• Fitzroy (Wurundjeri) location
• New (pilot) program
• Part time, 4 days per week
• SCHADS level 6, PP 1
• Fixed term contract to 31 October 2025 (potential to extend)
• Specialised service provider

About Project Respect

Project Respect is a not-for-profit intersectional feminist community-based organisation that supports women and gender diverse people with experience in the sex industry, and women and gender diverse people who have experienced sexual exploitation.

Our Vision

Project Respect’s vision is a world where women are free from trafficking, sexual exploitation, violence, and harm.

Our Purposes

Project Respect’s purposes are to:

• Provide support to women and gender diverse people with experience in the sex industry to achieve self-directed goals, including equitable access to services;
• Provide support to women and gender diverse people who have experienced trafficking for sexual exploitation, whether current, historic, international or domestic;
• Advocate for structural change to end sexual exploitation.

We provide a platform to elevate and amplify the voices of, while also being informed and guided by, those with past and present lived experience (including from our Lived Experience Advisory Group).

Our service provision is informed by our understanding of the intersection of family violence, sexual violence, and sexual exploitation (including trafficking), including from intimate partners and family members.

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

The Counsellor (Sexual Violence) is the key role in a newly developing pilot service designed to address a need identified by the communities we support. Sexual violence counselling, including for service users with embedded trauma arising from the experience of sexual violence and of sexual exploitation, will be delivered across a pilot period, whilst continuing to reflect and improve the provision of this support.

The Counsellor (Sexual Violence) position will be providing direct therapeutic counselling services to people with experiences of sexual violence, who also identify either as having experience in the sex industry, or as having experienced sexual exploitation. This will include the provision of remote counselling services. The role sits within the direct services team, reporting to the Direct Services Team Leader. Within the team, there will be collaborative intake to the counselling service that will include service users receiving case coordination support or who have done so in the past, although this will not be a criterion to entry.

The Counsellor will possess high-quality skills in counselling and therapeutic intervention and adopt a trauma-informed and strengths-based approach to working with service users. Counselling services provided will be individually tailored, goal led and sit within a context of broader complex care.

As this program is new and a pilot, there will be opportunity to support program design and evaluation, and contribute to the adaptation of the program as we respond to user feedback.

The Counsellor (Sexual Violence) role will operate as a fixed term contract to 31 October 2025, with potential to extend beyond this term. The role is designed as 0.8 (4 days per week), but 0.6 (3 days per week) will be considered at the request of the right candidate.

Please refer to the position description attached for key responsibilities and essential criteria.

ABOUT YOU

You are a genuine, passionate and reliable practitioner, with a true commitment to supporting people without judgement and with a person-led approach. You possess the ability for deep and ongoing critical reflection. You have an open mind, possess a dedication to ongoing learning and welcome having your own unconscious biases challenged.

You are clear about the counselling modalities you are skilled and experienced in working within, and can speak to how these will be of benefit to someone who has experienced sexual violence (e.g., CBT, Gestalt, Narrative, Schema). You are a member of PACFA and/or ACA and comply with the professional standards and ethics as stipulated by these bodies.

The thought of delivering services within a new pilot program piques your interest in the potential to deliver an innovative new service targeted at a specific community with a specified need. You want to be part of developing a pilot and understand the need for flexibility, and responsiveness in meeting the needs of community, within a resource constrained environment.

You have professional integrity, uphold professional boundaries and prioritise best practice processes. You can triage and prioritise competing tasks. Self and collective care are important to you, and you are dedicated to contributing to a cohesive and supportive workplace environment.

You have demonstrated counselling skills and experience working with people in the family, domestic and/or sexual violence sector in Victoria, or supporting people who have experienced sexual exploitation, or, extensive experience in an aligned sector, and have a practical understanding of the MARAM framework. You have an understanding of the unique experience of people in the sex industry, which may include from personal lived experience. You understand the distinction between exploitation and consensual sex work, and have an understanding of sexual exploitation that can occur within intimate partner relationships and domestic settings.

You can build rapport, create safe spaces and develop trusting professional relationships with service users and team members. Trauma-informed care and a strengths-based approach are key components of your practice framework.

You approach your work with care, and pay particular regard to record keeping, confidentiality, and organisational risk management. You are organised and reliable.

WHY WORK WITH PROJECT RESPECT?

Working with Project Respect means you will work within a small, supportive team of driven and dedicated women and gender diverse individuals. You will engage in meaningful work that aligns with your values, and will work to progress social change and equality. Project Respect engages in advocacy at a local, State, and National level, elevating lived experience voices and providing capacity building to the broader services sector.

Project Respect holds a strong commitment to your wellbeing and professional development. We provide regular internal line supervision and support external clinical supervision, and offer access to our Employee Assistance Program with Converge International.

Our office is in Fitzroy and is easily accessible by public transport. We offer a flexible work environment and operate within a hybrid onsite/work from home arrangement (which will not however include delivering counselling from a home location). You will be eligible for salary packaging entitlements for employees in the charities and not-for-profit sector (up to $15,900 tax-free per year).

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND DIVERSITY

Project Respect values diversity and welcomes applicants who meet the position criteria, irrespective of cultural identification, age, disability, religion and sexual orientation. Women and gender diverse peoples with lived experience in the sex industry, and/or with lived experiences of sexual exploitation are strongly encouraged to apply. People from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Note: Project Respect utilises the exemption provisions of S88 and S28 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 to only employ people who identify as a woman or are gender diverse.

All offers of employment are subject to our screening process, including a Working with Children Check and Police Records Check. Any person issued with a negative notice on their Working with Children Check will not be eligible for employment. Project Respect is a child safe organisation.

Project Respect encourages employees to be up to date with vaccinations against influenza and COVID-19, as we believe this is the best way to protect our community.

TO APPLY

Please click "Apply now" to submit your application.

For enquiries, please contact the Executive Director, Carolyn Gowers, on 9416 3401 or via [email protected] using the subject line: Counsellor - Sexual Violence enquiry via EthicalJobs.

Applications close on the listed date. Please note we will be reviewing applications as they are received and reserve the right to close the application process early if we find the right candidate. Please apply now to ensure you do not miss out!