Please note: This is a contract position until 30 June 2023. Any contract extensions will depend on secured funding. 

ABOUT THE LES TWENTYMAN FOUNDATION

The Les Twentyman Foundation believes that every child and young person, regardless of economic circumstances, race or gender deserves an equal opportunity in life.

Working across Greater Melbourne, our dedicated team supports hundreds of kids aged between five and 25, who face multiple stresses holding them back from living a life that every child deserves, including poverty, mental health, unemployment, racism, addiction, domestic violence and crime.

Founded by legendary youth worker Les Twentyman OAM, we have a history of more than 30 years supporting at-risk youth. Our work focuses on keeping children and young people engaged with their education, families and connected to the community, building hope and ensuring they do not end up homeless, living in poverty or engaged with the youth justice system.

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Positive Futures program embeds youth workers in a number of schools across Melbourne’s southeast. The program keeps students engaged with their education and provides support for complex social and emotional needs or behavioural problems. It includes one-on-one counselling, group work and outreach activities. Demand for support has doubled over the COVID-19 period.

The Youth Worker focuses on working closely with the host school, whilst matching strategies and interventions to the developmental requirements of young people. There is an emphasis on outreach, where the youth worker will attend family homes, community centres and build networks to better enable the young people to remain engaged with education, family and community.

The Youth Worker role has responsibility for a caseload as well as administrative aspects of the case management. This is an exciting opportunity that involve working directly with young people and their families. On the service delivery side of the role, the Youth Worker will implement strategies and counselling to connect young people with their families, community and education networks, in ways that are developmentally appropriate and responsive to the needs of individual young people.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Working as part of the Schools Team, the Youth Worker will have the following responsibilities:

• Undertake individual case management, group work, family work, collaboration, care planning and referrals to services such as primary health, housing, legal, justice, employment/educational and recreational activities
• Connect with and relate to young people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, African, Pacifika and other CALD communities
• Facilitate group sessions on a regular basis within schools, in line with our EMBRACE philosophy
• Undertake assertive outreach to initiate and maintain contact with young people
• Advocate on behalf of young people and build collaborative relationships with key stakeholders to enhance service co-ordination
• Ensure client files and reporting is up to date, accurate and meets both organisational and legislative requirements and timeframes
• Collaborate on the planning, development and delivery of the program including continuous improvement
• Support other activities of the Les Twentyman Foundation as required including events, fundraising activities and business development.
• Support the development and growth of the program in collaboration with the management team
• Undertake other reasonable duties as requested by the General Manager, Programs.

KEY SELECTION CRITERIA

• Relevant qualifications in Youth Work, Social Work, Family Therapy, Psychology or other health/welfare
• Demonstrated experience working with young people, schools, employment, and recreation services in schools will be highly regarded (eg work experience, placements)
• Demonstrated ability to advocate on behalf of young people, in particular with stakeholders within the education sector
• Ability to undertake a high standard of documentation, reporting, compliance and policy management, legislation monitoring and organisational procedures including CS-Net.
• Knowledge and understanding of adolescent development and ability to practice a range of interventions including assessment, case work, care planning, group work, advocacy, crisis intervention and collaborative outreach based service delivery
• Strong engagement and communication skills with young people from a range of backgrounds and age groups
• Demonstrated capacity to work effectively both independently and within a multidisciplinary team setting

A position description is attached.