Community Health Worker
King County
Auburn, WA
Full-time
Health Care Provider
Posted on September 8, 2019
- Summary
- Public Health – Seattle and King County values diverse perspectives and life experiences. The Department encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and veterans.
The Community Health Worker (CHW) will train and support licensed Child Care Programs, In-Home Family Child Cares, and other early learning programs--including those in the Somali community--throughout Seattle primarily to providers serving children age birth to 5. The CHW will work in collaboration with the multidisciplinary Child Care Health Program (CCHP), which helps the community's diverse, young children have access to health, behavioral health, nutrition, physical activity, nurturing, and other opportunities to enhance their developmental and learning outcomes while in out-of-homecare. The CCHP Team has Public Health Nurses, Mental Health Consultants, and a Nutritionist in addition to CHWs, all of whom provide highly relationship-based services in child cares.
With guidance, support, and learning opportunities directly from the CCHP Team, the CHW will work cooperatively with and independently from the Team to assist early learning programs and Family Child Cares with enhancing the care they provide to their children and families. The work involves the CHW interacting directly with the children, families, and providers at early learning programs to help them learn about and engage in healthy eating, physical activity, safe sleep practices, oral hygiene, and other health and safety considerations essential for the children to have healthy development and learning. In addition, the CHW will document care and participate in the Team's formulation of the most helpful supports and services for children and their providers at early learning programs.
Importantly, the CCHP uses equity, trauma-informed, and culturally competent lenses to engage in its care in the community. Furthermore, the Team is acutely aware of the harms of systemic and institutional bias, disproportionality that leads more people of color than whites to be identified with problems, and the need to attend to socioeconomic justice in its efforts to serve children and their caregivers and to combat the forces that too often marginalize, disenfranchise, and oppress them. We are seeking a CHW team member who seeks to participate in such a framework at Public Health.
Work schedule: 40-hour per week. Occasional evening and weekend work may be required to participate in trainings, educational sessions, and other early learning program activities. This position is subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act and is overtime eligible.
Who May Apply: The Team is seeking a Somali-speaking Community Health Worker (CHW) and this advertisement is currently open to all qualified candidates.
Contact: If you have questions regarding this job announcement, please contact Erika Yanak, Human Resource Analyst, at erika.yanak@kingcounty.gov.
REQUIRED MATERIALS- King County Online Application.
- You can attach your resume to your electronic application. Your options are:
- Copy and paste one or more documents into the text resume section of the application.
- Attach multiple documents/files in the resume attachment section.
- Job Duties
- Develop relationships with and gain trust from Somali Family Child Care providers and other early learning providers, as well as with individuals and community groups throughout the Seattle area, to move toward providing health-related services at child care programs.
- Conduct trainings and presentations on specific health tasks to meet regulatory and best-practice requirements. Key health education topics may include communicable disease prevention, sanitation and food safety, nutrition, family style meals, physical activity, oral health, safe sleep, and more.
- Consistently follow up with guidance and support to help child care providers implement what they learned from CHW consultation and trainings.
- Assess early learning programs and interview providers to determine their needs and tailor assistance to meet their needs.
- Identify and link early learning programs with the CCHP Team's resources, supports, and services, as well as those available in the community, to help providers enhance the health, development, and learning of the children in their care.
- Connect CCHP Team members to early learning programs that aren't readily incorporated into CCHP care. This may involve building trusting relationships with providers and then aligning them with CCHP teammates who thereafter will provide tailored health interventions specific to their disciplines.
- Support and assist CCHP Team members to help them in the care they provide at early learning programs. This may include putting together and disseminating materials, following Team directions to meet specific early learning programs' needs, or communicating important health intervention methods from Team members to providers
- Research materials and methods to engage in your work and disburse them to early learning providers.
- Develop and conduct presentations to community groups and others about the importance of health and safety to child well-being. Clarify the CCHP Team's work to that end.
- Plan your own work schedule and visits with child care providers and maintain productivity in your work.
- Develop your own health-related areas of expertise that align with early learning programs' needs and best practices, and impart your skills to providers, the CCHP Team, and the community.
- Participate as an integral member of the CCHP Team during meetings and trainings and carry out tasks as assigned to accomplish the goals of the work.
- Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills
- Demonstrated ability to communicate and build relationships in local Somali communities, as well as in other settings, and to gain the trust and participation of community members, including children, families, and child care providers.
- Ability to communicate effectively, kindly, and fluently--verbally, nonverbally, and in writing--in Somali as well as in English.
