• Join a leader in youth mental health, revolutionising services to our young people
• Be part of a supportive team with career development and growth opportunities in clinical care and research 
• Full-time fixed term employment available until 30 June 2022 with opportunity for further employment
• Access to generous NFP salary packaging and flexible work/life balance arrangements

About Orygen

The why behind what we do is important. We believe that all young people deserve to grow into adulthood with optimal mental health. Everything we do is focused on this outcome. Orygen is leading and redefining what’s possible in global research, policy, education and clinical care. Find out more on our website.

The Opportunity

headspace Melton is seeking a Community Awareness Officer to help develop, deliver and evaluate community awareness, engagement, and youth participation programs and activities in the local area. You will be well supported operationally and clinically to ensure your career at Orygen is both fulfilling and rewarding without compromising on your life goals. 

If you have a passion for the field of youth mental health and want to make a real difference to the lives of young people and their families and carers and share Orygen’s values of respect, accountability, teamwork, excellence and innovation, then we would love you to join the Orygen team to revolutionise youth mental health. 

The role and your impact

The Community Awareness Officer role will focus on promoting early help-seeking for mental health and other health/social issues facing young people. This role aims to increase awareness of headspace services amongst young people, their families/carers and friends, and the local community, whilst working in a supportive, positive workplace culture. You will:

• Develop and deliver a range of activities and programs to increase mental health literacy and reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental health and other health/social issues. 
• Develop and maintain partnerships with schools, community, public and private sector agencies, with a focus on community capacity building, shared community engagement/awareness activities and effective referral pathways to/from headspace
• Coordinate and facilitate opportunities for young people to engage with the centre including formation and maintenance of a youth reference group and youth peer work program. 
• Responsible for planning, development and implementation community awareness and capacity building activities with clear accountability for program performance. 

About you

Essential to this role is that you will hold tertiary qualifications in the social or health sciences, community development or a related field, and/or substantial relevant experience in a similar field. You will be able to demonstrate experience and skills in the development, implementation and evaluation of community awareness programs. You are passionate, energetic and determined to make a difference to health outcomes for young people. In addition, you will bring:

• Demonstrated experience/understanding of engagement issues related to young people.
• Demonstrated sound judgement, the ability to identify and manage a range of risks (including brand and reputation) and well-developed problem solving and negotiation skills.
• Experience and understanding of mental health, drug and alcohol and other health/social issues facing young people.
• Experience in the development and delivery of youth participation programs. 
• Demonstrated ability to achieve outcomes in partnership and liaise with the community, government and non-government agencies. 
• Ability to proactively seek funding options to enhance community participation activities.

To view the FULL selection criteria and learn more about this opportunity, please go to www.orygen.org.au/About/Work-with-Us to view the Position Description or contact Amali Abayawardana at [email protected], using the subject line: Community Awareness Officer enquiry via EthicalJobs for a confidential discussion.

Salary and benefits

Depending on your skills and experience, a salary of $75,622 – $81,807 p.a. is offered plus superannuation and access to generous NFP salary packaging.

Orygen is committed to providing an inclusive work environment that supports employees to achieve their career goals without compromising their life goals. With this in mind Orygen offers a range of employment benefits including generous paid leave, flexible work arrangement, an employee assistance program, well regarded supervision and a supportive team, career growth and development opportunities, purposeful work that makes a real difference to lives of young people and their families and carers and career opportunities within an organisation that is the leader in youth mental health.

Orygen is dedicated to gender equality, diversity and inclusivity. We strive to continue to build a culturally safe workplace where our values underpin the way we work and our commitment to First Nations people of Australia, young people and their families, LGBTIQA+ people and CALD people. We strongly encourage applications from the First Nations people.

We strongly encourage applications from:

• First Nations people.
• People of different cultural backgrounds.
• People from LGBTIQA+ community.