Youth Services Specialist I - Spring Creek YSC - Colorado Springs

Youth Services Specialist I

This position is a direct care/essential role that provides direct and engaging supervision of youth in DYS State Operated Secure Facilities. Specific duties and expectations are: Safety/Security, Youth Center Programming, Documentation/Recording and Reporting, Training, and Organizational Accountability. Positions may be required to work overtime on a rotating basis, based on business needs. Duties include but are not limited to the following:

Safety/Security: Work involves providing direct care, safety, security, and supervision of adjudicated and/or pre-adjudicated youth in a secure setting. Monitor, participate, support, and enforce behavioral management plans for individual youth as directed (e.g. Behavioral Contracts, Individual Growth and Change Plans). Duties include supervision of youth or group of youth, supervision of daily activities, youth orientation, intervention in crisis situations, non-escalation, de-escalation, use of physical response/restraint in emergency situations, debriefing of all incidents, and conducting searches.

Youth Center Programming: Actively and with positive engagement, implement and follow the Youth Center's behavioral management program, teach, coach, and redirect youth within the program. Support DYS initiatives and strategies as they relate to youth programming and crisis intervention.

Documentation/Recording and Reporting: Document observations of youth behavior and response to program(s) and document all unit activities and required information in appropriate logs and records systems. Document all youth group activities in appropriate database systems.

Organizational Accountability: Through all communications and behaviors demonstrate, support, and contribute to a healthy, positive, and respectful cultural climate throughout the Youth Center by adhering to our organizational values of Nonviolence, Open Communication, Social Responsibility, Growth and Change, Social Learning, Democracy, and Emotional Intelligence. Requirement to adhere to the CDHS Code of Conduct, DYS Compliance Review Standards, and CDHS and DYS policies.

Training: Complete DYS Pre-Service training academy, Youth Center training, and orientation process as a new employee. Some travel may be required. Complete all assigned online training, and maintain and support the Division's prevailing behavior management and intervention strategies.

Minimum qualifications include a high school diploma or GED. Preferred qualifications include college education in a behavioral health and or juvenile justice related field, experience working with adjudicated and/or detained youth within a secure residential facility and/or a behavioral health setting; experience facilitating psychoeducational groups; education/experience working with adolescents who have trauma; experience working with youth in positive leadership roles, such as mentoring and coaching. Highly desirable competencies include skilled conflict management, strong work ethic, integrity and dependability, sound judgment and decision making skills, self control, composure and the ability to manage stressful situations, ability to verbally communicate clearly and respectfully, ability to identify and act on changes, inappropriate activity, hazards or potential security breaches and verbally communicate pertinent information, ability to study information and recount events in a written, factual, concise, and legible method.

Employees are required to work shift hours. This includes evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. Shifts may vary between agencies and may include eight (8) hours, ten (10) hours, or twelve (12) hours in duration. Mandatory overtime may be required. Day shift work is not usually available. As a Correctional Youth Security Officer, your position is considered essential and you may be required to report to work during inclement weather.

Conditions of employment include a full background check, being a minimum of 21 years of age, with no felony convictions or history of domestic violence, and must possess a valid, unrestricted U.S. Driver's License. Continued employment is contingent upon successful completion of the DYS Pre-service Training Academy, Field Training Program (FTO) and mandatory annual training in all subject areas. Flu and other state-mandatory vaccinations are required. Former State employees who were disciplinarily terminated or resigned in lieu of termination must disclose that information on the application and provide an explanation why the prior termination or resignation should not disqualify the applicant from the current position.

The Diana Screen®, a sexual risk screening tool, is administered to all applicants to the Division of Youth Services (DYS) seeking positions of trust with children and teens to help ensure that ethical boundaries between children and adults are maintained. At the DYS, the safety and protection of the youth who have been entrusted to us is our #1 priority.