MONTCO Careers: The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth

Founded in 1970 by a behavioral health hospital and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1983, The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth is an entrepreneurial social enterprise committed to transforming lives and communities.

Headquartered in Audubon , TLC serves several states, offering K-12 alternative schooling, extensive mental and behavioral health support, coaching, counseling, along with trauma-informed instruction.

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth collaborates with school districts, universities, hospitals, police departments, and nonprofit organizations, offering consultation services to secure federal and state grant funding.

Here are a few of the staff positions currently available at The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth:

Full-time Licensed School-Based Counselor/Social Worker

The School-based Counselor/ Social Worker provides early intervention therapy and counseling services in a Technical School.

They offer case management along with mental health assistance both within the school and inside the homes of students who are considered at risk.

The counselor/social worker will offer consulting services to school staff, act as a bridge between the school and external organizations, and conduct training sessions for both educational and community groups.

Services to students include:

• Pinpoint students who require trauma assistance and offer them preventive measures, screenings, referrals, and therapeutic interventions as needed.
• Offer trauma-sensitive therapy and counseling services (including group, individual, and/or family sessions) for students who are at risk.
• Provide mentoring and other intervention models to children and their families who have experienced trauma or are at risk of experiencing trauma, including those who are low-income, homeless, in foster care, involved in the criminal justice system, unemployed, experiencing a mental illness or substance abuse disorder or not enrolled in or at risk of dropping out of an educational institution.
• Provide case management for students and families requiring multiple resources.
• Provide quality trauma support and behavioral health care services.
• Provide home-based services to the families of students who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing trauma, including those who are low-income, homeless, involved in the child welfare system or involved in the juvenile justice system.

Support services for educational staff encompass:

• Help educators implement tactics for managing student behaviors.
• Give employees crucial details to enhance their comprehension of the elements (such as cultural, societal, economic, family-related, health issues) influencing a student's academic performance and conduct.
• Train school staff on trauma-informed approaches to education to develop safe, stable and nurturing learning environments that prevent and mitigate the effects of trauma.

Services to districts include:

• Provide consultation regarding school law and school policy including IDEA and Section 504.
• Assist in developing positive behavioral intervention strategies.
• Assist in developing and implementing educational programs, including programs on safety and bullying.
• Develop alternative programs for drop-out, truancy, delinquency, etc.

Services to parent/families

• Collaborate with parents to help them effectively support their children's adaptation to school life.
• Alleviate family stress to enable the child to function more effectively in school & community.
• Assist parents in accessing and utilizing school and community resources.
• Work with those problems in a child’s living situation that affect the child’s adjustment in school (home, school, and community).

School Community Liaison:

• Obtain and coordinate community resources to meet students’ needs.
• Provide health services and intervention strategies by coordinating the services provided by eligible applicants and coordinated care organizations, public health entities, nonprofit youth service providers and community-based organizations.
• Foster and promote communication between the school entity, community and law enforcement.
• Increase access to quality trauma-informed support services and behavioral health care by linking the community with local trauma support and behavioral health systems.
• Assist school districts in obtaining sufficient assistance from social and mental health organizations.
• Promote enhanced community and school services aimed at addressing the requirements of students and their families.
• Mobilize family, school, and community resources to enable the child to learn as effectively as possible in his or her educational program.
• Help school districts receive adequate support from social and mental health agencies.

Skills and knowledge for this position include:

• Excellent communication and relationship building skills.
• Ability to work effectively on a multi-treatment team.
• Proficient in numerous clinical interventions.
• Awareness and skill in utilizing local support services.
• Effective abilities in intervening with substance misuse

Qualifications for this role encompass education and practical experience as follows:

• Master’s degree required, preferably in counseling or social work.
• The necessary license among these must be held: Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Social Worker (LSW), or Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW).

Find out more about the Full-time Licensed School-Based Counselor/Social Worker position.

Full-Time Project Director

The Director will manage project daily operations, ensuring activities are completed and objectives are met within budget.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities:

• Spearhead the Project Trainer for efforts aimed at reducing instances of violence in schools.

• Put into place a school safety strategy based on proven evidence.

• Perform evaluations of educational institutions and personnel to pinpoint potential security hazards.

• Enhance multidisciplinary teams that identify school violence threats and mitigate those risks.

• Lead the Project Trainer with project work related to addressing student mental health and behavioral challenges and adolescent stressors by way of Socioemotional Learning training.

• Develop and implement multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment (BTA) and/or intervention teams.

