Family Life - Transforming lives for stronger communities

Work locally in the Bayside Area and make a difference within our community

Enjoy flexible work options and a great team culture

Full time, Full-Time, Permanent, 38 hours per week

Level 5 SCHADS Award $100,766 FTE + Generous Salary Packaging + Super

Family Life is a recognised Employer of Choice. Work with us and be part of our supportive, people-focused culture.

The Opportunity

We have an exciting opportunity to join our Families & Communities Program as a Brief Support Practitioner, in a full-time permanent position.

The Brief Support Practitioner provides short term support for vulnerable children and young people aged 0-17 and their families. Support is typically provided via phone, providing a specialised first point of contact working with a range of clients, where there are typically low-level complex needs and issues of risk and safety. The Brief Support Practitioner will support families in building their parenting capacity and assist parents in being responsive to their child’s developmental needs, including their understanding of child development and building healthy and positive attachments. Parenting support and guidance is also achieved through our evidence based groupwork programs in which the Brief Support Practitioner will play a key role in facilitating across our place-based locations.

This role requires availability to work across all of our Family Life locations (Bunurong Land) and the opportunity to work from home for up to 2 days per week.

Key Responsibility Areas

The key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Increasing parents’ capacity in meeting their child’s health, safety and developmental needs, and to build self-efficacy through psychoeducation and linkages to community, support and education.

Using a trauma informed approach to promote family’s safety and stability through strong assessment, case plans and application of appropriate risk assessment frameworks, utilising the Best Interest Framework and MARAM risk assessment tools.

Working effectively with parents and children from a range of backgrounds including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from CALD backgrounds, people who are LGBTQIA+ and people with a disability.

Providing a collaborative response to Family Violence, if identified, and to utilise this lens when providing brief support and completing referrals for ongoing Family Violence support.

Carrying a specialist portfolio of groupwork; facilitating evidence-based groupwork programs, designed to strengthen family capacity and provide psychoeducation.

Delivering services to quality standards and complying with relevant legislation and contractual requirements. This includes relevant information sharing legislation (FVISS and CISS) and the MARAM framework.

Engaging in regular supervision and critical reflection with the Team Leader/Practice Team.

Participating in appropriate professional development, network meetings, team meetings and peer supervision, as directed by line management.

Collecting, recording and maintaining all required documentation to evidence impact and effectiveness of service delivery in a complete, accurate and timely manner, as requested by the organisation’s standards and program contracts.

Working from within a lens of continuous improvement to better both the programs service delivery processes and the greater service system. Flexibility to collaborate around these processes in order to best implement findings.

Our Ideal Candidate

Growth Mindset - You pride yourself for your commitment to resilience and continuous improvement. You see growth opportunities as opposed to failures, and you are always on the lookout for an improved workflow or process. You think creatively, value input and feedback from peers, and adapt to changing or unforeseen circumstances.

Curiosity - You naturally seek out learning opportunities and further information without being prompted to by your manager. You clarify the ‘Why’ and like to investigate and explore further information.

Proactivity - You are a positive influence on your colleagues, you opt-in to support organisational projects, and always lend a hand to support others.

We are looking for a degree qualified (Social Work, Psychology, Social Science or equivalent) and skilled individual who embodies the Family Life Way principles to deliver trauma informed support to our clients to achieve positive outcomes. Passionate about supporting at-risk families, you will ideally have experience working with infants, children and adolescents and their families, particularly those with various vulnerabilities such as family violence, trauma, mental health, and AOD. With a high level written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills, you also have working knowledge of the Child Youth and Families Act 2005.

Who We Are

At Family Life, we believe every child deserves to thrive in a safe and healthy family environment. Family Life is a specialist family services provider that has worked with children, families and communities for more than 50 years. Our vision is to work with clients and partners to create capable communities, strong families and thriving children.

We are known for our innovation and whole-of-community collective impact approach. Our teams are committed to transforming the lives of our clients and communities to build resilience and healthy relationships. We are proudly purpose-driven, independent and not for profit. We support our community through our specialist family services, community strengthening programs, a network of op shops, a vibrant engaged volunteer community and passionate, skilled staff.

Working at Family Life - more than just a job!

It’s the feeling of knowing that your work is contributing to making the community in which you live a better place and working with others who feel the same way.

Additionally, you will have access to:

Flexible work options and a great team culture

Salary packaging (receive up to an extra $18,500 in tax-free pay per year)

Paid Wellbeing Leave

Paid Study Leave

Additional Paid Leave for End of Year Closedown

Purchased Annual Leave Scheme

Rostered Day Off Scheme for Eligible Employees

Employee Assistance Program, a free and confidential counselling service for employees

How to Apply

You can view the full position description and submit your confidential application—including a CV and cover letter addressing the key selection criteria—via the Family Life Careers page.

For further information regarding the position please contact Team Leader, Michelle Rowland on (03) 8599 5433.

*We will be reviewing applications as they are received, therefore this role may close sooner if we find the right candidate. Please apply now to ensure you do not miss out!

All offers of employment are subject to the Family Life Safety Screening process, including a Working with Children Check and Police Records Check. Any person issued with a negative notice on their Working with Children Check will not be eligible for employment with Family Life.

Family Life values diversity and welcomes applicants who meet the position criteria, irrespective of race and ethnicity, colour, age, gender, gender identity, disability, religion and sexual orientation.

Family Life is a trauma informed organisation and recognises the unique skills, contributions and insights that come from lived experience.

Family Life is a child safe organisation. We value, respect and listen to children and young people. We are committed to the safety of all children and young people. Family Life supports children to meet their potential and thrive. We do not tolerate neglect, mistreatment or abuse of any kind.