• Honesty Trust Respect Concern Love
• Full-time (1.0 FTE), Permanent
• Based at Footscray (with travel)
• $104,927.35 per annum, plus super
• 17.5% annual leave loading and generous salary packaging options
• Progressive Workplace Flexibility options that enable genuine work life balance
• Will be provided with an OHV motor vehicle, OHV laptop & OHV mobile phone.

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.

About Kids in Focus:

The Kids in Focus program is a specialist child, parenting, and family support service in metropolitan Melbourne for families where a parent has or is recovering from a drug or alcohol problem. The program provides a range of child focused activities and home-based support, tailored to the needs of individual family members, including the capacity to provide ongoing long-term support and follow-up when required.

About this opportunity:

We are seeking an experienced leader to support a small team of specialist AOD family support clinicians as well as carry a caseload of families to whom you will provide practical and emotional goal-focused support to (including home-based support)!

Specialist knowledge in trauma informed practice, mental health, family violence, attachment and family therapy will be highly regarded!

Key areas of focus:

• Secondary Consult & Expert Advice
• Staff Management and Development
• Case Management
• Program Development
• Networking
• Administration

Duties include but are not limited to…

• Expertly initiate intersectional practice, to ensure the KIF client experience is nuanced.
• Provide secondary consultation and expert advice to the team regarding risk.
• Oversee a small caseload of families.
• Manage task of client waitlist and allocation of clinicians and senior clinicians and ensure staff receive necessary support and supervision.
• Provide leadership and professional development opportunities and contribute to the work of the staff, flexibly responding to needs, and giving and receiving support and constructive feedback.
• Provide therapeutic services to children and young people and their families, including comprehensive assessment to facilitate treatment and intervention, including assessing children or young people’s psychological, social, cognitive, and medical needs, family relationships, risk factors and risk management.
• Provide home-based child, parenting, and family support to families where a parent has a drug or alcohol dependency.
• Assist parents 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.
• Provide families with social and community support through establishing and strengthening family-community links.
• Seek, establish, and maintain collaborative relationships with current and potential stakeholders and partners, both internally and externally.

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:

• Dynamically led the KIF team through connection, collaboration, and consultation.
• Efficiently and effectively managed client waitlist, allocations, and client engagement with the KIF program.
• Utilised intersectional practice to ensure the KIF client experience is nuanced and encompasses an AOD, family violence and child safety lens.
• Engaged and collaborated with partner organisations.

Key Selection Criteria:

We are looking for an experienced and dynamic Lead to achieve improved responsiveness for children and their families at the intersection of AOD, Family Violence and Mental Health Service Sectors.

To be successful in this role, you must have…

• Hold a relevant Health Social or Welfare related degree/tertiary qualification with experience.
• Hold a Certificate IV Alcohol & Other Drugs, or willingness to complete within first 12 months of employment. *Note: refer to Appendix A.
• Minimum 5 years relevant therapeutic experience post qualification.
• Knowledge and understanding of:
  • Child and family developmental processes.
  • Recognising and responding to risk factors associated with child abuse and child protective concerns.
  • Risk and protective factors associated with infant and child development concerns.
  • Recognising and responding to family violence.
  • Bio-psychosocial assessment with a specific focus on therapeutic and clinical pathways, goal setting and case planning.
  • Alcohol and other drug/mental health issues for parents and children.
  • Relevant legislation and policies, including MARAM Framework and the Children Youth and Families Act.
• Extensive experience in leading and working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, giving, and receiving feedback, and recognising and resolving interpersonal and team conflicts.
• Expertise in assessing and responding to child sexual abuse.
• A leadership style that embraces accountability, teamwork, and shared responsibility.
• High level communication skills, both written and oral, particularly in relation to:
  • Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
  • Establishing rapport with children of all ages and their families; and
  • Forming and maintaining effective relationships with internal and external parties
• Ability to develop collaborative client case plans and manage clients in accordance with case plan; while integrating therapeutic, child and family interventions in group settings with families and with individuals.
• Commitment to a strengths-based approach to practice
• High-level stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build and maintain relationships and communicate with a wide variety of agencies and individuals at various levels.
• Strong organisation, time management and problem-solving skills with the ability to work autonomously.

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 to upskill your clinical and leadership expertise.
• Providing work that is meaningful and challenging, with career development opportunities through project and secondment opportunities and succession planning.
• 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 (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 (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, Acting Manager Child & Family Services on, 0466 407 861 or [email protected] using the subject line: Practice Leader - Kids in Focus enquiry via EthicalJobs.

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 which may be prior to the application deadline, 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.