This Housing and Urban Development VA Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) Peer Support Apprentice position may only be filled with a Veteran that meets statutory requirements that are detailed in the qualifications section. Located within the Community Outreach Division (COD) . The mission of COD is to assist homeless Veterans with complex issues to obtain and maintain permanent supportive housing.

Duties

The Cincinnati VA Medical Center (CVAMC) is a two-division campus located in Cincinnati, OH and Fort Thomas, KY serving 15 counties in Southwest OH, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana with 6 Community Based Outpatient Clinics located in Bellevue, KY; Florence, KY; Lawrenceburg, IN; Hamilton, OH; Clermont County, OH, and Georgetown, OH. The CVAMC also supports two off main campus locations in the Cincinnati area via an Eye Center and Community Outreach Division. The major duties of the Peer Specialist position include: - Participate in the service, training consultation, and other professional activities of VA health care services and function as a fully vested member of the multidisciplinary team. - Work with Veterans with very complex mental illnesses and challenging situations that require effective communication and decision-making skills. - Serve as a recovery agent by providing and advocating for effective wellness and holistic, recovery-based services that aid Veterans in daily living. - Orient new Veterans to the program's services, hours, locations, staff, and other pertinent information necessary for the Veterans to understand how to effectively utilize the program services. - Assist Veterans to articulate personal recovery and wellness goals through the use of individual or group meetings and assist Veterans in identifying their skills, strengths, supports, and resources needed to aid them in achieving their recovery and wellness goals. - Observe behaviors that might indicate difficulty adapting or responding to treatment (e.g., missed appointments, failure to maintain abstinence, risk to self or others, disruptive behavior), completes appropriate documentation, and reports concerns to the treatment team in a timely manner. - Handle crisis interventions for Veterans and address emergent situations when necessary. - Maintain working knowledge of current trends and developments in holistic approaches in wellness and recovery by reading books, journals, and other relevant materials. - Serve as a community-based peer specialist within the local VA facility catchment area, averaging 25-605 each week in community settings. Working environments may include providing peer support services, as described within the position description, in places such as Veterans' homes, prisons, jails, treatment courts, shelters, tent encampments, street outreach, etc. - Possess the ability to accompany Veterans to appointments as needed, whether medical, housing, or other treatment plan goal appointments, either through GSA vehicle or public transportation. - Performs other duties as assigned. Using their personal recovery experience, the Peer Specialist will: - Teach and role model the value of every individual's recovery experience. - Model effective coping techniques, holistic wellness, and self-help strategies. - Assist in obtaining services that suit the individual's personal recovery and wellness needs. - Assist Veterans in exploring their interests and options for making improvements in life functioning areas such as housing, employment, relationships, and community engagement. - Inform Veterans about VA and community support and resources, including how to effectively utilize them in the recovery and wellness process. - Assist Veterans in developing empowerment skills, identifying strengths, and combating stigma through self-advocacy. - Serve as a liaison to community-based organizations to develop and/or foster Veterans' community integration, natural supports, and self-reliant strategies. - May perform outreach activities to establish community partnerships that will provide health care services for the Veterans in the community and inform Veterans of the availability of those health care services and other benefits. - Assist Veterans in building social skills in the community that enhance community reintegration using techniques such as role playing and social skills training. Please note: - This position is potentially subject to criminal background checks performed by prisons, jails or correction facilities, which is completely separate from VA background checks, in order to enter institutional settings to assist/meet with Veterans. - The position requires operation of a motor vehicle to perform assigned duties. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: GS-6, 99511-S; GS-7, 99510-S; GS-8, 99509-S; and GS-9, 99508-S. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. 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, 12/02/2024. 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-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-8 grade level. For a GS-8 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7 grade level. For a GS-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6 grade level. For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5 grade level. 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. a. Citizenship. Citizen of the United States. b. Physical and Medical Requirements. The applicant must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the applicant or others. (See also VA Directive and Handbook 5019.) Basic Requirements For Peer Specialists, GS-102-6/9: a. Statutory Requirements. Section 405 of Public Law 110-387, as codified in 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(13), established that to be eligible to receive appointment to a Peer Specialist position, a person must: (1) be a veteran who has recovered or is recovering from a mental health condition; and (2) be certified by - (a) a not-for-profit entity engaged in peer specialist training as having met such criteria as the Secretary shall establish for a peer specialist position; or (b) a State as having satisfied relevant State requirements for a peer specialist position. b. Length of Experience as a Consumer of Mental Health Recovery Services. Veterans eligible under 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(13) must have spent a minimum of 1 year in personal recovery from a mental health condition. Specialized Experience For Peer Specialists, GS-102-6/9: In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-5-8, depending on your qualifications). Specialized experience is progressively responsible, post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing counseling to support peers in mental health and/or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, a psychiatric therapy aide, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery. Substitution of Education For Peer Specialists, GS-102-6/9: Graduate education or a post-bachelor's degree internship meets the specialized experience required for GS-6/9 only in those instances where it is directly related to the work of the position. Six (6) months of graduate education or a 1-year post-bachelor's degree internship meets the requirements for GS-6. One full year of graduate education meets the requirements for GS-7. One and one/half years of graduate education meets the requirements for GS-8. Two full years of graduate education or a master's degree meets the requirements for GS-9. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. English Language Proficiency: In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English. You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English in order to meet the requirements of this position. 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. Note: In recruiting and examining for these positions, participation in community, social service, and similar volunteer activities that meets the definition of specialized experience is creditable applicant experience. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Veteran is defined as a person who served in the active military, naval, air, or space service, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. Restricted to VETERANS - See IMPORTANT NOTICE. Open to current, permanent employees of the VA (i.e. T38, T38 Hybrid, and VCS employees on excepted appts covered by an interchange agreement); Federal employees on a Career/Career-Conditional appt.; Former competitive civil service employees eligible for reinstatement; Veterans eligible under VRA, and 30% DAV; Those eligible under the Employment Program for People with Disabilities; and those eligible for CTAP/ICTAP. NOTE: You MUST provide copies of your DD-214 with your application package. Driving will be required for this position so you will need to complete the requirements for the National Driver Registry. Reference: VA Regulations, specifically VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix F-3 Peer Support Apprentice/Peer Specialist Qualification Standard. This can be found in the local Human Resources Office. 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 Cincinnati VA Medical Center 3200 Vine Street Cincinnati, OH 45220 US
• Name: Amanda Flores
• Email: [email protected]