• Honesty Trust Respect Concern Love
• Seeking a Family Preservation & Reunification Early Years Practitioner Case Manager
• Full-time, Fixed term until August 2025 (parental leave backfill)
• Based at Dandenong.
• $87,090.01 per annum, plus super
• 17.5% annual leave loading and generous salary packaging options
• Progressive Workplace Flexibility options that enables genuine work life balance

About Odyssey House Victoria:

Odyssey House Victoria (OHV) is a place of hope and positive change for individuals working towards breaking their pattern of addiction. At Odyssey House we believe that every person should have the opportunity to change and grow. Our diverse teams work with individuals, families, and communities to reduce alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, improve mental health, and reconnect people to their family and the community. OHV is a dynamic and fast-growing organisation committed to excellence in service provision and innovation in responding to alcohol and other drugs use problems.

Role Purpose:

You will provide outreach wraparound services to families where children’s ages range from unborn to adolescents. This role requires flexibility including availability to work outside of business hours.

You will engage parents and their babies/children/adolescents to build their capacity as parents and functional families. They will support the parent/s to provide for their children’s health, safety and development as well as work towards building their self-reliance and sustainability through access to education, vocational training and employment.

You will deliver the program in the home and community as needed for 4 to 6 months. However, we expect that the intervention may benefit from more extended engagement and referral to other services as required. Areas of clinical focus include risk assessment and safety planning and practitioners will strive to empower parents to help their babies, children and adolescent’s live safely in the community, attain school/vocational goals, and develop prosocial behaviours. Practitioners will work with the ecology of the family; and school, sporting clubs and local businesses will be engaged as the individual needs and strengths of the family are identified.

You will engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in a culturally safe and competent way. This includes engaging in regular consultation with the program’s Cultural Advisor and including ongoing training

Duties include but are not limited to…

• Conduct an initial assessment including review of referral information, identifying, and engaging key participants, identifying systemic strengths and needs, and developing an analysis of the referral concerns/behaviours within the ecological context.
• Assisting parents and care givers to identify and achieve parenting goals through assessment of parenting needs, and the collaborative development and implementation of intervention plans that strengthen parenting capacity and effectiveness. This includes the provision of parenting skills training and the development of relapse plans.
• Supporting parents to participate in drug and mental health treatment through direct provision of counselling, referrals, and/or linkage to and collaboration with AOD and mental health workers.
• Assisting, organising and co-facilitating school holiday programs for children and their parents
• Providing secondary consultation to professionals working with substance use and family issues
• Provide high-quality intensive, flexible, and responsive early parenting support suited to client needs, including role modelling, outreach, groups, and centre-based interventions.
• Supporting therapeutic intervention to young parents in supporting their healing from possible traumatic experiences that may be impacting on their parenting.

For a copy of the position description which outlines the full list of responsibilities, please click HERE.

A week in the role:

If you were here last week, you would have:

• Met with a family in their home and provided targeted support
• Attended team meetings
• Collaborated cross sectionally with care teams
• Attended clinical supervision with an Odyssey House clinical supervisor
• Worked at the intersection of Alcohol and other Drug Use and Family Violence
• Engaged in self-care

Who are WE looking for?

We are looking for an experienced and passionate Practitioner to support our parents and their children.

To be successful in this role, you must hold the below qualifications/experience…

1. Relevant Tertiary/Degree qualification on Health, Social or Welfare related qualification with one year’s experience
2. Certificate IV in AOD or have completed the required competencies* (or able to complete within the first 12 months of employment). *Note: refer to Appendix A for details on competencies
3. Specialist knowledge in one relevant area such as AOD, mental health, family violence, attachment, and trauma informed practice, etc.
4. Demonstrated ability to undertake complex casework with families and children who have experienced trauma.
5. Demonstrated capacity to develop collaborative relationships across professional and organisational boundaries, as well as knowledge of relevant Community Service Organizations, local and State Government (DHHS) and the ability to network with these services.
6. Satisfactory outcome of a confidential Police Check and Working with Children Check. OHV is committed to child safety and is a child safe organisation.
7. Empathy for those whose lives have been affected by problematic alcohol and other drug use and mental health disorders.
8. Possession of a current Victorian Driver’s License.
9. Information technology skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office suite.
10. Preparedness to travel within the catchment to meet the requirements of the job.
11. Eligibility to work in Australia.

For a copy of the position description which outlines the full key selection criteria, please click HERE.

*Appendix A (AOD Competencies)

OHV requires staff in clinical positions to have the following competencies (or their equivalent). Where people do not already have these competencies, OHV will invest in the staff’s professional development by providing them through our registered training organisation (RTO).
The competencies required in the first 12 months of employment are:

• CHCAOD001 – Work in an alcohol and other drugs context
• CHCAOD004 – Assess needs of clients with alcohol and other drugs issues
• CHCAOD006 – Provide interventions for people with alcohol and other drugs issues
• CHCAOD009 – Develop and review individual alcohol and other drugs treatment plans

What we can give YOU!

In return we are committed to offering you an inclusive and transparent workplace culture where our people can develop to be their very best by:

• Ongoing learning and development opportunities
• Providing work that is meaningful and challenging, with career development opportunities through project and secondment opportunities.
• Providing career pathways across diverse OHV programs.
• Access to 24/7 counselling through our Employee Assistance Provider (EAP)
• Generous leave options such as 48/52 Purchase Leave, Study Leave and Sabbaticals
• Flexible working arrangements such as school-orientated part-year hours and monthly RDO’s for full-timers (arrangements will vary based on role requirements).

In addition to the above, staff will also be provided monthly Clinical Supervision sessions for professional development and personal wellbeing.

Application information

Please apply directly via our careers website at the Apply Now link. (Applications via external recruitment websites or via email will not be considered).

Applications should be addressed to Emma Shaw and include your CV and a cover letter addressing the key selection criteria.

If you have any questions relating to the position, please contact Emma Shaw Manager – Child & Family on, [email protected] using the subject line: Family Preservation & Reunification Early Years Practitioner / Case Manager enquiry via EthicalJobs or 0466 407 861.
We will be assessing applications on a rolling basis and suitable candidates will be shortlisted immediately. This role will close once a suitable candidate has been selected, so please don’t wait to apply!

Our commitment to diversity

At OHV we value diversity and believe that a range of backgrounds brings a variety of ideas, perspectives and experiences that will enhance our effectiveness. We promote a workplace that actively seeks to include, welcome and value unique contributions by encouraging people with disability, Aboriginal Australians, LGBTQIA, young people and people from culturally diverse backgrounds to apply for this position.

Safety screening

OHV is committed to child safety and is a child safe organisation. All OHV employees must undergo Police Records and Working with Children Checks. Any person issued with a negative notice on their Working with Children Check will not be eligible for employment with us.

Mandatory COVID vaccinations

In line with OHV's Mandatory Vaccination Policy, all Odyssey House Victoria staff are required to hold Fully Vaccinated (Boosted) status, having also received the Booster Vaccination. Evidence of this minimum of three (3) COVID-19 vaccinations will be requested during the onboarding process and offers will be rescinded where such evidence cannot be provided.

All Odyssey House Victoria sites are smoke free for all employees.