Job Description
Job Details Job Location Dallas Children's Advocacy Center - Dallas, TX
Position Type Full Time
Education Level 4 Year Degree
Travel Percentage Up to 25%
Job Shift Day
Job Category Nonprofit - Social Services
Description The
Dallas Children's Advocacy Center is seeking an experienced
Forensic Interviewer to join the FI team.
Bilingual (English/Spanish) required. ABOUT DCAC : The mission of the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center is to improve the lives of abused children in Dallas County and to provide national leadership on child abuse issues. DCAC is a non-profit organization and the only agency of its kind in Dallas County, working in agreement with public and private agencies to investigate, prosecute, and provide healing services for child abuse cases in Dallas County.
We reduce the victimization of the child, remove barriers to investigation and treatment, and enhance criminal prosecution with our distinctive multidisciplinary and united approach to these complex and severe cases, all at no cost to our clients. Each year, DCAC serves over 13,000 children and their non-offending family members.
We are a national and international leader in the Children's Advocacy Center movement, recognized for our expertise in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of child abuse cases; cutting-edge clinical services and programs for the victims and their non-offending family members; and our community and professional training programs.
Everyone involved in DCACs work shares a common set of core values: - The children come first in all that we do.
- We operate as a seamless team.
- Each of us acts with a servants heart.
In 2018, DCAC was named a Best Place to Work by Dallas Business Journal Summary: The Forensic Interviewer conducts high-quality interviews for child victims, who may have experienced abuse or who have witnessed a crime or other violent act, in accordance with professional standards and best practices; fosters an environment that is sensitive to a child's cognitive, emotional and psychological development, without leading a child in questioning.
Essential Duties and Key Responsibilities: - Conducts legally defensible interviews of alleged child abuse victims or witnesses of violent crimes.
- Communicates the forensic interview model with the MDT (multi-disciplinary team), including but not limited to the explanation of the interview process, appropriate question types and child development expectations.
- Facilitates pre and post interview meetings with MDT (multi-disciplinary) team.
- Completes a summarized document of each interview, along with completing individualized questions for each interview and inputs into the record database and completes within 24-48 hours from the interview with the child.
- Downloads, exports, and uploads each interview to the Vidanyx system and creates a file for each victim and multiple files if there are multiple perpetrators.
- Reviews summaries on children's cases in order to prepare for weekly MDT staffings.
- Schedules forensic interviews for law enforcement and inputs into Outlook calendar and records into database.
- Regularly participate in case review meetings for children throughout the week.
- Provides court testimony for criminal and civil court hearings when subpoenaed because of conducting a child forensic interview or for interviewers who are no longer with the agency and as needed.
- Participates in peer reviews by providing feedback to fellow interviewers in either local, regional, or statewide peer reviews.
- Participates in new employee training and on-boarding, as needed, by conducting mock interviews, participating in the internal peer review process and providing feedback to the new employee.
- Provides on-call support after hours and on the weekend through a staff rotation.
- Maintains orderly and accurate HIPAA-compliant case records and input information into data tracking software.
- Follows the forensic services policy and procedures and adheres to the professional ethics and standards in the performance of the job functions.
Interaction with clients: - Consistently creates an environment for children to feel safe and comfortable with the interview process.
- Provides a clear explanation of the interview process for caretakers.
Continuing Education: - Attends CACTX block training (Blocks I-III) within the first year as a forensic interviewer.
- Completes on-going, evidence-based trainings focused on providing forensic interviews to children and adolescents and their families.
- Attends CE-CERT trainings and other trainings that assists with trauma resilience as a forensic interviewer.
- Seeks to stay current on forensic interviewing trends and literature and pursues effective professional development in the field of child abuse.
- Employees who are bilingual (English/Spanish) are required to complete translation training through TIN (Translation Interpretation Network).
- Completes all compliance trainings required by DCAC.
Other Duties: - Attends and participates and/or assists at the annual Crimes Against Children conference.
- Participates and actively attends supervisory meetings and team meetings.
- Attends agency staff meetings and special events.
- Participates in special events for children and families.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications Education and Experience: bachelor's degree or higher in criminal justice, psychology, social work or in another human services field with at least one (1) year of forensic interviewing experience OR one (1) year of forensic interviewing experience and at least four (4) years of full-time experience in a child abuse related field with the required knowledge, skills and experience.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: - Knowledge of child development, child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, trauma and other related children's issues.
- Skilled in effective communication with a diverse community of stakeholders including medical professionals, law enforcement, CPI (child protective investigation), the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, DCAC staff, clients, and families.
- Ability to maintain a professional environment of acceptance, respect and understanding of persons from varied socioeconomic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
- Knowledge of MS Office Suite products, such as Outlook, word and excel.
- Ability to maintain client confidentiality.
- Ability to drive to the courthouse(s) to provide testimony for a child's case.
- Ability to drive and work at a satellite office, Irving Family Advocacy Center (IFAC), if applicable, to conduct forensic interviews and case staffings.
- Ability to think quickly and maintain composure during client interviews and high stress situations.
- Ability to consistently follow and demonstrate an understanding of best practices and effective execution of the forensic interview model.
- Ability to demonstrate knowledge in the importance of balancing the needs of the children with the investigative needs of the team.
- Ability to be flexible to interview a child in a timely manner to meet the requirements of law enforcement and CPS (child protective services).
- Ability to establish and maintain professionally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks and a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
- Excellent presentation and communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Demonstrated ability to work with all levels of employees, board members, partners, and community.
WORK ENVIRONMENT: Work Location : All interviews and work must be performed in the office, satellite location or an offsite location, i.e.: hospital, school, or similar location, due to client confidentiality.
Mental and Physical Abilities : Duties are usually performed seated with occasional periods of standing or walking. Limited physical effort is required associated with lifting and carrying objects (less than 25 lbs).
Working Conditions: Work may be performed but is not limited to an office environment.
Essential Functions : This job description should not be interpreted as all-inclusive. It is intended to identify the essential functions and requirements of this position. The incumbents may be requested to perform job-related responsibilities and tasks other than those stated in this job description.
Core Values: Must demonstrate/live DCAC's core values: 1. Put the child first in all we do, 2. Operate as a part of a seamless team, 3. Work with a servant's heart.
DCAC is proud to be an
Equal Opportunity Employer and we believe in an inclusive culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
BENEFITS: - 100% Paid Employee Health Insurance-PPO
- 100% Paid Employee Dental Insurance
- 100% Paid Short Term Disability
- 100% Paid Long Term Disability
- 100% Paid Basic Term Life and AD&D Benefits (one times your annual earnings up to $50,000)
- Vision Insurance through Superior Vision
- Pet Insurance through Nationwide
- Legal Services through Freshbenies
- Flexible Spending Account
- Dependent Spending Account
- Six (6) weeks' of paid Parental Leave
- Employee Assistance Plan (EAP)
- Health Advocate
- WellVia Teladoc Program
- 403b Retirement and Contribution Plan with up to a 4% employer contribution
- Supplemental Insurance: Accident Insurance, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance
- Bilingual Stipend (English/Spanish) of $2,700 annually
- Cell Phone Stipend
- 10 Paid Holidays
- 2 Floating Holidays
- 14 Wellness Days
- 10 Vacation Days
- DCAC participates in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)
Job Tags
Holiday work, Full time, Temporary work, Local area, Flexible hours, Shift work, Weekend work,