Parent Educator

Primary Function:

Provide family education and support through the Van Buren Parents as Teachers (VBPAT) through in-home visits to educate and empower parents of children ages 0-5 years of age in Van Buren County, laying the foundation for later childhood learning by strengthening language, intellectual, motor, and social development.

Position Essential Functions: 

In Home Personal Visits

• Follow National Parents as Teachers curriculum in preparation, implementing, and documenting personal visits.
• Provide Parents as Teacher information and techniques for working with young children to parents in order to help them to be better teachers of their children.
• Assist enrolled families with parenting skills, formation of positive relationships, and prevention of child abuse and neglect.
• Provide one-hour in-home visits to enrolled families twice a month.
• Responsible for planning, scheduling/rescheduling and carrying out in-home visitations with families.
• Complete all documentation of family visits within 5 working days of the visit.

Group Meetin/Connection Responibilities

• Work with other educator(s) and Group Meeting Coordinator to organize, plan, conduct, and facilitate/lead, group meetings/connections.
• Inform support group members of available community resources.
• Provide child care as needed during group meetings, to allow full participation of parents at educational meetings.
• Engage, motivate, and encourage family member’s involvement (especially young parents) in the planning and implementation of group connections.
• Ensure that there are cultural/recreational activities at group meetings that teach families how to enjoy healthy activities together.
• Administer demographics survey (for VBPAT is LSP and National PAT surveys).
• Conduct annual participant program evaluations.
• Maintain accurate records on a monthly basis.

Conduct Health Screenings and Disseminate Health Information Responsiblities

• Conduct PAT recommended, age-appropriate growth and development screenings to enrolled children.
• Conduct ASQ and ASQ: SE, screenings within 90 days of enrollment or birth, at 1 year, and annually thereafter.
• Promote the importance of AMA recommended well child checkups.
• Promote the importance of dental assessments.
• Provide nutrition/health education, parenting skills, smoking cessation, and other evidence based information to parents.
• Provide appropriate community referral information to parents.
• Upon identifying a delay, refer child to appropriate resource (i.e. Early Access).

Referral Responsibilities

• Serve as a referral source to area community agencies as needed, assuring that duplication of services within the county will not occur.
• Encourage attendance of the whole family unit to all VBPAT activities.
• Refer each new prenatal family or family with an infant below the age of 6 months to the Nest program.
• Refer enrolled families to appropriate community resources.
• Follow up on all referrals made and document results.

Recruitment Responsibilities

• Responsible to recruit new families into the VB PAT program.
• Quarterly, market PAT program at preschools, child cares, WIC, and other organized groups/meetings
• Distribute PAT information.

Record Keeping Responsibilities

• Document and keep records of all daily activities including personal in-home visits, referrals, contacts, recruitments, and other program-specific information.
• Collect data for monthly, quarterly, and annual reports required by the funders.
• Maintain a confidential file on each family.
• Maintain accurate record keeping regarding family contacts.
• Assist the Manager with data collection on each family.
• For quality assurance, gather data, provide reports, and contribute to the effectiveness of modifications made.

Marketing Responsibilities

• Market and provide the service information to eligible families and the community.
• Be willing to market, facilitate, and coordinate at least one of VBPAT’s auxiliary programs- Reach Out and Read, Nest, young parents support group, or other.

Education and Reporting Responsibilities

• Annually, attend trainings for 10 to 20 hours of re-certification per the Manager’s approval.
• Maintain full familiarity with all guidelines and report immediately to the VB PAT Manager any deviations from these guidelines.
• Complete annual education requirements.
• Maintain an attractive working environment, keeping workspace and offices in an orderly and functioning fashion.
• Maintain regular attendance to assure continuity for program clients and staff.
• Attend in-service training and workshops as required.
• Schedule appointments for the week’s work schedule and submit to office manager.
• Properly record and document timesheet and expense sheet in a timely manner.

Stay up-to-date with industry matters by reading/attending educational presentations.

All Employee Essential Functions:

• Attendance at work on a regular and reliable basis.
• Maintains patient, hospital and, employee confidentiality in all aspects of the job.
• Meets with supervisor concerning policies and procedures, work assignments, financials and other functional problems. Keeps supervisor informed of department activities and needs.
• Complies with all established policies and procedures of the hospital and of the department, to include the Code of Conduct and the Code of Ethics and Compliance.
• Must be able to safely work in an environment where latex is prevalent.
• Complete annual education requirements. Stays up-to-date with industry matters.
• Attend meetings as appropriate.
• Meets standards of hospital infection control.
• Maintains all applicable regulatory requirements, including licensure requirements when applicable.
• Commits to being diligent about safety policies and practices within the organization and assigned department.
• Accepts additional duties as assigned when they are deemed appropriate by the employee’s supervisor.

Education, Certification, and Experience Requirements:

• A Bachelor’s degree or beyond in early childhood education or a related field with preferably supervised experience working in the early childhood field; or 4 years’ experience in working with children one-on-one and/or in a group setting.
• CPR and First Aide
• Mandatory Abuse Reporter

Apply Online

• Job Type: Full-Time
• Category: Other
• Supervisor: Melissa Daugherty
• FLSA Status: Non-Exempt
• Posted: 5/5/25
• Expires: 6/30/25