• Provide specialized training or create specialized non-training policies for law enforcement who work in schools and/or with school-age populations such as school resource officers (SROs) and probation officers: Behavioral threat assessment in school settings.

• Serve as the Steering Committee Chair.

• Aim to enhance students' mental well-being, decrease negative actions, persistent truancy, and educational shortfalls that might arise due to school-related violence.

• Oversee day-to-day project operations, making sure tasks are finished and goals are achieved without exceeding the budget.

• Coordinate activities with Breakthrough Public Schools and The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth.

• Responsible for ensuring project data is collected for evaluation and project continuous improvement.

Skills:

• Flexible, self-directed, motivated, and meets deadlines.

• Pro-social collaboration, communication, and problem solving.

• Research-based knowledge of youth-focused intervention services.

• Ability to implement and revise partnerships and programs as needed.

• Ability to collaborate and bring together different factions.

• A deep feeling of empathy along with dedication to assisting others.

• Ensuring alignment with program goals to foster development in academics, social skills, and personal life.

• Excellent abilities in fostering relationships and building teams.

• Capacity to collaborate effectively within a team-oriented setting alongside social service professionals and teachers.

• Ability to communicate clearly.

• Strong organizational skills.

• Multi-tasking capability.

• Detail-oriented.

Education and Experience:

Master’s degree in education, counseling, social work, or related areas and at least 5 years of administrative experience in education. Additionally, the project director will have credentials to train in project evidence-based practices. Preference given to candidates with experience managing federal grants.

Find out more about the Project Director position.

Full Special Education Teacher

The full-time special education teaching role offers an attractive signing incentive.

The Special Education Teacher assists students with various socioemotional and mental health requirements as well as learning disabilities.

The special education teacher designs and delivers tailored lessons to address individual student requirements, monitors advancements towards educational goals, adheres to Pennsylvania’s required procedural protocols, and acts as the IEP supervisor for designated pupils.

A Special Education Teacher needs to collaborate effectively within a team setting alongside other teachers, special education professionals, guidance counselors, and social service providers.

A special education teacher ought to exhibit a great deal of genuineness, compassion, and understanding while also ensuring an atmosphere that fosters both academic and social-emotional development.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Collaborate with students from preschool through 4th grade who face a broad range of social-emotional challenges, mental health issues, and learning difficulties.

• Assess students’ skills to determine their needs and to develop teaching plans.

• Organize, plan, and delegate tasks tailored specifically to each student's capabilities.

• Instruct and guide pupils both as a group, in smaller clusters, and individually.

• Evaluate student advancement and identify whether extra support or modifications to teaching methods are required.

• Set up and sustain order and discipline among students within the classroom, around the school grounds, or at school-related events.

• Utilize and establish a classroom setup to foster student accountability, collaboration, and reciprocal respect, aligning with the school’s guidelines and protocols.

• Provide consultation to classroom teachers regarding classroom adaptations, instructional modifications, adaptive equipment, behavior modification plans and other similar instructional interventions to meet the needs of students.

• Develop and implement Individualized Educational Program (IEP) plans for students to include: present levels of educational performance, special education needs, instructional goals and objectives, and the special education and related services required to meet those goals.

• Implement IEPs, assess students’ performance, and track their progress.

• Revise IEPs during the academic year to capture students' advancement and objectives.

• Talk about the student’s development with moms and dads, educators, advisors, and principals.

• Employ various teaching techniques, methods and principles of learning to enable students to meet their IEP goals.

• Provide research-based specialized instruction to address the instructional goals and objectives contained within each student’s IEP.

• Coordinate the delivery of special education services in each student’s IEP.

• Supervise and mentor other teachers who work with special education students.

• Collaborate with teachers, counselors, and social workers to accommodate students’ needs.

• Connect with parents, school principals, and advisors to review modifications and updates to the individualized education programs.

• Schedule team meetings and work cooperatively with child study team members and others to develop instructional goals and strategies.

• Collaborate and consult with educational professionals and community service providers (i.e., social services, public health, medical providers etc.) regarding the needs of students.

• Complete all district and state reporting requirements.

• Perform other comparable duties of a like or similar nature apparent or as assigned.

Skills & Knowledge:

Excellent communication and relationship building skills.

Ability to work effectively on a multi-treatment team.

Knowledge and experience with IEP software.

Strong substance abuse intervention skills.

Understanding and capability to utilize communal support services.

Skilled in various clinical procedures.

Education & Experience:

Bachelor’s Degree along with Pennsylvania Special Education Certification for PreK-12 levels.

Learn more about the Full-Time Special Education Instructor position.

See all the available job openings At The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth.