Benefits Legal Assistant

POSITION SUMMARY

The Alliance for Children’s Rights is seeking a Benefits Program Legal Assistant to help the children and

families impacted by foster care obtain the appropriate type and level of monetary benefits and supportive services. The Legal Assistant will support the program staff attorneys, assist in supervising volunteers, and handle a case load. The applicant must have the ability to work independently and handle multiple tasks

simultaneously in a fast-paced environment, as well as be willing to become part of a cohesive team of legal advocates working on behalf of vulnerable children and families throughout Los Angeles County. The person in this position reports to the Benefits Program Director. This is a non-exempt, full-time paid position.

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE

The Alliance for Children’s Rights is a nonprofit organization that provides free holistic legal services and advocacy to youth and families impacted by child welfare and juvenile justice systems in Los Angeles County and works to enact policy changes statewide. Our lawyers, advocates, and social workers, together with hundreds of pro bono attorneys and community volunteers, work to ensure that those we serve have the tools to overcome barriers to stability and success, and access to the education, healthcare, and financial supports that they need. Since 1992, we have helped over 165,000 children and young adults. For more information visit: www.allianceforchildrensrights.org.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the direct supervision of the Benefits Program Director, the Benefits Legal Assistant will perform the follow

responsibilities:

• Conduct client intake and screening.
• Develop bilingual project materials.
• Create trainings materials and present materials at community outreach and trainings.
• Open, close, and maintain case files.
• Gather and analyze documents from various sources to support our cases.
• Handle individual case load by working to resolve benefits disputes informally with the County.
• Train and support law student interns and community volunteers.
• Facilitate communication between clients, program staff, pro bono attorneys, County representatives, Minors’ Attorneys and service providers.
• Coordinate communication with other programs at the Alliance to facilitate a holistic approach to serving clients.
• Database management, mailing client correspondences, and occasionally processing incoming mail at the office.
• Other administrative duties as needed.

WHAT YOUR IMPACT WILL BE

The Benefits Program Legal Assistant plays a critical role in securing funding to support children living in out of-home care. Benefits are essential to ensure a stable environment for youth and their caregivers. The Benefits Program advocates for the removal of systemic barriers from a perspective of equity and intersectionality. The person in this position has a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children living in foster care and poverty.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL POSSESS

• Experience in the foster care, Dependency Court and/or child welfare system is helpful.
• Experience with public benefits, administrative advocacy and/or public speaking is helpful.
• Experience with administrative fair hearings and/or administrative writs of mandamus.
• Bilingual skills highly preferred. (Spanish/English)

This job description is of a general nature and is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties of the position.

Experience and Skills

• Strong interpersonal skills and a desire to help people.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Strong communication skills.
• College graduate, Paralegal Certification, or equivalent work experience.
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Power Point, Teams, Adobe and Zoom.
• Experience with foster care is helpful but not mandatory.

COVID-19 CONSIDERATIONS

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, this position worked full time from our Los Angeles office. However, since the pandemic, this position has worked remotely from home with travel into the office or to schools for advocacy meetings as needed. This position may be asked to return to work in the office at any time and at the employer’s discretion. Preference may be given to candidates who live in (or plan to relocate to) Los Angeles County.

Vaccination Requirement 

The Alliance is committed to prioritizing and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of our employees, their families, our clients, and members of our community against the COVID-19 coronavirus. In response to COVID-19 and the increased transmissibility with recent variants, and to support a safe environment for everyone, all new Alliance employees must provide original documentation confirming they are fully vaccinated, and or evidence of an approved qualifying medical exemption or religious held belief exemption at the time of hire.

SALARY

Target starting salary range is $25.64/hr up to $27.17/hr or an approximate annualized equivalent of $50,000 – $53,000 and is set commensurate with experience. An hourly bilingual pay differential of $1.02/hour is offered to employees in this role who are Spanish speaking and pass the language assessments.

TO APPLY

Email resume and cover letter to Nina Bailey, Human Resources Coordinator at nbailey@alliancecr.org. Due to a high volume of interest, we are not able to contact each interested applicant. No calls please. If selected for consideration, candidates will be contacted to discuss our recruitment process and next steps.

The Alliance for Children’s Rights is committed to building and supporting a culturally diverse and inclusive environment that values all staff members’ backgrounds and perspectives in our work. We strongly encourage individuals from all traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, and prohibit discrimination against employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, veteran status, or any other unlawful basis.