• Permanent Part Time & Casual

About the Organisation

Every day, Life Without Barriers provides support and care to children and young people, as we work collaboratively with families, carers, and communities, to ensure they have the environment they deserve to grow. With a focus on ensuring safety and respect, this is an opportunity to make a positive and meaningful difference in these young lives and help pave a brighter future.

 Life Without Barriers is a leading social purpose organisation of 8,000 employees working in more than 500 communities across Australia. We support children, young people and families, people with disability, older people and people with mental illness. We work with people who are homeless and refugees and asylum seekers. Join a community of people dedicated to breaking down barriers.

We want to employ people who reflect the diversity of our clients to ensure we can support each client's individual needs and wants. We encourage people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and people with disability to apply

About the role

As an Interim Care Residential Worker, you will provide direct care and supervision to children and/or young people aged between 9 and 15 years who are currently in a transitional care placement within our homes in South West Sydney (Blair Athol & Surrounds).  You will be required to engage with the Children & Young People in our care in a therapeutic and trauma informed manner that supports them to learn independent life skills, develop problem solving abilities and fosters appropriate and positive relationships with others. 

Successful candidates will be required to have flexibility to work a variety of shifts across a 24/7 roster of support and will be responsible for promoting a safe environment and actively participating in and encouraging activities that support the development of the children and young people.

To be considered for and appointed to a position at Life Without Barriers, you must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or hold a valid medical exemption certificate.  You will be required to provide evidence of your vaccination status during the recruitment process.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide daily care, supervision and transport to children and young people in residential care within a therapeutic framework.
• Implement, follow and support each individual's care plan
• Plan and actively engage children and young people in purposeful activities that increase and develop life skills. 
• Support the routines of children and young people through assisting in and supervising wake-up, bedtime, daily care, both physical and personal, completion of chores and laundry, meals, meal preparation, recreational activities, homework supervision and assistance
• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to address the impacts of abuse, neglect, separation from families and complex trauma on children and young people
• Support the involvement of family and facilitate contact and the development /maintenance of positive family relationships
• Monitor & maintain high quality written and electronic documentation such as daily notes and report writing

Skills & Experience

• Current First Aid Certificate
• Current Australian Drivers Licence
• Experience working with children and young people, ideally within an out of home care and/or child care setting
• Ability to form and maintain professional, nurturing relationships with children and young people.
• Demonstrated understanding of child development and the ability to support the learning of a broad range of life skills.
• Demonstrated empathetic understanding of complex trauma and its effects on children and young people in out of home care.
• Demonstrated understanding of the importance of family/kinship connections to children and young people in placement

Successful candidates will be required to clear probity checks including National Criminal History Record Check and NSW Working with Children Check and be willing to be placed onto the NSW Residential Care Workers Register. 

How to Apply

Include your resume and covering letter in one document, click ‘Apply’ and follow the prompts. For any enquiries including persons with disability that require adjustments, contact Kristy Crowe at [email protected], using the subject line: Residential Youth Workers (Interim Care) - Southwest Sydney enquiry via EthicalJobs.

We are dedicated to playing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and bring continuity of care and support to our clients. With this in mind, if you are successful, we will discuss with you an alternative to a face to face interview.

Life Without Barriers supports the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. We believe people with disability need to be heard and for these experiences to influence how support services like ours are delivered. View our statement here (https://bit.ly/2GzZGWA)