Job Description

Posting number: 54893

Department: Administration

Division: Office of Public Advocacy

Job classification: Guardian ad Litem 1

Posting type: Open

Categories: Legal

This position is open to Alaska Residents only. Please check our residency definition to determine if you qualify.

What You Will Be Doing

As a non-attorney Guardian ad litem (GAL), you will be advocating for the best interests of children in court in a variety of cases, including child protection proceedings, delinquency cases, and divorce/custody cases. You will be advocating for children from many different communities in Alaska. You will be tasked with investigating your child clients’ circumstances and making recommendations to the court about their best interests. You will be appearing in court frequently with the child/ren or on their behalf. In addition, you will be advocating for the child in settings outside of court, such as with the child’s school or service providers.

Our Organization, Mission, and Culture

The Office of Public Advocacy (OPA) provides legal advocacy and guardianship services to vulnerable Alaskans. With offices in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, Kenai, Palmer, and Bethel, OPA advocates for abused and neglected children in protective proceedings, provides public guardianship for incapacitated adults, advocacy for victims of elder fraud, attorney services for respondents in adult guardianship proceedings, for parents in child in need of aid cases, and conflict criminal cases received from the Public Defender Agency.

The Benefits of Joining Our Team

This position is with the child advocacy office in Juneau. Our small and friendly team is located in downtown Juneau, right next to the courthouse. Juneau is a beautiful city with numerous outdoor activities and a thriving local art/music scene. Downtown Juneau features many restaurants, shops, cafes, bars, galleries, and parks. Our team offers flexible work schedules and occasional telework opportunities. With experience, this position offers advancement from a GAL I to a GAL II.

The Working Environment You Can Expect

The Juneau Civil section of OPA is located in the Community Building in downtown Juneau. The child advocacy team includes two non-attorney GALs, a supervising attorney GAL, and a coordinator for Juneau’s volunteer Court-Appointed Special Advocate program. This position requires frequent court appearances, both in-person and via teleconference. Requires occasional travel within Alaska.

Who We Are Looking For

We are interested in candidates who possess some or all of the following position specific competencies:

• Professionalism Consistently displays the collection of competencies and skill expected of a professional. Professionalism is defined by its key behaviors including being accountable for actions and assigned projects; practicing efficient work habits to effectively manage time and workload; clearly communicating and expressing thoughts and ideas in writing and in person; possessing the ability to understand how non-verbal communication impacts the workplace; working effectively as part of a team to achieve productive outcomes; and consistently demonstrating, emotional intelligence, integrity, and ethical behavior.
• Integrity/Honesty Behaves in an honest, fair, and ethical manner. Shows consistency in words and actions. Models high standards of ethics.

Examples of duties

Competency Based Minimum Qualifications Instructions

This job class uses competency based minimum qualifications. Please ensure your application (through work history, volunteer experience (duties summary), training, education, licenses, certifications, etc.) supports how you have gained the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors (competencies) and that you possess the minimum required competencies for the job class.

Competency Description

The competency description(s) listed below have been designed to promote a common understanding of the essential elements of the job class. They highlight the more general and customary knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), tasks, and behaviors used to describe the competency. They typically list expectations, as opposed to specific tasks, and are to be used only as parameters and guidelines. A competency’s description is not intended to exclusively define every KSA, task, and behavior needed to successfully meet the competency, but rather to provide the manager/agency with a broad reference of options as to how an applicant can meet the job expectation.

Guardian ad Litem 1
Any combination of education and/or experience that provides the applicant with competencies in:

• Advocacy: Develops and presents the client’s, patient’s, and/or customer’s interests in all matters.
• Flexibility: Is open to change and new information; rapidly adapts to new information, changing conditions, or unexpected obstacles.
• Interpersonal Skills: Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations; is sensitive to cultural diversity, race, gender, disabilities, and other individual differences.
• Stress Tolerance: Deals calmly and effectively with high stress situations (for example, tight deadlines, hostile individuals, emergency situations, dangerous situations).

Equivalent to those typically gained by:
Any combination of education, training, and/or experience in legal advocacy, child development, counseling, psychology, social work, social science, behavioral science, health science, public health, criminal justice, application of the Indian Child Welfare Act, or a closely related field.

Guardian ad Litem 2
Successful completion of a course of developmental training under a formally established Guardian ad Litem flexible staffing training plan with the State of Alaska;
OR
Any combination of education and/or experience that provides the applicant with competencies in:

• Advocacy: Develops and presents the client’s, patient’s, and/or customer’s interests in all matters.
• Analytical Thinking/Problem Solving: Uses a logical, systematic, and sequential approach to address problems or opportunities or manage a situation by drawing on one’s knowledge and experience base and calling on other references and resources as necessary.
• Law: Knowledge of State and federal laws, including legal and court procedures, regulations, guidelines, precedents, admissibility of evidence, case preparation, and/or settlements for applicable areas of law practiced or supported.
• Oral and Written Communication: Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral and written presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
• Technical Credibility: Understands and appropriately applies principles, procedures, requirements, regulations, and policies related to specialized expertise.

