Shire Jobs

*Salary: *$15/hour

Position Type: Part-Time, 20 hours a week. Requires at least some weekday afternoon availability and some weekend availability.

Start date: Flexible, now. Training is paid.

*Job Summary: *The successful candidate will gain experience in working with parents and children in collecting data on heart rate, stress hormones in saliva, child temperament, and parent-child interactions, and may also be responsible for delivering parenting support home visits to families in the Harrisburg area using structured protocols

We seek individuals with strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills. We are particularly interested in individuals with strong ties to the Harrisburg community. The skills learned through this experience will be useful for those with interests in psychology, human development, nursing, medicine, social work, or related fields. This position involves working with families and children.

Parenting Support Home Visitor/Research Assistants will attend training sessions, weekly research team meetings, and performance evaluation sessions. Management of video-recorded sessions, data entry and data management, and documentation will be necessary. Additional duties may include recruitment and screening of potential study participants, obtaining informed consent, phone calls/texts with participating families, assisting the Principal Investigator and the Project Coordinator with day to day operations of the research project, and other study related duties.

Paid Training Provided: We will train in parenting support home visiting and research assistant duties, previous experience is not necessary. Training time will be paid. Interest in parents and children is a must. Experience or interest in culturally responsive communication is key.

*Project Goals: *The overall goal of the Hands and Hearts Together project is to test parenting support interventions to promote healthy child functioning. Our goal is to use the knowledge we gain through this research to understand how we can best support parents in all they do to ensure their own children's healthy development. We work with parents of children ages 12 months to 4 years of age.

Job Duties:

Research Assistant Duties:

• Participate in weekly scheduled research team meetings, as well as training and performance evaluation sessions.
• Recruit and screen potential participating parents, including obtaining informed consent for those who are eligible.
• Assist the Principal Investigator and the Project Manager with day to day administrative responsibilities including: management of project documents, scheduling of rooms, filing, some data management, reporting, and coordination of schedules.
• Provide assistance to the project coordinator/lab manager in collecting data for the Hands and Hearts research study in the scripted order, collecting heart rate and salivary data, collecting video data, and administering questionnaires.
• Provide ratings of infant temperament
• Provide assistance in monitoring the safety and confidentiality of research participants, and in maintaining appropriate documentation and files in keeping with IRB standards and requirements.

Home Visitation Duties:

• Learn to provide parent support home visiting protocol
• Deliver parent support home visiting sessions according to protocol, including management of video-recorded sessions, data entry, and documentation.
• Track and confirm appointments with participating families
• Travel to participants' homes (mileage is reimbursed)
• Videotape parent and child in home environment
• Provide parents information about community parenting resources and provide parenting support intervention

Administrative and Other Work Duties:

• Establish and maintain interpersonal relationships: Develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with community members, neighbors, a d community partners and maintain them over time
• Communicate with supervisors and peers: Provide information, project paperwork, data, outcomes and outcome measurement in a timely manner to supervisors and university lab managers by telephone, in written form, email or in person (i.e. paperwork/documentation, participant questionnaires, enrollment and consent forms, video and physiological data).
• Outreach Programming: Implement appropriate outreach programming based on community needs, project participants, and guidance from supervisor. Be familiar with and understand Harrisburg culture in order to reach potential research participants. Conduct outreach and form partnerships with community organizations and churches.
• Record Keeping: Log home visits, coding, and other data on completed visit in database
• Obtain Information: Observe, receive and obtain information from all relevant sources.
• Schedule Work Activities: Schedule data collection sessions, meetings, events, programs and activities.
• Develop and Build Teams: Encourage and build mutual trust, respect and cooperation among project participants, coworkers, student research assistants, support staff, and volunteers. Participate as a team member in a collaborative environment within a diverse workforce.
• Think Creatively and Work Independently: Develop new ideas and relationships. Demonstrate ability to work on complex tasks with minimal supervision. Troubleshooting and problem solving.
• Maintain equipment: Maintain video and other equipment and ensure that equipment is in good working order

Minimum Skills/qualifications:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (verbal, written, and electronic) are required
• Community outreach skills are important
• Organization, Professionalism, Problem Solving
• Associates Degree or Bachelors Degree in Psychology, Human Development, Family Services, Social Work or related field preferred (but not required)
• 1 year of lab experience preferred (but not required).
• Must be available on some weekends/evenings to accommodate family schedules
• Valid PA driver's license
• Competency in working with urban and diverse residents of Harrisburg
• Strong computer skills in Microsoft Word, Publisher, Excel and PowerPoint a plus
• Willingness to engage in complex tasks independently
• Experience with computer database management preferred but not required
• PA Child Abuse History Clearance and PA State Police Criminal History Clearance required

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of community organizations in Harrisburg local area
• Knowledge of principles and processes for providing services to the public
• Knowledge of computer use and standard software (e.g., Word, Excel)

Skills/qualifications:

• Reporting Skills, Administrative Writing Skills, Microsoft Office Skills, Managing Processes, Organization, Professionalism, Problem Solving, Supply Management, Inventory Control, Verbal Communication, Community Outreach

If interested in employment and have questions, please contact Dr. Susan Woodhouse at *(717) 461-2412 or *woodhouse@lehigh.edu

Submit cover letters and resumes electronically to Dr. Susan Woodhouse, woodhouse@lehigh.edu

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