About Us:

The Caroline Chisholm Society (the Society) has been providing services to vulnerable children, women and families for over 50 years. The Society specialises in the First 1000 Days in providing a range of evidence-based programs and services to pregnant women and parents with young children aged up to 5 years.

The organisation has a clear focus on supporting women with their pregnancy and families with their early parenting, to create safe and nurturing environments for infants and young children. We work with the whole family to support secure attachments, optimise child outcomes through parenting interventions, prevent and alleviate the impacts of poverty, homelessness, family violence and issues mental health have on parent and child wellbeing.

Caroline Chisholm Society Offers:

• Monthly RDO
• 4 weeks annual leave with additional gifted leave over Christmas and a wellbeing day off for your birthday
• Generous salary packaging benefits
• Excellent professional development opportunities and training
• Access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and employee wellbeing activities

The Role:

The Pregnancy and Early Parenting (PEP) Practitioner at the Caroline Chisholm Society is part of the Integrated Family Services Team and delivers a range of interventions including outreach and in-home support services to a specialised cohort of pregnant women and families with young children up to 5 years of age.

These supports include assessment, counselling, single session & short-term casework, parenting interventions, referrals to specialist services and family advocacy.

With an aim to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children, our specialist service focuses on prevention and early intervention in the early years. This role requires staff to work alongside families to strengthen and enhance their parenting capacity and works to prevent children and families from further system involvement.

All practitioners at the Caroline Chisholm Society support us to offer a welcoming environment and to respond to the needs of pregnant women and young families.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Upholding the values, mission and objectives of the Society and working in a manner that promotes these at all times.
• Parenting education and support to develop and enhance early parenting capacity using an adult capability model.
• Improving women’s access and participation in antenatal and postnatal services through direct client engagement and active outreach to support services including Maternity Services, and Maternal and Child Health Services.
• Conducting comprehensive family assessments that identify the health, wellbeing and safety needs of the children involved, and that identify both the capacity and constraints of the families to make necessary changes.
• Advocacy around keeping families together, in alignment with the Best Interest Principals and empowering families to work towards this.
• Single session and short-term case work, including provision of material aid.
• Fulfilling requirements regarding case records and data recording.
• Working alongside families where protective concerns have been identified to address these concerns.
• Parenting programs including group work involvement.
• Working collaboratively with DFFH Child Protection, other professionals and extended family members to ensure a coordinated approach to delivering services to families.
• Leading and providing an example of good conduct in the workplace and participate in regular supervision, staff meetings, team meetings and staff development training.
• Work in a wrap around approach.
• Developing as a professional by participating in networking and training activities.
• Other duties: A line manager may within reason request the Pregnancy and Early Parenting Practitioner to perform other duties which are auxiliary and peripheral to normal duties.

Who we are looking for:

• Tertiary qualification in Social work, Welfare work or other related discipline with relevant experience.
• Someone who is interested in working in the family services space and developing a specialisation with a focus on pregnant women and families with children up to 5 years of age.
• Is passionate about working on early intervention, psycho education and prevention with families and developing adult capability.
• Who works well as a member of a small, dedicated team of professionals and is also able to work independently.
• Thrives on learning new skills and supporting the development of their colleagues.

For further information regarding the role, please contact Michelle Anderson, Corporate Services Coordinator on (03) 9361 7000.

A position description is attached.