About Lively

Lively is a not-for-profit organisation with an innovative model that connects generations, creates meaningful employment for young jobseekers and increases the connectedness and inclusion of older people in our community. We train and employ young jobseekers (aged 18-25) to work with and support older people who need a hand maintaining social connection, independence and wellbeing. Through this process, we aim to build meaningful relationships that also enable older people to share their rich life experiences, stories and knowledge back with the young; fostering intergenerational understanding and respect, as well as young people’s personal development. You can read more about the services our Helpers provide here and here.

At Lively, our ambition for social change is big. We’re on a mission to create an Australia in which supporting older people to live well is as mainstream an employment choice for young people as retail and hospitality are today. In doing so, we hope to support a much-needed cultural shift in the way that older people are viewed, valued and cared for in communities. And to enable young people across the country to be agents of positive change from their very first job.

To date, we’ve operated mainly across metropolitan Melbourne, while we have worked to consolidate our impact and business model. Right now, we’re moving towards a model of more distributed, local leadership that enables us to sustainably grow while deepening the support and mentorship available to our Helpers. This may look like a ‘local team’ model that will enable young people to deliver our service more autonomously in communities across Australia. As we move towards a version of this model over the next year, the Mentor position may evolve to provide additional mentorship to support local Helper leadership, and you would play a key part in designing that role.

About the role

As Lively’s first Helper Mentor, you will work with and support up to 15–16 Lively ‘Helpers’ - young people aged 18–25 supporting older community members to remain active and connected. These young people will have limited prior experience in direct care roles, and will rely on you for coaching and support to grow and thrive in their position.

You will be a direct line of contact for incidents, emergencies or challenges, and offer debriefing or prompts to help Helpers solve their problems. You will conduct individual wellbeing, development and performance check-ins (this may involve visiting and chatting to our older Members about how things are working for them), and other day-to-day ad hoc support.

You may also be a point of contact for Members who have a challenge or incident to raise in relation to their Lively Helper, and you would assist them in finding a resolution. You may therefore expect to receive occasional phone calls or emails from Helpers and Members about challenges, and would need to be ready to help respond.

Through your direct contact with Helpers, you will observe opportunities to strengthen the resources and support available to them that improve their wellbeing, confidence and safety at work, and collaborate with Lively’s Helper Coordinator and other members of Lively HQ to develop initiatives to do so.

This is a new position, and you will also work together with our central HQ team and one other Mentor to develop the role and mentoring program itself, feeding back and collaborating on the structures and resources required to foster Helper leadership, confidence and skill in providing care, working independently, and team collaboration.

As we explore the possibilities of local leadership by Helpers, you will collaborate with members of the HQ team to help explore local models that have the potential to scale and grow to reach more older Australians and young people.

About you

To succeed in this role, you will be:

• A self-starter, happy operating in ambiguity and with minimal supervision.
• A believer and advocate for the capacity of young people to exercise responsibility, creativity and ownership, to apply savvy problem-solving to challenging situations, and to learn and grow.
• Able to draw on your direct experience in support work to coach and inspire Helpers to grow their skills and confidence, while remaining open to and excited about new approaches and ways of working with clients.
• Skilled in fostering a culture that is warm, nurturing, honest, trusting and fun.
• Well-practised in bringing a coaching mindset and approach to unlock the potential of others, and excited about fostering shared ownership and distributed leadership within teams and organisations.
• An excellent team player and collaborator - ready to work with our central ‘HQ’ team to figure out and solve problems as they arise.
• Emotionally intelligent, self-aware, and highly skilled in interpersonal relations.
• Well-organised and digitally savvy - comfortable working with a range of technology platforms and tools for communication (Gmail, chat), document processing and management (Google docs and Drive), and database/CRM/record management tools.
• A warm, open and authentic person, ready to show up and work with others as whole people.
• Passionate about creating a more positive future for young and older people in our community, and motivated to help us succeed!

Lively has a firm commitment to creating a safe and welcoming space for people of all backgrounds and identities to bring their hearts and minds to our work with a strongly maintained anti-discrimination policy. We seek the diversity of perspectives, ideas and solutions that arise when people of different ages, genders, ethnicities, religions, cultural backgrounds, neurodiversities, abilities and sexual orientations work together.

We are enthusiastic about creating positive employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and welcome employment applications from candidates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background. In short, if you join the Lively team, we’re committed to celebrating all the things that make you who you are!

Working arrangements

The role will be 0.6 FTE, and you will have significant flexibility in your working days, hours and location.

Our central ‘HQ’ team is based at Our Community House in North Melbourne, and you are welcome to work in the office as much or as little as suits you. Some in-person time together in the office will be useful for this role, but when and how much is fully negotiable.

You will sometimes be required to meet up in person with the teams you support, or the individual Helpers within them, and may occasionally need to attend Members’ homes or program venues. Access to a vehicle will therefore be advantageous for this role.

Due to funding arrangements and the fact that this is a ‘pilot role’, the position is offered as an initial 12-month contract. We would hope, however, to see the role transitioning to an ongoing position if successful.

You will be directly supported by Lively’s Helper Coordinator, and have ready access to other team members as needed.

As a team member at Lively, you can expect:

• To feel part of a small but fun and dynamic team, where your fresh ideas are encouraged, and creativity welcomed.
• A positive team culture free of undue bureaucracy, politics, hierarchies or red tape, and where we respect and support the complexity of each other’s full lives.
• A relaxed environment that invites you to feel comfortable and authentic at work - wear what you like, bring your kids or your pets, make bad jokes - whatever makes work a pleasant place to go each day.
• Access to a salary packaging scheme and generous leave entitlements.
• Support for your personal learning and development, both through the opportunity to get directly involved in areas of interest across the organisation, and to access external learning and development resources/opportunities.

To apply

To apply, please click Apply Now to complete your application.

For questions, please contact Anna Donaldson on 0430 661 405.

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