Are you looking for a change and a challenge? Do you have experience working in evaluation, research, strategy, policy, advocacy, and/or social change?

If so, and you have a sound understanding of relevant research and evaluation methodologies in human services, including experience in developing program logic models, undertaking data collection and analysis, preparing draft reports and (ideally) doing literature reviews, we would love to hear from you.

About the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare Inc.

The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (the Centre) is the peak body for child and family services in Victoria. For over 100 years we have advocated for the rights of children and young people to be heard, to be safe, to access education and to remain connected to family, community and culture. We represent over 150 community service organisations (CSOs), students and individuals throughout Victoria working across the continuum of child and family services, from prevention and early intervention to the provision of out-of-home care. The Centre provides public policy and program advice, delivers sector training, facilitates and publishes research, advocates for positive reform and works with our member agencies to make sure children and families have access to the services and supports they need.

The Centre is a diverse and inclusive workplace, committed to the health, wellbeing and cultural safety of our staff. We encourage applicants of any background, culture, gender, and experience to apply for roles as these become vacant.

Background

The Outcomes, Practice and Evidence Network (OPEN) is a flagship project for the Centre, supporting the Child and Family sector to better understand, build, use and share evidence to improve practice and support the best outcomes for children and families. OPEN sits within the Social Policy and Research team, working closely with a range of stakeholders to gather, translate and embed knowledge to strengthen, facilitate and share evidence informed practice, supporting Victoria’s community organisations to meet the needs of the vulnerable children and families that rely on their services.

OPEN, which is funded by the DFFH, supports the child and family services to strengthen their practice, programs and outcomes through drawing on research, evaluation, practice and client experience to support strategic decision making and continuous improvement in our service delivery. The OPEN team supports Victorian child, youth and family services to use, share and build evidence about what works to deliver the best outcomes for children, young people and families.

OPEN delivers three streams of work to support these aims. We:

1. Translate, curate and develop knowledge and resources for the OPEN portal making the research base and technical resources and tools in evaluation accessible to our busy sector
2. Deliver events and network opportunities to share and learn from innovative programs and best practice from across the sector and with allied sectors whose intersects with vulnerable children, young people and families
3. Deliver advice, project support and training to strengthen sector capability in using and building evidence – supporting the building of technical skills in design, implementation, evaluation and research).

Recently, funding has become available through the Commonwealth and Family Safety Victoria to deliver a cross-peak project which involves an expansion of OPEN to enable No To Violence, Safe and Equal and Sexual Assault Service Victoria (SASVic) to build and showcase their own sector’s capability and content for the OPEN portal.

The OPEN Expansion initiative will expand the OPEN network to foster sharing and build expertise in drawing on practice experience, research and evaluation to measure what works and how we can improve to achieve better outcomes for victim survivors of family violence and sexual assault and their children. The expansion involves each Peak organisation working to build the capacity of their workforce family violence, sexual assault practitioners, practitioners working with perpetrators and those with child and family services more broadly to deliver evidence-informed interventions by providing access to key information; resources; and learning and development activities that are known to assess and improve outcomes for clients. It will also include a focus on understanding and learning from lived experience of victim survivors.

Position Summary

Reporting to the OPEN Senior Manager, and working closely with the Director of Social Policy and Research and external and internal stakeholders, the Project Lead (OPEN Expansion project) will play a key role in contributing to the work of OPEN, including the OPEN Expansion project.

Reporting Line

• Reports to: Senior Manager, OPEN
• Reporting to this role: Nil (with potential for a direct reporting role in the future)

Key Accountabilities

Under the direction of the Senior Manager (OPEN), this role will undertake the following:

• Develop and deliver a program of work that will enable the Centre to work alongside and support NTV, Safe and Equal and SASVIC, to expand the OPEN platform with evidence-informed materials, resources, training and events relating to effective family violence and sexual assault service provision.
• Scope, design and deliver key OPEN projects that contribute to strengthening the capability of the children and family services workforce in evidence informed practice, and building and using evidence through evaluation and research skills
• Undertake projects with sector stakeholders to develop program logics/theory of change models, data collection, analysis and reporting to support the sector’s understanding, capability and access to evidence of outcomes delivered and how these can be improved
• Contribute to translate key research, and develop technical resources, training and tools for inclusion on the OPEN portal to improve access to the knowledge base of evidence informed practices and programs, and the ability to strengthen their own evidence
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with relevant experts, policy makers and other influential stakeholders.
• Identify, create and write accessible content for the OPEN Portal including technical pieces, case studies, literature reviews which translate the best available evidence on priority topics.
• Undertake other duties as required.

Key Selection Criteria

Essential

• Demonstrated experience working in evaluation, research, and/or policy
• Understanding of relevant research and evaluation methodologies in human services, including experience in developing or supporting others to develop program logic models, undertake data collection and analysis, prepare draft reports and (ideally) literature reviews
• Demonstrated experience managing successful, collaborative relationships with multiple and diverse stakeholders
• Skills and experience in developing strategic goals into innovative and actionable projects, strategies, project plans and advocacy/positioning
• Highly developed verbal, analysis and writing skills to support translation of complex and diverse materials to a wide audience and communications in a variety of formats and for a broad range of audiences and purposes
• Highly developed interpersonal skills, including influencing and negotiation skills, ability to listen and adapt to audience needs, and ability to lead and facilitate groups
• Good organisational, time management skills and the ability to be self-directed
• Sound understanding of human service delivery within the community services, Not-for-Profit sector or government sectors.

Desirable

Experience with any of the following: co-design and participatory methodologies; delivery/development of evaluation related training modules, implementation models (e.g., Implementation Science, Improvement Science or other), statistical data analysis; collective impact approaches and methodologies, innovative methods of communication/facilitation, and/or capacity to learn one or more of these quickly.

Qualifications

A tertiary qualification in a relevant discipline (for example, public policy, social science, social work, community development) or commensurate professional experience.

Conditional Employment Requirements

1. National Police Check
2. Working with Children Check
3. Current Australian Driver’s Licence (Desirable)

Organisational Accountabilities

The Centre is committed to the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff. The Centre and its staff must comply with a range of statutory requirements including equal opportunity, occupational health and safety and privacy. The Centre requires staff to comply with its policies and procedures and related statutory requirements. Appointees are accountable for completing training on these matters and making sure their knowledge is up to date.

The Position Description is attached.

To Apply:

Click Apply Now and include a brief cover letter addressing the Key Selection Criteria along with your CV.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact the Senior Manager for OPEN, Dr Mandy Charman, at [email protected] using the subject line: Project Lead - OPEN Expansion enquiry via EthicalJobs or on 03 9094 3520.

Applications will be assessed as they come in.