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Associate/Full Specialist - Child Welfare Outcomes - California Child Welfare Indicators Project

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Position overview

Position title: Research Associate
Salary range: The UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and step at appointment. See the following table for the current salary scale for this position: https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2022-23/july-2022-salary-scales/t24-b.pdf. The current base salary range for this position is $67,400–$173,900. "Off-scale" salaries, which yield compensation that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions. A reasonable estimate for this position is $67,400 - $83,100
Percent time: 100%
Anticipated start: June 1, 2023
Position duration: One year.

Position description

The California Child Welfare Indicators Project (CCWIP) is seeking a doctoral-level researcher to fill the position of Research Specialist to join a nationally-recognized partnership between the Center for Social Services Research at the University of California, Berkeley, the California Department of Social Services, and philanthropic foundations.

The CCWIP provides critical information on child welfare outcomes and performance to professionals in the child welfare field, including administrators, front line workers, advocates, and legislators. CCWIP staff work with partners at the state and county level to develop and compute quarterly performance measures from the California Child Welfare Services Case Management System (CWS/CMS), a statewide relational database containing information on all children and families involved with the child welfare system. These measures are reported on a public website for use by agency staff, policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders, and have recently been augmented to include early adulthood outcomes such as employment and college enrollment. CCWIP also provides multiple forms of technical assistance to state and county staff in understanding and applying administrative outcome data to create system improvement. In addition to these endeavors, the CCWIP recently undertook an evaluation of the state’s opt-in Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) program.

In the coming year and beyond the project will be engaged in a number of significant projects, including: concluding a two-year implementation study of county-level CSEC programming; conduct analyses of system-involvement experiences and trajectories of non-minor dependents based on the priorities outlined by the Transition-Age Youth Research and Evaluation Hub’s (TAY-Hub) community stakeholder network; ongoing publication of sub-county geography reporting for Los Angeles; designing and implementing a statewide survey on transition-age youth, nonminor dependents, and caseworker’s experiences within the child welfare system; and ongoing collaborations with the California Department of Social Services, and other partners (e.g., Casey Family Programs, the Children’s Data Network at USC, and the Urban Institute).

Qualifications

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)
  • Master’s degree (or equivalent international degree)
Additional qualifications (required at time of start)

• MSW degree from an accredited school or university, or equivalent international degree as recognized by OSWA or ISWDRES; or three years' work experience related to social welfare or human services.

Preferred qualifications

• PhD (or equivalent international degree), or enrolled in PhD or equivalent international degree-granting program at the time of application;
• Three or more years of direct practice experience working in a public child welfare agency (ideally in California).
• One year or more of direct experience in a Project Manager role.
• Expertise with policies and practices related to the child welfare system response to commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC);
• Strong familiarity with the policies and data entry practices of public child welfare agencies using the California statewide child welfare automated database (CWS/CMS);
• Programming skill in accessing, understanding, managing, and using information from the California statewide child welfare relational database (CWS/CMS);
• High degree of computer literacy: strong skills in MS Excel and PowerPoint, familiarity with the SAS programming language;
• Outstanding work ethic to support the Principal Investigator and technical assistance in the Project’s work with the California Department of Social Services and other committees, philanthropic organizations, social service providers, and state agencies, including grant writing and research design;
• Strong analytic and presentation skills for developing and delivering original research presentations at academic conferences, invited convenings, professional committees, and other venues;
• Exceptional communication ability in writing progress reports to funders, superlative responsivity in corresponding and collaborating with project partners, and coordinating the work of project staff;
• Excellent interpersonal skills in providing technical assistance to public child welfare professionals and other stakeholders in understanding and tracking performance according to systemic outcome measures;
• Making strategic decisions and providing leadership and direction to evaluation sub-teams to implement those decisions;
• Advanced rapport-building skills and experience collaborating with community members and experts with lived experiences of child abuse, neglect and/or placement in out-of-home care;
• Proven track record of publications in peer-reviewed journals;
• Programming expertise with SAS, R, Stata, SPSS, Python;
• Willingness to travel for meetings and presentations within California and potentially out of state as needed by the project.

Application Requirements

Document requirements
  • Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

  • Cover Letter

  • Statement of Research - Please include a section discussing your experience with child welfare indicators.

  • Statement on Contributions to Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Statement on your contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, including information about your understanding of these topics, your record of activities to date, and your specific plans and goals for advancing equity and inclusion if hired at Berkeley (for additional information go to https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity).

  • Sample Publication 1 - Manuscript or publication

  • Sample Publication 2 - Manuscript or publication.

Reference requirements
  • 3 required (contact information only)
Apply link: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF03878

Help contact: d.schiller@berkeley.edu

About UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The excellence of the institution requires an environment in which the diverse community of faculty, students, and staff are welcome and included. Successful candidates will demonstrate knowledge and skill related to ensuring equity and inclusion in the activities of their academic position (e.g., teaching, research, and service, as applicable).

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct

In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality prior to submitting their letter.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

Job location

Berkeley, CA