementation and reinforcement of skills. 
 

Job Responsibilities:

• Drawing on knowledge and skills acquired from personal experience, provide one-to-one supportive services to children and families both on site and in the community
• Promote wellness through modeling; provide mutual support, hope, reassurance and advocacy through the sharing of one’s own personal recovery/resiliency story
• Act as a peer partner in transitioning to different levels of care and into adulthood
• Coordinate and collaborate with the organizations care and patient navigators.
• Assist as needed with the collection of Quality of Care monitoring
• Complete necessary documentation including assessment, progress notes, and care plans as applicable and in accordance with program and agency standards.  Provide skill building, coaching, engagement, bridging, and self-advocacy to youth served through the clinic in the setting that is most likely to yield positive results, including in the community.
• Facilitate or arrange youth peer resiliency/recovery support groups
• Connect youth to community resources and services; accompany youth to appointments and meetings for the purpose of mentoring and support, but not for the sole purpose of transportation
• Participate as an active member within an interdisciplinary team and provide input into the creation of a comprehensive care plan.
• Develops and applies a process for assessing differing beliefs and preferences and takes this diversity into account when planning and delivering care.
• Provide linkages to services and assist with system navigation.
• As applicable, use personal vehicle to travel to and from appointments.
• Handle emergency situations which may require flexibility of time and area of assignment.
• Perform other duties, responsibilities and related tasks as assigned.

Qualifications:

• 18-30 years of age with a High School Diploma or High School Equivalency.
• NYS credentialing as a Youth Peer Advocate or willingness to become certified within 1 year.
•  Ability to work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team. 
• Ability to effectively use an electronic health record.
• Excellent communication skills. 
• Sensitive to cultural differences and able to incorporate that understanding into service provision.  Strong organizational, engagement, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to utilize critical thinking, problem-solving skills.

Pay: $20/hour to $22/hour

Liberty Resources is committed to creating a diverse inclusive environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Liberty Resources offers equal employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, parental status, housing status, source of income or military status, in accordance with applicable federal, state and local EEO laws.

Liberty Resources cares about your safety.  We are following all CDC guidelines to ensure safety for clients, families and employees.