Organization: Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) ensures fairness in the civil justice system for the most vulnerable members of our community. From Silicon Valley to Napa Valley, we help clients protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. Our clients include the working poor, families with children, foster youth, seniors, immigrants, veterans, and persons with disabilities. Through our regional county offices, our mobile advocacy clinics, and our nationally-recognized Legal Advice Line, BayLegal prevents domestic violence and sexual assault, increases economic stability, protects consumers, expands access to healthcare, and prevents homelessness. For our clients, BayLegal makes the difference between staying in poverty and thriving toward a brighter future.
Position: We seek a self-reflective, and empathic social worker who brings social justice values to our work representing individuals with disabilities, and who are often homeless, in their claims for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, and health coverage linked to those benefits. This position is located in San Francisco.
Responsibilities: Social workers and attorneys work collaboratively in case assessment, strategy, and management within an attorney-social worker team model. The social worker will meet clients in various settings, including, but not limited to, home, school, and shelters. The social worker will support clients in identifying their needs, setting goals, and developing a structured plan for achieving those goals through appropriate evidence-based clinical practices. Must be able to provide crisis intervention and crisis counseling, as well as develop emergency safety plans, and long term case plans in collaboration with the client/attorney/social worker team. When needed, help clients get into regular physical health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment and conduct psychosocial needs assessments and prepare written reports and treatment plans in support of the client’s needs and goals.
Skills and abilities:
• Commitment to BayLegal's mission.
• Experience and comfort working with marginalized and diverse populations.
• Ability to work well with colleagues and community allies in a variety of settings.
• Support clients' application to various public benefits programs.
• Attend hearings to support client and occasionally testify.
• Depending on licensure status, assist with supervision of social work students or interns.
Experience and Education:
Diverse candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Compensation and Benefits: Compensation is based on a competitive public interest salary scale. Generous benefits package includes medical, dental, and life insurance; long term disability; paid holiday, vacation, and sick leave; and 401k retirement plan.
Required Qualifications
• Advanced degree in social work, social welfare, marriage, family and child counseling, counseling psychology, or social psychology
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal, writing, client interviewing, and organizational skills
• Ability to work independently and be self-motivated
• An interest in laws pertaining to disability benefits eligibility and health access
• Valid driver's license and access to a vehicle
Preferred Qualifications
• Licensure (e.g. LCSW, LMFT) or progress towards licensure (e.g. ASW, MFT Intern or Trainee)
• In-depth knowledge of, and experience with, social services agencies and mental health providers in San Francisco County
• Experience working in a variety of settings with individuals with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness
Diverse candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Applications: Bay Area Legal Aid thrives on our diversity and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a culturally diverse workplace and strongly encourage women, persons of color, LGBTQ individuals, veterans, persons with disabilities, and persons from other underrepresented groups to apply. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled, but applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Please email to [email protected] a cover letter, resume, and list of references to: Human Resources Department. Be sure to refer to the “Social Worker SSI SF” in the title of your email.
In a separate page from your cover letter, please address the following:
Please note that your response to the prompt below will not be read by your interviewing hiring committee. To reduce potential bias, your name will be removed and your response to this prompt will be read and reviewed separately from the rest of your application. Feedback on your response will then be provided to the interviewing hiring committee for this position. Therefore, if there is any specific information that you would like the interviewing hiring committee to be aware of, please make sure to include that information in your cover letter, even if there is some duplication.
BayLegal’s clients are low- and very low-income members of our communities. They include the working poor, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. To ensure our organization is best serving these populations, BayLegal strives to promote an evolving set of behaviors and attitudes amongst our staff, as well as policies that enable us to work effectively in all cross-cultural situations, with clients, with our coworkers, and with the community. We see this as a commitment to enhance the provision of our services to all clients; to raise the level of positive client outcomes; and to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued.
How do you think your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, have prepared you to contribute to our commitment to cultural humility and diversity amongst our staff? Feel free to think broadly about your response to this question, applying various aspects of your life and personal experiences.
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