Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant

Applicants are strongly encouraged to provide a cover letter outlining their interest in working with young children and their families. Use the opportunity to highlight specific experiences and skills that may not shine through the resume, making you a strong candidate.

When you join The Center for Early Childhood @ Home for Little Wanderers, you join a team of professionals dedicated to partnering with families and professionals to promote optimal emotional health for young children and the adults who care for them.

Through a variety of Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) direct care services and consultation partnerships, The Center works with children (0-7), parents/caregivers, and professionals to build and support strong social-emotional foundations for happy, healthy childhoods. The Center provides age-appropriate, culturally responsive interventions for children and families in a variety of settings including our child-friendly clinic, homes, early education settings, shelters, and community spaces.

The ECMH Consultant role is dynamic and responsive. The ideal candidate is adaptable and perceptive, ready to learn and grow, and predisposed to "quick thinking" and "on the fly" redirection. The work environment is collaborative and supportive, reflectively-supervised, committed to balancing employee wellness and excellence, and driven by funder requirements.

The ECMH Consultant will split their time each week between consulting and collaborating with professionals, working directly with children and parents/caregivers, paperwork and outreach, and attending to their own professional development and wellness. The ideal candidate can (with support from leadership) identify and maintain the proper balance of tasks and adjust accordingly.

The ECMH Consultant serves as a specialist, applying the concepts of social emotional development and wellness with confidence and humility. The ideal candidate seeks to learn through experience as well as formal training opportunities and embraces peer-supported professional growth.

The ECMH Consultant is a member of a fun and supportive team of mental health consultants and clinicians led by fun and supportive program leaders. The ideal candidate brings their whole self to work, nurtures relationships with coworkers, and enthusiastically joins-in team-based activities.

How You Will Be Making a Difference

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation is a prevention-based intervention addressing the developmental, social-emotional, and behavioral needs of children. We implement evidence-informed approaches to build program capacity and child success by reducing educator stress/turnover and collaborating to identify, prevent, and reduce the impact of behavioral and emotional distress of young children.

Job Responsibilities

Consultation and collaboration:

• Work independently and collaboratively (as appropriate) to develop protocols and materials to establish new program components.
• Work in early education and care settings to observe, coach, and support educators, children, and families.
• Establish relationships with adults to provide knowledge and skills to promote positive relationships and nurturing environments for children
• Develop and facilitate groups, outreach efforts, and skill-building events for children, caregivers, families, and professionals.
• Assist early education and care programs to:




• Assess child social emotional development
• Identify unmet service and support needs for children, families, and professionals
• Respond to unmet needs with referrals for case management, clinical therapy, and/or family support services

Direct care to children and adults:

• Provide clinically indicated, child-specific, social-emotional technical assistance, coaching and training to young children and the adults who support them in home and community-based programs
• Consult with Hub service provider to understand and monitor child social-emotional wellness.
• Work with children in community-based settings to facilitate child skill development to build social and emotional competencies.

Paperwork and outreach efforts:

• Produce documentation and program materials in a timely manner.
• Abide by all laws - both federal and state - relating to confidentiality of client information and follow appropriate confidentiality protocols regarding sharing of clinical information with program staff and other parties, maintaining all necessary releases of information in order to provide services.

Ongoing professional development and wellness:

• Actively participate in training and learning opportunities for personal and professional growth.
• Actively participate in supervision and meetings including individual, group, and team constellations.
• Consult with supervisor and peers about successes, challenges, threats and opportunities.
• Center family voice and choice in all aspects of service delivery.
• Demonstrate commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and The Home's becoming an anti-racist institution.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field such as early childhood education, child development, social work, psychology, etc. **Personal and professional lived-experience may be substituted to meet the degree requirement.
• 3 or more years experience working with children 0-7 (could include volunteer, intern, lived-experience, etc.)
• Highly engaging professional development presentation abilities
• Application of principles of adult learning to design and deliver effective professional development
• Excellent cultural curiosity, sensitivity, and responsivity
• Strong capacity for self-reflection
• Computer literate, including Microsoft Office, with the ability to learn new software applications
• Ability to travel to community settings in and around Boston (via personal transportation or public transit)
• Highly preferred:




• Experience working in early education and care settings
• Familiarity with and comfort working in all Boston neighborhoods
• Ability to provide services in a second language; Identified need for Spanish or Haitian Creole fluency.

Valuing Diversity

We are committed to excellence in diversity, equity, and inclusion, while simultaneously creating a culture that supports those values. We believe the differences we bring enhance our ability to provide exceptional service and care to diverse children, families, and communities. Moreover, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging align with our values and our mission to help vulnerable children and their families build permanent, positive change.

What The Home Can Offer You

In addition to the chance to make a lasting impact on the lives of the youth we serve, The Home for Little Wanderers offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Generous time off including up to 15 days per year for new full-time employees, plus 11 holidays, and 5 sick days
• Health and Dental Insurance that is effective immediately upon hire
• Extensive training to new staff
• Tuition reimbursement of up to $2,400 per fiscal year
• 403(b) Retirement Plan with employer match
• Employer paid Long-term and Short-term Disability Insurance, plus Basic Life and AD&D Insurance
• And more!