for At-Risk Youth impacted by Overseas Conflicts

• Role Title: Youth Engagement and Advocacy Officer – Fixed Term – 2 years
• Team: Toowoomba Regional Services Team
• Location: Toowoomba
• Salary: Level 5 ($93,865 - $98,107)
• Reports to: Team Leader Regional Services – Toowoomba

Our Vision

Healing the past, nurturing the future.

Our vision is for refugee survivors of persecution to live lives liberated from the harms of torture, trauma and human rights injustice. We exist to nurture meaningful futures by assisting refugee survivors to heal, belong and thrive in our community.

Our Values

Kindness

• We care.
• In all our work, survivors of torture and trauma come first.

Optimism

• We believe in meaningful futures.
• We are committed to healing being a journey of growth across mind, body and spirit.

Perseverance

• We don’t give up.
• We understand that healing requires time, patience and courage for individuals, families and communities.

Role Purpose

The Youth Engagement and Advocacy Officer will be compassionate and courageous in developing and facilitating interventions that engage and empower marginalised young people and their families, to foster a sense of belonging and healing. Primarily focused on young people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds, the purpose of this role is to:

• Connect with young people, create trusting and meaningful relationships to provide support interventions that enable healing and recovery from torture and trauma.
• Provide psychoeducation and advocacy around a variety of realms including mental health and wellbeing.
• Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders to advocate for and create innovative pathways and opportunities for young people and build capacity to support young people to thrive.

The Youth Engagement and Advocacy Officer will be passionate about creating opportunities for young people in both school and community contexts, connecting directly to facilitate and co-create interventions that empower young people and build a sense of belonging to family, community, culture and place.

Character

We are looking for an experienced professional who is passionate about trauma recovery and promoting wellbeing for young people from refugee backgrounds.

You will possess the ability to; quickly build rapport to engage young people; have an understanding of the strengths they possess and the challenges they face; and work alongside young people to support them to thrive in their communities and the wider Australian community.

We value the ability to engage clients in healing across mind, body and spirit. You will be compassionate, patient and courageous in managing a range of vulnerabilities experienced by our clients and their families.

We believe in cultural respect. We are looking for someone who is comfortable working with clients from many cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as sexual orientations and who can flexibly and thoughtfully adapt their practice to suit client needs.

We are looking for someone who enjoys developing their practice by making use of QPASTT’s supervision, internal training, team building and professional development opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain positive relationships with young people, including those at risk, and their families, from refugee backgrounds, in both school and community settings;
• Identify risks, develop and provide planned client-centered, developmentally appropriate support to young people of refugee background in one-on-one settings to promote healing and recovery;
• Develop and deliver group-based therapeutic intervention, co-creating with young people, their families and communities;
• Provide psychoeducation to enable young people, their families and communities, to understand and develop strategies for recovery;
• Identify trauma recovery goals and provide appropriate intervention, which is accessible, trauma informed and culturally sensitive to the needs of survivors of torture and trauma;
• Engage with and manage risks with clients experiencing complex and/or crisis presentations in accordance with organizational processes and supports;
• Deliver appropriate client related advocacy which supports healing and the opportunity to thrive and belong in the Australian community;
• Identify emerging issues arising from local and international crisis situations and develop appropriate response strategies in collaboration with young people and families.
• Design, organise, facilitate, and evaluate groups identified by the community or needs assessed as appropriate.
• Build and foster collaborative partnerships with family members, community members and other agencies;
• Ensure quality service delivery including accountability with contractual and organisational requirements. This includes the writing of case notes and client related professional reports;
• Ability to abide by the vision and values of QPASTT including our Code of Conduct as well as the policies and procedures of the organisation;
• Support research and evaluation initiatives of the organisation.

Requirements

We especially encourage young people from refugee backgrounds with relevant experience to apply.

• Degree level qualifications in Social Work, Youth Work, Education, Psychology, Counselling, Occupational Therapy or related area of expertise.
• Demonstrated experience working with young people, particularly from a refugee background, and delivering culturally safe support.
• Capacity to understand and work with marginalised young people, or those who are at risk of being marginalized, creating innovative responses.
• Ability to respond to varying needs of young people in both a school and community setting and be responsive to needs in creating and/or implementing interventions. Understanding that the young person is part of a family and community and working to support the support the young person to be healthy, belong and thrive within those systems.
• A commitment to utilising recovery frameworks and implementing the QPASTT Youth Strategic Plan, applying the core values of healing, belonging, thriving and justice.
• Experience in, and ability to, work in partnership with young people and service providers to develop innovative strategies for intervention and support such as group work and events.
• Desirable – event and project management skills.
• Desirable - stakeholder engagement to create multifaceted programs and referral pathways.

Conditions of Employment

• Current Positive Notice Blue Card and provision of an annual federal police check.
• Current Queensland C Class driver’s licence.
• Occasional out of hours’ work and travel to other QPASTT offices.

A position description is attached.