Equivalent to those typically gained by:
Post-secondary education and/or training in legal advocacy, child development, counseling, psychology, social work, social science, behavioral science, health science, public health, criminal justice, application of the Indian Child Welfare Act, or a closely related field; and progressively responsible professional experience representing children and/or youth as an objective, neutral party in a court system and advocating for their best interests in situations of child welfare and/or contested legal disputes.

Special Note:
“Competencies” means a combination of interrelated knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors that enable a person to act effectively in a job or situation.

“Typically gained by” means the prevalent, usual method of gaining the competencies expected for entry into the job.

“Training” and “education” in this guidance are synonyms for the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through instruction. It includes instruction through formal and informal methods (such as classroom, on-line, self-study, and on-the-job), from accredited and unaccredited sources, and long-duration (such as a post-secondary degree) and short-duration (such as a seminar) programs.

“Progressively responsible” means indicating growth and/or advancement in complexity, difficulty, or level of responsibility.

“Professional experience” means work that is creative, analytical, evaluative, and interpretive; requires a range and depth of specialized knowledge of the profession's principles, concepts, theories, and practices; and is performed with the power or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment.

Qualifications

Please read the below information carefully. This applies to your application submission.

THIS RECRUITMENT IS FOR ALASKA RESIDENTS ONLY

Please be sure to check our residency definition to determine if you qualify.

WRITTING SAMPLE
At the time of interview, applicants must provide a writing sample (or excerpt) of no more than five pages. The writing sample should be either a professional document prepared to fulfill the applicant’s current work duties, or a personal document created by the applicant in order to advocate for the applicant or another person.

EDUCATION
If post-secondary education is required to meet the minimum qualifications, you must fill in the Education section of the application. If you have not obtained a degree, please indicate the number of units completed. Copies of transcripts are required to verify educational credentials if used to meet the minimum qualifications for a position. Transcripts can be attached at the time of application or within 48 hours of the close of this recruitment to the contact person listed below.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR FOREIGN EDUCATION
Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the above requirements, if applicable. If utilizing this education you must show that the education credentials have been submitted to a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign educational credentials and that such education has been deemed to be at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. education programs; or an accredited U.S. state university reports the other institution as one whose transcript is given full value, or full value is given in subject areas applicable to the curricula at the state university. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying.

WORK EXPERIENCE
If using work experience not already documented in your application, also provide the employer’s name, your job title, dates of employment, and whether full-or part-time. Applications will be reviewed to determine if the responses are supported and minimum qualifications are clearly met. If they are not, the applicant may not advance to the interview and selection phase of the recruitment.

NOTE: Attaching a resume or curriculum vitae is not an alternative to filling out the application in its entirety. Noting "see resume or CV" or any similar response on any portion of your application may lead to a determination your application is incomplete and removal from consideration for this job posting.

APPLICATION NOTICE
You can ONLY apply for this position through the Workplace Alaska website or via hardcopy application. If you accessed this recruitment bulletin through a job search portal such as AlaskaJobs or any other database, you MUST use a Workplace Alaska online or hardcopy application to successfully apply. Instructions on how to apply with Workplace Alaska may be found on the Workplace Alaska "How to Apply" webpage, found here: http://doa.alaska.gov/dop/workplace/help/

EEO STATEMENT

The State of Alaska complies with Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Individuals with disabilities, who require accommodation, auxiliary aides or services, or alternative communication formats, please call 1-800-587-0430 or (907) 465-4095 in Juneau or TTY: Alaska Relay 711 or 1-800-770-8973 or correspond with the Division of Personnel & Labor Relations at: P.O. Box 110201, Juneau, AK 99811-0201. The State of Alaska is an equal opportunity employer.

NOTICE

If you choose to be contacted by email, please ensure your email address is correct on your application and that the spam filter will permit email from the ‘govermentjobs.com’ domains. For information on allowing emails from the ‘governmentjobs.com’ domains, visit the Lost Password Help page located at https://www.governmentjobs.com/OnlineApplication/User/ResetPassword

WORKPLACE ALASKA APPLICATION QUESTIONS & ASSISTANCE

Questions regarding application submission or system operation errors should be directed to the Workplace Alaska hotline at 1-800-587-0430 (toll free) or (907) 465-4095 if you are located in the Juneau area. Requests for information may also be emailed to recruitment.services@alaska.gov.

For applicant password assistance please visit: https://www.governmentjobs.com/OnlineApplication/User/ResetPassword

Supplemental information

Amy Hoagland

Administrative Officer

amy.hoagland@alaska.gov