Help strengthen local responses to distress in the Atherton and Mareeba regions. Join a supportive, mission-led team committed to better health and social outcomes.

About us

Beacon Strategies is a health and social services consultancy. Since 2015, we’ve worked alongside government agencies, Primary Health Networks, hospitals and not-for-profits to support practical, place-based approaches to improving community health and wellbeing.

We’re a small and values-driven team that’s deeply committed to respectful relationships, honest communication, and doing meaningful work. We have offices in Cairns and Brisbane, and a growing remote team across Australia.

About the project

Beacon Strategies has been commissioned by Northern Queensland PHN (NQPHN) to deliver part of the Distress Brief Support (DBS) initiative. The initiative supports people experiencing distress by enabling trusted places in the community — called Community Engagement Points (CEPs) — to offer appropriate first responses and refer people to a formal support team.

Community Engagement Points exist in everyday settings where people gather — such as neighbourhood centres, sports clubs, churches, cultural groups, and local businesses.

Our role is to engage, train, and support CEPs in the Atherton and Mareeba regions. We are not delivering direct support to individuals in distress — our work focuses on strengthening the local people and places already providing informal support.

About the role

Throughout the course of your week, you might:

• Meet with a local community group to introduce the project and onboard them as a new CEP
• Deliver an introductory training session on responding to distress in a non-clinical, community setting
• Provide one-on-one support to a CEP who’s navigating a tricky situation or needs help linking someone to a formal support service
• Facilitate a Community of Practice session with local CEPs to share insights and build peer support
• Prepare input for a quarterly project report, capturing progress and feedback from CEPs
• Liaise with the PHN to coordinate data, training needs, or local communications

This role would suit someone with a community development, stakeholder engagement or partnerships background, particularly within the community sector with a focus on the mental health or suicide prevention subject matter.

You’ll need to bring:

• Experience in community-based roles that involve engagement, training or capacity building
• A strong understanding of distress or mental health in a community context
• Great communication and relationship-building skills
• Comfort working independently while being part of a supportive remote team
• A Bachelor-level qualification in a relevant field (e.g. community development, public health, social work, education)
• Residency in the Atherton or Mareeba region

What you’ll get from us

• Full-time role (part-time considered for the right person)
• Flexible working hours with local travel only
• An annual learning and development budget of $2,000
• Supportive team culture — no expectation of overtime
• Staff retreats, regular check-ins, and a team who genuinely enjoy working together

Interested?

Great — we’d love to hear from you.

Contact: Gill Townsend, Senior Manager

Email: [email protected], using the subject line: Project Coordinator - Distress Brief Support Community Engagement Points enquiry via EthicalJobs. 

We encourage early applications as we may begin shortlisting before the closing date.