Director

Job Description

THE SELECTED CANDIDATE WILL BE OFFERED OF $98,140.00

THIS POSITION IS ONLY OPEN TO CANDIDATES WHO ARE PERMANENT (NOT PROVISIONAL) IN THE CIVIL SERVICE TITLE OF ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF ANALYST.

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of children and families through child welfare and juvenile justice services and community supports. ACS manages community-based supports and foster care services and provides subsidized childcare vouchers. ACS child protection staff respond to allegations of child maltreatment. In juvenile justice, ACS oversees detention, placement, and programs for youth in the community.

The Family Services Division (FSD) and its network of contracted providers deliver one of the largest and most diverse continuums of community-based child welfare prevention services in the nation and across New York City to improve safety, well-being, and permanency for thousands of families and children each year. focuses on systems improvement, innovation, and strategy initiatives that require collaboration with major stakeholders to address urgent or emerging provider and family needs, city or state mandates, and high-priority strategic goals of ACS leadership.

The Office of Program Management and Sustainability (OPMS) oversees a portfolio of multi-stakeholder (internal, intergovernmental, and external) prevention strategy, improvement, and innovation projects. The Office of Program Management and Sustainability (OPMS) manages numerous cross-functional projects focused on program design, data, and system sustainability. OPMS’s initiatives include collaborating with service providers, legal, finance, procurement, compliance, systems, and operations, and developing a strategy within the parameters of policy/regulations (city, state, and federal).

The Program Design and Implementation (PDI) team within the Office of Program Management and Sustainability develops and implements strategies to ensure that the full continuum of prevention programs is implemented in alignment with service model fidelity and in full compliance with NYC child welfare requirements. The PDI team provides ongoing contract management and support for providers and model purveyors. The team holds monthly model cohorts to bring together providers and purveyors to discuss case practice challenges, program data, continuous quality improvement, and fidelity. The team also hosts trainings and convenings for providers and ACS staff to learn about using data effectively to improve practice, frameworks for effective implementation, and incorporating families’ perspectives into service delivery. Additionally, the team holds monthly administrative meetings with each model purveyor to discuss case practice expectations between child welfare and model requirements. This position offers an outstanding opportunity to collaborate with city partners and bring a strategic lens to implementing initiatives that support the service array in meeting the needs of expecting parents and families with young children, birth to age five.

The Director of Early Childhood Initiatives will report to the Executive Director or Assistant Commissioner. The preferred candidate will have at least 3 years of supervisory experience in a large agency or organization; will have substantive experience in child welfare and have a strong interest or experience in Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health and the needs of families with children under 5. The selected candidate will lead and facilitate work in accordance with the intracity agreement between ACS and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to support efficient and effective ways to achieve its intended outcomes. This work will focus on sustaining the partnership between ACS and DOHMH to:

- Leverage DOHMH’s existing infrastructure and clinical capacity rather than duplicating efforts.
- Implement communication and outreach strategies to reduce stigma associated with these services and enable both agencies (ACS and DOHMH) to reach additional families at risk of future child welfare involvement and who may benefit from early childhood mental health services or newborn home visiting.
- Build out additional capacity with teams to prioritize ACS-involved families who could benefit from specialized early childhood mental health support and/or newborn home visiting.
- Develop and streamline processes to effectively support contracted staff and other service providers who work with families involved in, or at risk of becoming involved in, child welfare, to more effectively identify and connect families who may need additional support and/or specialized services.
- Develop innovative, data-driven strategies to improve model implementation, service delivery, and collaboration among service providers.

- Coach and pro