Manager of Victim Services: Philadelphia Children’s Alliance

Mission : The Philadelphia Children’s Alliance (PCA) is an independent non-profit organization that promotes healing and justice for sexually abused children in Philadelphia. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we collaborate with our partners in child protection, law enforcement, and medical and mental health services to provide forensic interviews, victim support and counseling services at the Philadelphia Safety Collaborative, a co-located child-friendly facility. We are committed to using best practices and we promote this model locally and nationally.

Position Summary : Reporting to the Associate Director of Programs, this position oversees the functions of the Victim Services Department. The Manager of Victim Services provides direct supervision to the Victim Services Family Advocates and encourages culturally sound supportive service to the victim children and their families. The Manager of Victim Services maintains a close eye on the day-to-day functions and a careful review of documentation and referrals to ensure quality. This role also delivers direct service and is a “working manager.”

Key Responsibilities include the following:

Program Management

• Provide clinical support to the Victim Services Program and Staff.
• Coordinate overall services in a team approach with other Program managers.
• Assume a leadership role in recruitment of all new Victim Services Family Advocates and provide training for these positions, which consists of development of training schedules, orientations, binders of all PCA services and protocols, binders of relevant research, and intensive instruction and supervision.
• Provide initial training and clinical supervision of PCA’s Victim Services program staff, MSW interns, and volunteers, including program monitoring and evaluation.
• Assign cases to Family Advocates daily.
• Provide direction to Victim Services Program with a view toward the national standards and other child advocacy centers around the country.
• Assure state-of-the art methodologies, practices, and programs in all areas of Victim Services work.
• Maintain an up-to-date training log for all Family Advocates and Interns to ensure training requirements are met in accordance with the highest standard.
• Work closely with the Manager of Clinical Services to help develop practices for referrals and assessments for in-house clinical services.
• Participate in case conferencing activities, which includes collecting information to help track cases through the criminal justice system and ensuring that children and families are receiving comprehensive services.
• Maintain up-to-date referral resource lists to be utilized to ensure families are referred to agencies that can assist with providing support and monitoring their needs.
• Monitor referrals for mental health services to ensure that families are being offered appropriate services.
• Screen all mental health referrals and submit to Manager of Clinical Services as appropriate.
• Serve as part of the administration team for the on-site medical clinic and assist with monitoring referrals made for exams, utilization of the calendar, scheduling transportation, and checking in patients.
• Complete weekly review of documentation of all Family Advocates in NCAtrak and ensure errors are corrected for quality assurance and compliance with PCCD reporting and VOCA regulations.
• Facilitate and supervise non-offending caregiver psycho-educational support group at PCA and child self-esteem support groups at PCA.
• Maintain knowledge of all PCCD/VOCA grant requirements, including but not limited to, code of ethics, case tracking requirements, certification requirements for professionals and volunteers.
• Maintain knowledge of and adherence to National Children’s Alliance standards, particularly regarding Victim Services, Case Conference, and Case Tracking.
• Enter, track, and report on client and team satisfaction measurements.
• Maintain and manage resource library of appropriate materials on sexual abuse for children, families, the community, and volunteers.
• Under direction of Associate Director of Programs, assess, evaluate, and continuously improve Victim Services support programs such as caregiver meetings, referrals, follow-up contact, court support, and support group services. Assessment, evaluation, and continuous improvement of multidisciplinary team relationships and collaboration.
• Other duties as assigned, including, but not limited to, projects related to the management and development of PCA, including grant writing and fundraising endeavors.

Direct Service on Assigned Cases

• Serve as Family Advocate for support/information to families during Day-of-Visit to Alliance, including explanation of the process and going over the Victim Services folder, containing all consent forms, sharing of information forms, and VOCA forms, as needed.
• Serve as Family Advocate for support/information to families referred for Victim Services only, including explanation of the investigative process, services available and making referrals for all supportive services needed by the family.
• Provide Victim Services to all CSEC referrals for MH treatment submitted by outside providers.
• Serve as interpreter and liaison between families and all affiliated agencies for assigned cases, including making referrals for mental health treatment, medical examinations, etc.
• Provide individual crisis counseling to non-offending caregivers and complete appropriate screening for trauma-symptoms indicating the need for mental health treatment.
• Coordinate Crisis Assessments of clients who need an emergency behavioral health evaluation.
• Serve as a rotational on-call responder to after-hour cases to coordinate a team to provide a forensic interview, victim support services, and childcare.
• Assist with providing court preparation for families, teaching and demonstrating court process and assisting with formal Court School Program.

Data Tracking

• Assist in tracking cases from report through investigative outcomes, prosecution, and treatment.
• Maintain an effective tracking mechanism (NCAtrak) to manage cases from initial investigation through court support, medical/mental health intervention and treatment.
• Complete a weekly review of investigative outcomes to create the agenda for Case Conference and assist with facilitation of monthly case conference.
• Regular data collection to track and measure victim support services to ensure that performance of victim services program meets or exceeds agency goals.

Victim Services Community Interfacing

• Represent PCA at city-wide health fairs and other community forums as appropriate.
• Provide educational trainings as necessary on CAC model, PCA services, and Victim Advocacy.
• Participate in community coalitions and teams, including monthly meetings of the Philadelphia Coalition for Victim Assistance, the DHS multi-disciplinary teamings, DHS Sexual Abuse teamings, and the Pennsylvania Coalition for Victim Assistance Programs when appropriate.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Strong supervisory and management skills and collaborative, team-building work style.
• Ability to complement and encourage excellence in a culturally diverse workplace.
• Excellent customer service skills and cultural competence.
• Maturity, discretion, and professionalism.

Education and Experience

• Master’s Degree required and appropriate clinical experience in services to sexually abused children.
• At least two years of supervisory experience.
• Self-development, workshops, and other experiences to demonstrate drive for continuing education.
• Digital literacy including knowledge of Office Suite and database functions.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; presentation experience helpful.

Equal Opportunity : PCA recruits, hires, compensates, trains, and promotes qualified individuals in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identify or expression, or by any other basis protected under applicable law.