The Colman Education Foundation is seeking an amazing person to join the Our Place team, as a Community Facilitator at our Westall Site in Clayton South. If you have experience working with communities, and health and or community services sector please read on!

At Our Place, we believe that supporting local schools to be the hub of a whole community is one of the best ways to enable long lasting change in communities experiencing disadvantage. We do this in 10 locations across Victoria. The Our Place approach involves working in partnership with local services, government and the local community to increase collaboration and to support all children and their families to succeed in life.

Our Westall — Our Place site in Clayton South is one of our 10 sites. It is a partnership with Westall Primary School, Westall Kindergarten, Kingston City Council, Westall Secondary College and Department of Education and Training. The partnership was formed in 2021, and our shared vision is for:

A welcoming and safe place for children, family and community to learn, belong, and thrive together to achieve great life outcomes.

About the role

The role is part of a small team based at the Westall Primary School/Westall Community Hub on Fairbank Road in Clayton South. The Our Place team at Westall work closely with the school, kindergarten, library, and Kingston City Council. As well as a strong focus on relationships with community, educators and practitioners onsite, the role contributes to the administrative work that supports the partnership.

This includes support for governance meetings, capturing data, and planning for and delivery of actions that deliver on the Our Place Partnership site priorities. The Westall Our Place team is also strongly connected with the state-wide Our Place organisation, and staff at the other 9 sites.

Being a Community Facilitator is a varied and unique role. You will build relationships with families and many different people working here, and you will collaborate with others from different organisations and cultural backgrounds. Navigating these diverse relationships is at the heart of this work - you will need flexibility and grit, an ability to adapt to change, and a desire to learn.

In return, you’ll have the opportunity to be part of a long-term initiative that is demonstrating new ways of working, and belong to a state-wide group of equally passionate, curious and committed colleagues.

In a typical month in this role, you would:

• Spend time at the school drop-off time greeting and meeting parents and having informal discussions and help connect people to services and activities
• Be accessible to parents and site staff who drop by your office to chat about their needs and queries
• Collaborate with Westall Primary School, Westall Kindergarten and site partners to respond to parent need for information about the health and educations systems, and ideas for social connection activities
• Spend time working at the front desk at the new shared entrance to Westall Primary School and Westall Community Hub
• Coordinate development of communication materials
• Attend site partnership meetings and workshops, assist with meeting invites, and take minutes
• Work closely with Westall Our Place team members to plan and deliver activities from the site action plan, update our service system and referrals data base, and contribute to site reporting
• Participate in the Our Place organisation wide team meetings and the Community Facilitators’ Community of Practice and another professional development sessions

The work of the Community Facilitator roles requires a minimum of six weeks annual leave, with the majority of leave time to be taking during school holidays.

How to apply

At the Colman Education Foundation, we are building a team that is as diverse as the communities we work within. Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our culture, and we encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply to join our team.

So, if you are passionate about improving life outcomes for children and their families, can bring experience working with communities, the health and or community services sector, and are excited about joining a unique and innovative organisation then please click Apply Now to submit your application!

If you have any questions, please call Colleen on 0431 488 630.

A position description is attached.