- Knowledge of and training skills concerning early childhood development, general health and safety concerns for young children, and the early learning provider community. Additionally, an eagerness to learn about related topics on which you're not fully grounded.
- Skills to embrace difference and diversity, including openness to honoring and respecting the varied beliefs, customs, methods, socioeconomic backgrounds, and other qualities among the children, families, and early learning providers with whom the CCHP Team interacts.
- Flexibility to manage complex communities, providers, and daily work.
- Perseverance despite obstacles. This includes striving to make connections with, impart vital information to, and learn from individuals and groups that have experienced society's marginalization and thereby have developed their own strengths and resilience while they have been kept from access to the supports, services, and resources that might further benefit their development and well-being.
- Ability to work independently without supervision and also to learn from and impart information to a multidisciplinary team.
- Computer skills, including proficiency in MS Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.).
- Organizational skills, with attention to detail and accuracy.
- Ability to complete and pass all King County security, HIPAA, and related trainings to demonstrate the ability to maintain the privacy and security of sensitive and confidential information in all formats, including verbal, written and electronic, and the ability to adhere to policies and procedures related to local, state, and federal privacy requirements.
- Washington State Driver's License and the ability to travel throughout Seattle and King County to areas with limited or no public transportation in a timely manner.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Personal drive toward inclusion, participation, and dismantling the barriers that privilege upholds to improve the health and opportunities for children, families, and early learning providers in underserved communities.
- Ability to learn quickly from colleagues' information that you may not already know and also a willingness to share your relationships and knowledge with the Team to help them in their work in the community.
- Openness to learn health information to design and develop trainings on topics that are tailored to the needs of specific and diverse caregivers and to organizations striving to nurture and teach young children.
- Desire to contribute to the CCHP Team's learning from data and feedback so the Team can design its services to better meet the health and developmental needs of young children and the people who care for them.
- Openness to assist with the ongoing early-child-care systems building in Seattle and King County through dialogue with other health providers similar to the CCHP, child care providers, Dept. of Education and Early Learning partners, and others in the community.
- Supplemental Information
- This selection process may include but is not limited to: evaluation of application materials and supplemental questions, testing, and interviewing. For more information on our selection process, please refer to http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/jobs.aspx
- Public Health relies on office automation (Microsoft Office) and web-based enabled tools. Therefore candidates must be proficient and comfortable with computer use to perform functions associated with on-going work.
- Regular and reliable attendance, effective communication skills, and development of effective working relationships are requirements of all Public Health positions.
- Staff may be required to play a role as a first responder in the event of a Public Health emergency.
NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:- The selected candidate must pass a thorough background investigation.
- Employees are required to protect the privacy and security of protected health information as defined in State and Federal Law.
- The Public Health Division limits the use of scented personal products to protect fragrance-sensitive employees. Adherence to this policy is a condition of employment.
- Employees are required to adhere to OSHA/WISHA guidelines including but not limited to completing their mandatory trainings on time.
Union Affiliation: This position is represented by PTE Local 17.
King County offers a highly-competitive compensation and benefits package designed to meet the diverse needs of our employees and support our employees' health and well-being. Eligible positions receive the following benefits and have access to the following programs:
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage: King County pays 100% of the premiums for eligible employees and family members
- Life and disability insurance: employees are provided basic coverage and given the opportunity to purchase additional insurance for both the employee and eligible dependents
- Retirement: King County employees are eligible to participate in a pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems and a 457(b) deferred-compensation plan
- Transportation program and ORCA transit pass
- 10 paid holidays each year (plus 2 personal holidays)
- Generous vacation and paid sick leave
- Paid parental leave, family and medical leaves, and volunteer leave
- Flexible Spending Account
- Wellness programs
- Onsite gyms and activity centers
- Employee giving program
- Employee assistance programs
- Flexible schedules and telecommuting options, depending on position
- Training and career development programs
This is a general description of the benefits offered to eligible King County employees, and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. If any information on this document conflicts with the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the CBA prevails. Also, in the event of any incorrect information in this document, applicable laws, policies, rules, CBAs, or official plan documents will prevail.
NOTE: Benefits for Term Limited Temporary (TLT) or Short Term Temporary (STT) positions, including leave eligibility and/or participation in the pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems, will vary based upon the terms and details of the position. Short Term Temporary positions are not eligible for an ORCA transit pass.
For inquiries about the specifics of this position, please contact the recruiter identified on this job posting.
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01Can you communicate in Somali verbally and in writing?
- Yes
- No
Required Question
