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Project & Research Officer - Housing Brokerage Service

Summer Foundation

The new Housing Brokerage Service is for people with disability and complex support needs who are stuck in hospital with a delayed discharge due to a lack of suitable housing that aligns with their needs and preferences. The Coordinators in the Team provide secondary consultation to the person’s health team, support coordinator and others, and then complete an innovative housing search. The desired outcomes are the capacity building of the health sector related to housing options, and that people with disability are discharged from hospital to the housing options that best align with their housing needs and preferences.

The Housing Brokerage Service uses an action research methodology for continuous quality assurance and evaluation. A member of the research team is embedded within the Housing Brokerage Service to manage the data collection, analysis, interpretation and reporting.

The Research & Intake Project Officer will be responsible for 3 areas of work that are a project support component, intake and referral component and research component.

Responsibilities & Duties

Project Officer role:

  • To ensure the smooth running of the Housing Brokerage Service Team’s key activities by undertaking key support functions
  • Undertake administrative tasks, meeting preparation/Agendas/minute taking, report writing, team calendar management for team appointments and provide support during zoom/teams/webinars
  • Provide administration support to the Project Lead
  • Work independently to draft and finalise written products, including correspondence, presentation and reports with guidance from Project Lead
  • Manage team systems and resources such as google drive, one drive and relevant spreadsheets
  • Participate in team meetings, case conferences, training sessions

Intake and Referral role:

  • Respond to and manage all enquiries to the Housing Brokerage Service with quality information
  • Liaise with other relevant Teams at the Summer Foundation, particularly the Incoming Calls Register staff
  • Respond to, follow up, screen for eligibility and manage referrals to the Housing Brokerage Service
  • Liaise closely with Project Lead regarding referrals and enquiries as needed
  • Ensure that all information is collected prior to allocation of the new referral at the Team’s allocation meeting

Research Officer role:

  • Support the Housing Brokerage Service as an embedded team member to undertake work using an action research approach. This includes interviewing staff and facilitating reflective thinking for continuous evaluation and quality improvement
  • Collect quantitative data about all enquiries, referrals and services provided
  • Extract and enter data from multiple sources into a database
  • Prepare data files for senior members of the Research Team to analyse
  • Supporting senior Research Team members to write case studies that may be used for publication and Summer Foundation policy and communications work

Skills & Experience

Qualifications:

  • An undergraduate allied health degree or extensive relevant experience working in disability, health, housing or social services sector
  • Eligibility for relevant professional membership of which evidence may be required
  • Employment subject to National Police History Check

Experience Required:

  • At least 3 years experience in working with people with disability and complex needs, particularly people in hospital, disability housing, residential aged care or at risk of being forced to live inappropriately in aged care.
  • Demonstrated capacity to engage with health professionals in a positive, meaningful approach
  • Demonstrated ability to problem-solve at high level
  • Demonstrated high level professional, verbal and written communication skills

Desired:

  • Working knowledge of NDIS, its framework, structure and practice
  • Experience in facilitating complex discussions with multiple stakeholders to reach an outcome
  • Experience communicating with people with complex support needs
  • Lived experience of disability and housing search
  • Experience with or understanding of the importance of research methods in informing evidence-based practice

Skills:

  • Confident communicator via phone and in-person
  • Ability to work out how to find information and get the answers you need
  • Project Management
  • Understanding of health sector and stakeholders’ needs
  • Sound IT proficiency (i.e., Microsoft Office, databases, spreadsheets, videoconferencing)
  • Highly organised - meets deadlines and has strong accountability and attention to detail
  • Strong communication verbally and written to audiences internally and externally and for various levels of experience and knowledge
  • Great passion for working with people with disability and championing their voice
  • Ability to think flexibly and adapt positively to change
  • Ability to work autonomously and within a collaborative team base in different geographical locations connecting regularly via videoconferencing
  • Capacity to respond to all relevant stakeholders in a timely, professional and efficient manner via videoconferencing, email and/or telephone

Core Competencies

The successful applicant’s values will match those of the Summer Foundation. The Summer Foundation’s values include:

  • Vision: We are creative, innovative and resourceful. We continually strive to be the best
  • Integrity: We act with integrity and honesty in everything we do
  • Communication: We communicate openly by exchanging information and actively listening to all stakeholders
  • Team Spirit: We value and recognize the contribution of our colleagues, both locally and globally. We enjoy working together to achieve outstanding results and total job satisfaction
  • Corporate Responsibility: We act responsibly within our community and care for the environment

Other Relevant Information

  • The position description is indicative of the initial expectation of the role and subject to changes to Summer Foundation goals and priorities, activities or focus of the job
  • People with disability are encouraged to apply. Lived experience is valued by the organisation and looked upon favourably
  • Full time (1.0 FTE)
  • Contract until 31 December 2020

We offer

  • Salary Packaging
  • Flexible working hours
  • Supportive and collaborative team environment

About the Summer Foundation

Established in 2006, the key aim of the Summer Foundation is to change human service policy and practice related to young people in nursing homes. The Summer Foundation utilises a range of strategies to influence health, housing, aged care and disability service policy and practice related to this target group.

The Summer Foundation’s five key strategies to preventing young people being forced to live in nursing homes are:

  1. Research – Data collection and analysis to provide an evidence base for problem solving
  2. Storytelling – Support people with lived experience to share their journeys and perspectives
  3. Prototypes – Designing, testing and evaluating new solutions
  4. Capacity Building – Share information and best practice with stakeholders
  5. Policy Influence – Shape thinking and change decisions of governments

What policy change do we want?

There are four key areas that must be addressed to resolve the issue of young people in nursing homes in Australia.

  1. Those in RAC or at risk of RAC entry have NDIS plans which support and reflect their goals
  2. Significantly increase the volume and range of high quality, accessible and affordable housing
  3. Health, disability and other systems communicating and collaborating to support discharge to community living
  4. Define the challenges and explore solutions to barriers that limit access to primary and community health services

We are looking to fill this role as soon as possible. Applications will be considered when we receive them.

How to apply

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