Sydney Alliance is seeking a dynamic, politically aware and qualified social worker with extensive lived experience with migrant communities to join the team and pilot an exciting new leadership program with social work placements.

Essential criteria: Applicants must be qualified social workers, with a minimum of two years’ full-time practice experience. As outlined in ASWEAS 2020 section 4.5.

Background

From Jan-June 2022 the Sydney Alliance is piloting a program whereby 35 social work placements will be trained in the art of community organising. We are looking for someone to assist us in running the first pilot of the program at this scale.

The ‘Assistant Organisers program’ at Sydney Alliance has run for over ten years, albeit at smaller numbers where over 250 students have learnt about the public selves, community organising and Australian politics through this program.

Working hand-in-glove with Lead Organiser David Barrow and Project Lead Genevieve Kelly, this position is ideal for a qualified social worker supervisor looking to make an impact for the future and set up a future team for success.

With an extremely diverse placement group comprising of many international students, particularly from India, Nepal and Pakistan, we are ideally seeking someone with lived experience of migration and experience in cross-cultural communication.

THE ROLE INVOLVES:

• Working as part of a dynamic team of community organisers to train, develop and build the power of the Sydney Alliance through the art of community organising. This will involve:
  • Training
  • Supporting listening processes
  • Participating in power analysis
  • Coordinating projects with diverse range of Alliance partners
    
• Working with Project Lead Genevieve Kelly to provide social work supervision and field education for 35 social work placements. Including:
  • Administrative function – planning and assignment of organising work
  • Educative function – development of professional social work skills within an organising context
  • Support function – assisting the management of job-related stress, sustaining of morale and developing a feeling of worth, competence and sense of belonging. Vital particularly for students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
    
• Working with a team of Alliance staff and leaders to refine, stress-test, evaluate and adapt a successful program to the needs of a large, culturally diverse cohort of students – including helping the Alliance develop a best-practice framework for cultural safety.

KEY ATTRIBUTES/QUALITIES/COMPETENCIES? - ABOUT YOU

Relationship building: You are a ‘people person’ with experience building and managing multiple relationships with a lot of people. This includes over the phone and email, because face-to-face is not always possible when our work spans across the greater metropolitan area. You are able to coach and support volunteers and assistant organisers to do hard things, because they know you genuinely care about them and will help them succeed. You like listening to people’s stories and can share your own in a powerful and persuasive way.

Resilience: Organising to create systemic change for the common good is often times challenging. Working with assistant organisers and communities who are unfamiliar with this community organising approach and who have been systematically disempowered by the Australian political and energy system means there will be barriers and setbacks. You find proactive ways to work around obstacles, challenges, hurdles and setbacks. You can take critique in the spirit that it is given.

Persuasiveness: You have the confidence to ‘make the ask’ of community leaders for their support and time and encouraging them to reach beyond their comfort zone.

Outstanding team player: You have had experience working in small teams where your work is closely connected to others' work. Organisers receive a high level of trust that they can deliver in their patch without handholding while still working collaboratively with leaders and staff colleagues. You need to love working with others, in fact you thrive on it, including using online collaboration tools to communicate throughout the day. We are all about partnering with each other to get the work done. Shared mindsets and common objectives are critical to our success.

Organised and efficient: You are a no-stuffing-around, get-things-done kind of person. When you say you will do something by a certain date, you get it done - even if it means overcoming obstacles. You have had experience in a role where there are lots of moving parts to keep track of, like organising stalls or events with volunteers and you successfully balance multiple tasks at a time. You have the ability to break down objectives into smaller tasks, initiatives, and actions in order to get things done.

KEY REQUIREMENTS - What you bring to the role

Essential:

• Applicants must be qualified social workers, with a minimum of two years’ full-time practice experience. As outlined in ASWEAS 2020 section 4.5.
• You are a person with extensive experience working with migrant communities and/or people of colour.
• Passion for action on social justice issues.
• Familiarity or have experience with the ‘Relational Community Organising’ approach.
• Ability to work remotely and pick up the online systems we use.
• Experience recruiting and managing teams of volunteers.

Desirable:

• Experience working with international students, and/or diverse communities in Sydney.
• Fluency in language(s) other than English spoken by communities in Sydney.
• Experience in participatory meetings, teaching and training
• Experience in field work education of social workers

MORE ABOUT US

• Reports to: David Barrow, Lead Organiser and Genevieve Kelly, Project Lead.
• Duration: 6 months starting January 2022 (earlier start date negotiable).
• Location: Sydney

The Sydney Alliance brings together diverse community organisations, unions and religious organisations to advance the common good and achieve a fair, just and sustainable city. We do this by providing opportunities for people to have a say in decisions that affect them, their families and everyone working and living in Sydney. The Sydney Alliance is a non-party political organisation.

Please download the attached full PDF role description for further detail.