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Helper Coordinator

Lively

Lively is a not-for-profit organisation and home care provider with an innovative model that connects generations, creates meaningful employment for young jobseekers and increases the connectedness and inclusion of older people in our community. We train and employ young jobseekers (aged 18–25) as ‘Lively Helpers’ to work with and support older people who need a hand maintaining social connection, independence and wellbeing at home. Through this process, we aim to build meaningful relationships that also enable older people to share their rich life experiences, stories and knowledge back with the young; fostering intergenerational understanding and respect, as well as young people’s personal development. You can read more about us and our bold vision for our home care service here and here.

Lively’s programs are growing, and as we grow we want to improve the employment experience for our community of dedicated young Helpers; ensuring that they are well-supported and have meaningful opportunities to develop their skills during their time working with Lively. That’s where the Helper Coordinator comes in!

The Position

As Lively Helper Coordinator, your role is to work alongside the Coordinators of Lively’s Home Care program and other community programs to recruit, train and support Lively’s community of Helpers, while creating a warm, inclusive and supportive culture of trust and respect. As part of your role, and in collaboration with Lively’s other Program Coordinators, you will be responsible for:

  • Working with our Support & Care Coordinators to identify new Helper positions as required;
  • Recruiting and onboarding new Helpers and ensuring key contacts for new Helpers are involved in the process;
  • Coordinating the initial and ongoing training, learning and development of Helpers;
  • Maintaining up-to-date Helper records;
  • Developing and maintaining internal communications with and between Helpers; including sharing resources, experiences and ideas throughout the community of Helpers;
  • Managing external communication to potential Helpers, together with Lively’s Communications Manager;
  • Maintaining ‘post-Lively’ connections with Helpers who move on from Lively;
  • Maintaining Lively’s employment law compliance (and similar) for Helpers;
  • Designing and implementing improvements to Lively’s Helper recruitment, training and support processes;
  • Capturing data on Lively’s progress towards our goal of providing meaningful employment and skill development for young people aged 18–25;
  • Thinking ahead and holding a longer term view of the Helper experience at Lively.

On top of this, you will be a warm and approachable point of contact for Helpers, and a champion for them within Lively’s core team.

As Lively is a new organisation, many processes and approaches are still in development, and as a core member of our small team, you will have the opportunity to bring your creativity, experience and ideas to bear in helping us develop new, industry-leading approaches to working with Helpers that allow us to foster an empowered community of younger people. Fun!

About you

You are, first and foremost, a people person. You have a warm, bright and caring demeanour that makes others feel instantly comfortable, and you have a knack for building rapport with just about anyone. Importantly, your incredible people skills come across no matter the form of interaction: face-to-face, over the phone, or by email.

You love working with younger people, are empathetic and able to form trusting relationships with them as a champion and a mentor. You are skilled at communicating with younger people who are Aboriginal, LGBTI, or from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and are committed to making Lively an inclusive and accessible place for young people of all walks of life to work. You believe in young people’s potential, see the best in them, and back them in to take on new challenges and opportunities.

You are also familiar with employment law and compliance, and have experience managing internal communications within other organisations.

In addition to your experience and strong people skills, you are:

  • Passionate about creating a more positive future for younger and older people in our community;
  • Exceptionally organised and great at managing your time;
  • At your best when you have clear objectives and the freedom to manage your work accordingly;
  • Digitally savvy—comfortable using a range of online platforms to carry out your work;
  • Collaborative and team-oriented in your approach to work;
  • An excellent communicator across a range of media;
  • Creative, open-minded and flexible—a proactive problem solver, comfortable exercising initiative and establishing solutions to issues we haven’t encountered before; and
  • Diligent about maintaining accurate records, meeting high quality standards and upholding legislative requirements.

On a personal level, you may be looking for part-time work to achieve a balance with other aspects of your life - whether that’s parenting responsibilities, educational pursuits or other work, interests and goals. And you may identify yourself in any number of different ways; male, female, non-binary, LGBTI, culturally or linguistically diverse, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, religious, younger, older… you name it, if the qualities, skills and experience we’ve described above sound like you, then please know that we warmly encourage you to apply. We are a warm, accepting and supportive team, and we are committed to providing a safe environment that celebrates and reflects the diversity of the Australian community.

Working at Lively

Lively is a small and growing organisation; right now, we’re a core team of seven. We have, however, secured financial backing to scale our operations, and are quickly moving towards our big and ambitious vision. We’re seeking to build a team of passionate and dynamic people to help us expand our reach and impact, so you’ll be joining us at a pivotal and exciting time of early growth. We’re a positive, warm and lively bunch (thus the name!) and though we may be small right now, we’re committed to providing a rewarding employment experience with lots of opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Working with us at Lively, your fresh ideas are encouraged and creativity welcomed. We’re constantly learning, developing and improving - finding solutions to new and emerging challenges, and working hard to strengthen our foundations for growth. This means that a lot of stuff is still a work in progress, but it also gives you a huge opportunity to see real results from your work - you’ll make a significant contribution to the development of the organisation, and also see that translate into meaningful positive impact in young and older people’s lives. We want you to join us in building an organisation that’s great to work for, as well as one that does great work. Some of the groundwork we’ve already established includes:

  • A positive team culture free of bureaucracy, politics, hierarchies or red tape. We work together as friends and equals to help each other do our best work and move the organisation forward, supported by effective structures we’ve set up for sideways accountability.
  • A welcoming environment that invites you to feel relaxed and authentic at work - wear comfortable clothes, bring your kids or your pets, make daggy jokes - whatever makes work a pleasant place to go each day.
  • Access to a salary packaging scheme and generous leave entitlements.
  • A flexible workplace that welcomes remote working and is genuinely accommodating of variable or non-standard hours.

We run a variety of programs and services with our Helpers including tech help, home care, a remote COVID-19 support program and an intergenerational gardening program. Our Helpers are currently based primarily in the Melbourne region, but we also have a team in Sydney and Brisbane. You’ll be part of our HQ team based in North Melbourne, but have the flexibility to work where you feel most comfortable and productive.

While the role is offered as a fixed-term position due to our confirmed funding arrangements, we hope to engage a long-term team member in the role. The role is offered with a negotiable time fraction; we expect the workload to be 0.6 FTE in the initial months, however as we bring on more Helpers, it may progress to a full time load. Whether you are seeking full-time or part-time employment, we welcome your application (job sharing will be an option if transitioning to full-time employment doesn’t suit you). The full-time equivalent salary for the role is $80,000 plus superannuation, with salary packaging benefits.

Click Apply Now to apply. Please note: We are only accepting applications via this link.

For questions, please contact Anna Donaldson on (03) 9070 4741.

Lively is an equal opportunity employer with a zero tolerance approach to discrimination. We welcome and encourage you to apply regardless of your gender, sexuality, or cultural background.

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