This position is located with the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System in Nashville, TN. The position serves as the Community Employment Coordinator for Homeless Veterans. The position is responsible for the ongoing orientation and training of the Homeless Services continuum in order to connect Veterans to the most appropriate and least restrictive VA and/or community-based employment services.

Duties

Provides guidance and training to all homeless programs and staff across the VAMC on resources that enhance and result in competitive employment outcomes for Veterans, in particular those who are homeless or have other barriers to employment. Assessment of disabilities and development of plan to overcome the barriers to employment created by the disability. Develops employment opportunities for homeless Veterans both directly through community-based job development and indirectly by leveraging the expertise of the employment collaborative. Coordinates with homeless, CWT and community program managers on rapid access and placement strategies for Veterans that reduce barriers to employment and identify appropriate supports to sustain outcomes. Maintains day to day contacts with potential employers, placement personnel, or other likely placement resources and negotiates appropriate accommodations for veterans with disabilities. Leads efforts to establish a local employment collaborative which includes VA and non-VA members and community-based employers, and documents access points, requirements for participation and points of contact as indicated. Serves as a liaison to local community providers of employment placement and support services for homeless Veterans. Provides information, pre-employment assessment and workforce re-entry planning services, linkage, and coordination for VA and non-VA services, and community-based follow-up services to integrate Veterans into the community through competitive employment. Recruits, interviews, selects suitable clients with severe mental health illnesses for employment. Works with local staff in developing templates for concise, individualized Veteran centered assessments to determine the needed intensity level of employment services and supports for homeless Veterans Insures that through the collaborative, competitive employment resources of varying levels of intensity are currently available for homeless and chronically homeless Veterans both at the medical center and in the community. Ability to contact and work creatively with community employers, working knowledge of a broad range of occupations, ability to identify client strengths, interest, skills and needs. Makes difficult decisions, modifies and utilizes the most effective approach to effectively provide rehabilitation services to patient with substance abuse or psychiatric disorders. Ability to coordinate and collaborate with Employers, Community agencies, and VA employment services. Leads efforts to establish a local employment collaborative which includes VA and non-VA members and community-based employers, and documents access points, requirements for participation and points of contact as indicated. Develops and maintains a database on referral and placement outcomes and provide feedback to the collaborative members as well as national homeless leadership. Provides feedback to the homeless program staff and VAMC leadership on system resources, strengths, accomplishments, challenges and recommended corrective actions on a quarterly basis. Monitors performance and progress through review (at least quarterly) of cases referred to the members of the collaborative to insure that Veterans are receiving services leading to competitive employment and appropriate follow-up supports. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30 - 4pm Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Vocational Development Specialist/PD702780 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/09/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirements for the Vocational Development Specialist, GS-1715 occupational series. You must meet one of the following Individual Occupational Requirements below: Education Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- vocational rehabilitation, vocational or educational counseling, or other fields related to the position. OR Experience Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Work that required obtaining and applying occupational information for people with disabilities, knowledge of the interrelationships of the involved professional and specialist services, and skill in employing the methodology and techniques of counseling to motivate and encourage individuals served by the program. Experience that demonstrated knowledge of the vocational rehabilitation problems characteristic of the disabled, including familiarity with available resources and skill in identifying, evaluating, and making effective use of such resources to serve individuals with disabilities; or of the disadvantaged, including knowledge of adjustment problems of the educationally or culturally disadvantaged, familiarity with available adult education and training resources, and ability to recognize problem areas needing special attention. Experience in vocational guidance or teaching in a recognized vocational rehabilitation program or school, developmental or supervisory work in programs of vocational rehabilitation or training programs for the disadvantaged, or personnel or employment placement work that provided extensive knowledge of the training and adjustment requirements necessary to place persons having disabilities or social adjustment problems. For the GS-11, Vocational Development Specialist you must also meet one of the below requirements: GS-11: Specialized Experience: Applicants must have one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09 grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is defined as: ability to evaluate the employment needs of individuals and to provide customized job development and placement, establishing effective relationships with clinical and/or administrative staff, ability to exercise initiative and independent judgment in day to day activities, consulting with colleagues in developing and applying agency policies and practices, ability to adapt to suit specific needs of an individual with varied nature and levels of support needs derived from social and clinical factors, ability to recognize and initiate consultation for unusual and/or complex clinical and administrative problems, ability to develop and maintain databases. OR GS-11: Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, or an LL.M. in a field related to this position. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED). OR GS-11: Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond graduate level education (in excess of the first two years or 36 semester hours) and specialized experience to meet total experience requirements. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED). You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Client OrientationCustomer Service (Clerical/Technical)Education and TrainingSpeaking Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Although the typical work is primarily sedentary, this position is different because it calls for the incumbent to actually be able to attend the work place with the Veteran for a limited period of time to demonstrate and perform the job duties to the Veteran. Therefore lifting up to 20 pounds, bending, stooping, kneeling, reaching above the head, standing for long periods or walking long distances, and performing repeated motions may be required. It will depend on the Veteran's needs, preferences and job availability. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Tennessee Valley HCS - Nashville 1310 24th Avenue South Nashville, TN 37212 US
• Name: Matthew Kale
• Phone: 828-318-7817
• Email: [email protected]