• Salary Classification: SCHADS Level 4 – PP1
• Weekly hours: Full time or job-share
• Employment type: Fixed term contract to 31 June 2021
• Reporting line: Manager – Projects and Operations
• Direct reports: Nil

About BEING – Mental Health Consumers Inc.

BEING - Mental Health Consumers is the independent, NSW peak organisation speaking with and for people with lived/living experience of mental health issues and emotional distress. Our primary focus is to ensure the voices of people with mental health issues are heard by decision makers, service providers, and the community, and leads and influences systemic change in services and systems.

BEING - Mental Health Consumers is committed to human rights principles of diversity, inclusion, and equity and believes that recovery is possible for all people who live with mental health issues and emotional distress.

With a long standing history of 26 years of operation, BEING - Mental Health Consumers is expanding and growing a service provision portfolio, to support people dealing with the day-to-day impacts of mental health issues in their daily living, as well as support the expansion and growth of the lived experience workforce

Our current programs include:

• BEING Supported – Mental Health Peer Support Line

• BEING Leadership Academy

• BEING Suicide Prevention

• BEING Lived Experience Network

• BEING Peer Workforce Network

About the role

The Project Officer will work closely with the Manager – Project and Operations, to design, develop, maintain and evaluate small- and large-scale projects that BEING – Mental Health Consumers is funded to complete.

A key component of the role will be to scope an approach which better engages people with lived experience of mental health issues to be involved in government and non-government processes which support individual and systemic advocacy.

The role requires someone who is flexible, adaptive, and proactive, and is agile to the changing needs of the organisation and working within tight timeframes.

Duties and responsibilities

• Working with the Manager – Project and Operations, scope processes which develop, facilitate, and monitor BEING – Mental Health Consumers current projects, including background and organisational documents specific to the project
• Develop processes to establish, recruit, support and evaluate the Consumer Lived Experience Co-design committee
• Provide support and secretariat to the Consumer Lived Experience Co-design committee and its members, including the development and circulation of agenda’s, minutes, and other committee documents
• Develop, facilitate, and evaluate Consumer consultations, focus groups and co-design processes
• Establish and maintain CRM systems and processes to collate information
• Provide project support to other programs within the organisation as required
• Assist and support clients of the service to navigate appropriate project
• Provide administration support to projects and programs as required, including secretariat support
• Process payments of contractors and freelance contractors, and liaise with finance department where required
• Provide communications support as required
• Organise staff and volunteer inductions together with the Manager – Projects and Operations
• Book events, catering and other items required for BEING – Mental Health Consumers events, workshops, and meetings
• Other duties as required

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrated experience of working with people with disability in a similar position, and an understanding of the needs of people living with mental health issues
• Demonstrated experience working with data and data entry processes
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a range of stakeholders
• Ability to be flexible, adaptive, and proactive, and agile to the changing needs of the organisation and working within tight timeframes.
• Demonstrated ability to multitask, adapt to changing agenda’s, and work under pressure and to tight timelines
• Strong decision making and problem-solving skills
• Professional level written and verbal communication skills
• Detailed understanding of the full Microsoft Office system and ability to learn new database systems

Desirable Criteria:

• Personal experience of living with mental health issues and demonstrated ability to utilise your own recovery to support and inspire hope and recovery for others
• In depth understanding of the mental health and suicide prevention landscape
• Experience in working in a Not For Profit (NFP) or Non-Government Organisation (NGO)
• Understanding of co-production and co-design, and experience in working from these frameworks.

Please note that you must have the right to live and work in Australia to be eligible for this position.

For further information about our organisation please visit www.being.org.au.

BEING – Mental Health Consumers Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. This means we apply affirmative action strategies to the employment of people with personal lived/living experience of mental health issues.