Social Services Assistant

Description:

Social Service Assistant for Health Care for Homeless Veterans within Social Work Service of the Phoenix VA. The goal is to move Veterans and their families out of homelessness by providing health care, outreach and case management services to improve Veteran's physical, mental health and enhance their ability to remain stable with recovery. They will also provide guidance, suggestions and encouragement to empower Veterans and thereby promoting independence.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/26/2025.

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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05 . 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 as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:
  • Group leader in community or residential recreation or training programs.
  • Counselor in a youth summer camp.
  • Instructor in a training program for the development of job skills.
  • Work that demonstrated the ability to be responsible for and to lead and train members of a job crew.
  • Group activities leader in the Armed Services.
  • Unit leader-monitor-proctor for a dormitory group in a boarding school or other residential facility.
  • Aid or assistant to professional or specialist staff in such fields as personnel (private or government), employment guidance in a vocational or academic institution, social service, or manpower development.
  • Aid or assistant to professional or associate staff engaged in work of a social services nature in private, public welfare, government program, or community organizations, or in voluntary activities.
  • Aid or assistant to professional or specialist staff working with individuals who are addicted to or abuse alcohol and/or drugs.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Clerical
• Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)
• Patient Care

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.

Preferred Experience:

• Knowledge of pertinent laws, regulations, policies and precedents of all facets of benefits for the homeless Veteran program available through the Medical Center and outside agencies, such as Social Security, HUD, SNAP and various utilities providers.
• Knowledge to determine the impact on the housing recovery goals and plans and related support resources to assist Veterans in getting additional support or care when required, as well as navigate the personalized health inventory, personalized health planning, in the community to support their personal health plans.
• Knowledge of VA rules and regulations regarding eligibility, enrollment, income assessment, and insurance for veterans' medical care in order to provide educational guidance to the Veteran.
• Knowledge of VA inpatient and outpatient programs and operations, admissions, scheduling, sharing agreements, and travel as well as knowledge of laws and regulations relating to the protection of the privacy of medical information.
• Must be familiar with the mission, organization and programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Phoenix VA Health Care System (PVAHCS), and the Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) Program, and related community agencies.
• General knowledge of the problems faced by Veterans who are homeless or are faced with pending homelessness in order to arrange appropriate, situationally based housing and interventions, often on an emergency basis.
• Skill in the use of computer equipment and program equivalent to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. as well as VA proprietary programs such as VISTA and CPRS, etc, to input and obtain data, prepare reports, spreadsheets, and correspondence; enter and store workload statistics to accomplish program analysis.
• Ability to interpret, select and apply verbal and written instructions, guidelines, policy memorandums, etc., as well as the ability to gather, organize and compile factual material. Must be able to compile and summarize information and data, identify inaccuracies or anomalies in the information, and make written recommendations to resolve discrepancies based on interpretation of applicable regulations and procedures.
• Must have adequate typing skills to facilitate sufficient timely and efficient entry and retrieval of system data and documentation in the medical record.
• Must have knowledge of medical/psychiatric terminology, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and required formats to prepare correspondence and reports.
• Must have working knowledge of laws governing release of information activities, Privacy and Freedom of Information Acts, and HIPAA.
• Possess communication skills, both verbally and in writing, sufficient to converse and correspond with individuals and groups of varying cultural backgrounds, experiences, educational levels, in order to interview ad advocate for homeless Veterans.
• Ability to independently plan, coordinator, organize, prioritize and implement assigned tasks under strict deadlines and multiple changing priorities.

Physical Requirements: This is primarily a sedentary position, but the work requires some walking, bending, stooping, standing, stretching, and the carrying of moderately heavy objects. There will be regular, daily driving between the CRRC, VA Medical Center, CBOC's, and community agencies. Concentration and sustained performance under prolonged stress is required because of the time factors involved in completion of work assignments within deadlines. This position also requires frequent use of the hand-held telephone while accessing different computer systems or while writing.

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/ .