Level 2 Youth Advocate in Chicago, Illinois at Alternatives, Inc.

Level 2 Youth Advocate

Direct Report: YASS and Crisis Coordinator

Full-time; Exempt

Salary: $55,790

Full time with Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 403(b) retirement plan, Holidays, Paid Time Off

Alternatives Overview

Our mission is to inspire young people to create a just future through practices that heal individuals,

restore communities, and transform systems. Since 1971, Alternatives has modeled innovative

alternatives to the status quo in Chicago's youth services field. Our school and community-based therapy,

prevention and leadership development programs support young people to individually and collectively

address causes of substance abuse, grief and trauma while building social-emotional, career and social

change skills. In addition to working directly with young people, we train, coach and advocate for youth-

serving institutions like Chicago Public Schools to be restorative and trauma-informed

Alternatives provides emergency response for youth in crisis, at all hours of every day, mediating familial

conflict and relocating vulnerable children to a safe environment. We work with Chicago Public Schools

to provide behavioral health and restorative justice programming, a practice that we pioneered more than

20 years ago, facilitating the very first high school peer jury in 1996. Our Behavioral Health team offers

school based clinical hours helping youth develop healthy habits while addressing substance abuse and

other destructive behavior. We also provide youth programming during the summer and after school

including social justice program, Girl World, and career training throughout summer internship programs.

We create culturally responsive environments in which young people build knowledge, skills, and

abilities through positive youth development, trauma-informed counseling, leadership development, and

community-based healing.

Position Overview

The Level 2 Youth Advocate provides crisis intervention, direct case planning work and advocacy

services to CCBYS clients under the supervision of the YASS and Crisis Coordinator. The Level 2 Youth

Advocate will display professionalism and will also have a minimum supervisory role.

Responsibilities:

Perform the following from a racial, gender, sexuality, and ability equity lens:

• Provide daytime crisis coverage; respond to crisis calls from the hotline or front desk within 10 minutes; respond to calls within 45 minutes to the police station; work with family and youthtoward a resolution to the crisis, assess immediate needs of family and complete all necessary paperwork.
• Understand and work within a positive youth development and Balanced and Restorative Justice framework.
• Maintain ongoing case management for assigned cases, including daily contact with guardians and youth; making arrangements with the family for school, transportation and record keeping functions; collaborating with appropriate individuals, agencies or service systems to ensure client accessibility to services. Provide transportation for youth to school, temporary shelter, or to any other appointments during youth’s placement with Alternatives, Inc.
• Provide evening and weekend crisis consultation coverage, as needed
• Participate in the development and facilitation of youth development programming with CCBYS youth.
• Assist in preparing cases to be petitioned in court, including collecting necessary information from the family, preparing social history reports, orienting guardians to the court process and making arrangements with court personnel. This may also include transporting youth to court.
• Provide direct supervision and program oversight of on-call crisis workers.
• Use eCornerstone data entry system as well as ETO and the Youth Assessment Screening Instrument (YASI) assessment for each client case.
• Demonstrate knowledge of Alternatives’ policies, practices and services, and communicate these to clients, and where assigned, to other community organizations and members.
• Attend and actively participate in all agency and program staff meetings, in-service trainings and weekly supervisory meetings.
• Provide coverage of intakes, both phone and walk-in, providing crisis intervention and making referrals when appropriate.
• Complete in a timely fashion all other tasks and individually established goals as assigned and
• negotiated with the Crisis Coordinator and Community Wellness Manager.
• Other job duties as required.

Qualifications:

1. Minimum of BA/BS in Human services or related field
2. Use of car during working/on-call hours and valid insurance.
3. At least three years of experience working with adolescents.
4. At least three years of Case Management
5. Interest and commitment to working in community-based youth services.
6. Ability to manage competing priorities and manage multiple cases.
7. Self-starter with ability to demonstrate timely follow-through.
8. Good interpersonal skills, including ability to work well with a variety of internal teams and external stakeholders
9. Good writing and verbal communication skills.
10. The COVID vaccine is mandatory for all employees to the full extent permissible under applicable law