• Employment status: 0.8-1.0FTE, SCHADS Award, Level 6 - salary packaging available
• Location: Adelaide, South Australia
• Reports to: Manager: Projects & Advocacy and Executive Director
• Contract period: it is hoped this will be an ongoing role but will always be subject to funding

About the Role

The Senior Project Worker role is a new position at LELAN and will play a pivotal role in ensuring LELAN delivers high quality projects and systemic advocacy by, for and with the lived and living experience community in South Australia.

The Senior Project Worker will work closely with the Manager: Projects & Advocacy and Executive Director, other staff, the lived experience community and organisational partners. The role will provide high level skills and coordination in the areas of co-design and other participatory methodologies, project management, systems advocacy and ensuring we deliver tangible outcomes for the lived experience community and our partners.

LELAN offers a dynamic workplace and collaborative team culture, it can be fast paced with quick turnaround times. Being proactive, adaptable, creative and having a commitment to working together are the keys to success.

As a lived experience-led organisation, LELAN team members have their own lived or living experience of mental distress, social issues or injustice. Determining whether you meet this ‘criteria’ can be tricky, we do not require people to explain their personal history during the application or interview process. As a guide, it is described in our industry that ‘people with lived experience’ have had experiences that significantly affected their life, changing the way they viewed themselves and their place in the world. Given that LELAN actively advocates for systems level change in the mental health and social sectors experience of accessing public mental health and other services and/or programs for your lived experience is preferred.

About the SA Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network (LELAN)

LELAN’s purpose is to amplify the voice, influence and leadership of people with lived experience of mental distress, social issues or injustice to drive change. The organisation has three areas of focus:

• Developing the capability and influence of people with lived experience
• Nurturing organisational and sector capacity for partnering with people with lived experience, and
• Impacting system improvement agendas to benefit people with lived experience

Mobilising the power of lived experience throughout South Australia is LELAN’s vision. This underpins the work that we do and the way that we do it, embodying the knowing we have that lived experience matters. Our values are courage, compassion, dignity, intersectionality, leadership and social justice.

Duties and responsibilities of the Senior Project Worker

• Facilitate the active and meaningful involvement of people with lived experience in projects and organisational activities
• Ensure projects (including consultancy work) are developed, coordinated and managed effectively within timeline and budget
• Contribute to project reporting, evaluation and dissemination of outputs
• Design and facilitate quality co-design processes and training sessions
• Nurture collaborative relationships with key stakeholders to support organisational goals and outcomes as well as the increased involvement of people with lived experience in service design and decision-making
• Collate and disseminate the insights and solution ideas of people with lived and living experience, linking these to policy and practice standards within the mental health and social service sectors
• Provide informed, collective and strategic representation and advocacy from the perspective of people with lived experience of mental distress, social issues or injustice
• Create opportunities for lived experience-led action and inform LELAN’s systemic advocacy
• Liaise with and inform the mental health and community sector as directed on behalf of LELAN

Skill and experience requirements

• Personal lived or living experience of mental distress, social issues or injustice
• At least 5-years demonstrated experience leading and managing projects from idea to completion (including evaluation and writing reports), with a great attention to detail
• Experience designing and facilitating workshops and co-design processes, particularly where this is by, for and with people with lived and living experience
• Strong planning and organisational skills, including establishing priorities, managing time well and delivering quality work within tight deadlines
• Ability to work independently whilst being a senior member of a team that is highly collaborative
• Demonstrated experience of and commitment to centring and enhancing the involvement and leadership of people with lived experience, particularly consumers, in communities and across all levels of an organisation to drive systemic change
• Ability to develop supportive, encouraging and engaging relationships with diverse groups
• Qualifications and/or high-level experience in project management, mental health, social science, community development, peer work or related field
• Computer literacy, including ability to use Microsoft Office programs
• Commitment to the purpose and values of LELAN

A position description is attached.

Further enquiries can be made by contacting Sheryl Boniface, Manager: Projects & Advocacy, via [email protected] using the subject line: Senior Project Worker enquiry via EthicalJobs or 0431 953 526.

Additional information about LELAN can be accessed at www.lelan.org.au.

We are committed to inclusion and accessibility for people with lived or living experience and welcome applications from people with: broad distress or mental health experiences (including psychosocial disability); diverse cultural backgrounds (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people); gender or sexually diverse identities (including trans and non-binary); and/or other disabilities.