• Location: Cheltenham and surrounding areas
• Rate: $30+ per hour, negotiable, plus superannuation and allowances.

About us

Lively is a new not-for-profit home care provider that connects generations, creates meaningful employment for young jobseekers (mostly between the ages 18–25) to provide services that help older people maintain social connection, independence and wellbeing. Through this process, we also build connections that 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. We're a small but growing not-for-profit, based in Melbourne and staffed by people who really care about care and are not here to make the big bucks.

We believe that Australia's home care system is crying out for fresh new approaches, and we hope our emerging model will offer just that. We're working to change Australia's approach to aged care by developing a model of care that recognises older people's capacity, offers genuine flexibility and autonomy, prioritises social connection and values what older people have to share and offer back to their communities. We believe that aged care can and should be a valued and desirable profession for young people: stable, rewarding, properly remunerated and with good working conditions. Amongst our Helpers we aim to attract a diversity of workers, including those who both have existing experience and qualifications working in aged care, as well as those who are just looking to try it out for the first time.

Following our approach, our young workers are matched with older people to work directly with them as their personal home Helper, providing a range of supports for them including basic home help and cleaning, transport, social support, personal care—in short, to be a helping friend while supporting them to manage their own care. We believe in the importance of meaningful connections between our members and Helpers; we know that caring relationships mean building up trust and rapport, and that takes time and consistency.

The Position

As a Lively Helper, your role is to be a friend and primary supporter to one or more older people (Lively's "members"), providing a range of supports, starting from companionship and social support through to basic home help such as cleaning and basic gardening, transport to social events or appointments, support with shopping, and personal care such as bathing, dressing and toileting. Every member will have different needs, and you will work with us and each individual to agree on the types of support you will provide. You will manage your own schedule and hours, negotiating 'shift' times that work for both yourself and the member(s) you support. You might like to think of the role as being 'a younger friend who comes around to help'.

At present, we can offer approximately six hours per week as we have just started taking on clients; however, we anticipate this number to increase significantly during the year as we grow, and should you be successful in passing your probation period of 3 months. As our first clients have slightly complex needs, for this specific role, we request that you possess qualifications and previous experience in aged care, such as a Certificate III in Individual Support or similar. If you are a young person without much experience, we won't be able to consider you for this position, however, we would love to keep you in mind for future opportunities. Please contact [email protected] to join our waitlist.

Lively is a new organisation and our approach to our work continues to evolve as we find the smoothest and most supportive way to facilitate the partnership between our members and our Helpers. This means there will sometimes be some uncertainty around our processes as we finalise aspects of our approach; when these come up, we welcome and encourage your participation as our colleague working directly with members, in working with us to learn how we can improve how we do things. You will occasionally be asked to participate in design or feedback sessions with the team to examine at how we can improve our approach.

You will catch up regularly with our delightful Care Coordinator, Ruby, and other members of the team to talk about how you're going, and to discuss any challenges you might have or support you may need.

About you

You are a caring, empathetic and skilled individual with a passion for working with and caring for older people; you thrive off making connections and learning about their lives. You are able to see and listen to the person in all their complexity, rather than just their challenges; they are not just a list of problems to be solved. You are patient and can communicate effectively with older people and their carers about what they need, and working with them to figure out how you can help them meet their goals, in collaboration with a care coordinator. You are well-presented, polite and respectful. You are accepting and non-judgemental, and dedicated to giving older people a sense of control and autonomy in their lives. You feel comfortable working and communicating with older people who are aboriginal, LGBTI, or from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds.

In addition to your strong personal skills working with older people, you are:

• Reliable, punctual and able to commit to providing consistent support to the older people with whom you work.
• Flexible and able to exercise initiative to adapt the support you provide to older participants when their needs or wishes change.
• Good at managing your time and juggling competing priorities.
• A proficient writer, and diligent in making detailed notes about your work with your clients.
• In possession of a driver's licence and a safe, roadworthy car. 
• Located in Melbourne's southern suburbs within 15–20 minutes of Cheltenham, and able to travel independently to visit older people in the area.
• Equipped with a Certificate III in Individual Support, Disability or Aged Care or a similar qualification equipping you to work with older people.
• Skilled in supporting older people with more specific or complex needs, in particular through:
  • Personal care, including hygiene and grooming, dressing/undressing, showering/bathing, toileting.
  • Assistance with speech, hearing, seeing or other communication.
  • Meal preparation and support with eating.
  • Continence support.
  • Mobility assistance, including transfer, and using mobility aids.
• Experience in working with people who are living with dementia will be highly regarded. 

Please note: Lively is a not-for-profit organisation with a specific mission to offer meaningful work opportunities for young people aged 18-25 years who have limited previous experience. Priority is therefore given to applicants within this age range. 

You will receive additional training and support from Lively upon your employment, tailored according to your existing experience and the areas in which you would like to grow.

What You'll Gain

• The opportunity to carry out care work in a caring environment, with the backing of a supportive and trusting team and the space and continuity to develop relationships with your clients.
• Improved skills in care coordination, communication, problem-solving and taking initiative.
• The opportunity to get in on the ground floor with a new and dynamic home care provider with aspirations to change the face of Australian home care.
• The chance to contribute to the development of an exciting new service through your observations and participation.
• References to support your future job seeking efforts.

Wages

You will be paid in accordance with the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award. We are offering the position at an hourly rate of $30ph, which includes the extra 25% casual loading. In accordance with the award, we pay the appropriate penalty rates, superannuation and allowances.

As Lively is a not-for-profit, you are eligible to benefit from the NFP salary packaging allowances under the scheme we have set up.

Working at Lively

Lively is a small and growing organisation, having just become accredited as a new provider of home care in September 2019. Right now, we're a core team of six. We're seeking to build a team of passionate and dynamic helpers as we start to roll out our services, so you'll be joining us at a pivotal and exciting time of transition. At Lively HQ we're a positive, warm and lively bunch (thus the name!) and we centre people in everything we do. Though we may be small right now, we're committed to providing a rewarding employment experience with opportunities for personal and professional growth. 

Working with us at Lively, your ideas are encouraged and creativity welcomed. We're in an exciting growth period, which means that we are 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 big opportunity to feed into our learning and development.

We currently work out of a co-working space in North Melbourne and although you will largely be out and about, we'll ask you to drop in from time to time, and encourage you to pop in whenever you feel like.