Department of Civil Service

Description:

The New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), promotes quality child welfare services and good case practice along with services to children, youth, and families in the New York City region. This is done through partnerships, oversight, monitoring, supervision, technical assistance, and resources to expeditiously advance positive changes in the lives of children and families.
The field placement site will be: Prevention, Program Assessment, and Improvement (PPAI); Domestic Violence (DV); Runaway Homeless Youth (RHY) unit.
Duties:
(a) Develop a deeper understanding of the policy analyst's role and function. The importance of how policies are developed for legislation, developed from legislation, drafted/prepared for implementation, including the impact of policies at the community, social and economic, organizational, and personal/familial levels. Enhance skills to identify legislation relevant to child welfare as well as the policies that affect program and procedure change.
(b) Develop an understanding of the importance of adherence to statutory standards and mandates, including how to ably monitor policy sustainability through ongoing reassessment/amendment/suspension of existing policies and practice principles.
(c) Build ongoing practical experience to develop knowledge regarding networking and the importance of communication with stakeholders.
(d) Strengthen platform skills.
(e) Develop reliable and valid tools to measure fidelity of organizational policy and practice.
(f) Utilize available resources to enhance practical knowledge of program development from a global perspective as compared to individual approaches.
(g) Ongoing review of the standards that contribute to successful policy implementation, programmatic operations, growth, and sustainability.
(h) Understand how an organization's internal and external policies are designed. And, how to prioritize an organization's mission/policies/procedures while retaining the balance for administrative, supervisory, and front-line staff.
(i) Develop time and task management skills.
(j) Gain global perspectives on how best to measure and analyze child welfare policy vs. practice.
(k) Develop and strengthen critical assessment and analytical skills.

Candidates from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. OCFS is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. OCFS is committed to ensuring equal opportunity for persons with disabilities and workplace diversity. It is the policy of OCFS to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities to enable them to perform the essential functions of the position for which they are applying or for which they are employed. OCFS does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its hiring or employment practices and complies with all regulations promulgated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under title I of the ADA.

Skills:

Oral & written communication skills

Time & task management skills

Critical assessment & analytical skills

Interpersonal relationship skills

Professional ethics

Internship Areas: Human Services, Planning/Analysis/Research, Policy Enforcement, Public Policy