Switchboard Victoria is based on the lands of the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung peoples.

We acknowledge that our work takes place on lands that are under colonial occupation and that sovereignty has never been ceded. We hope to pay our deepest respects to Boon Wurrung elders, past and present, and wish to extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People across this Country we know as Australia.

About Switchboard Victoria

Switchboard Victoria is a community-based, not for profit organisation that provides peer-based, volunteer driven support services for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and gender diverse, Intersex, Queer, Asexual and more (LGBTIQA+) people and their friends, families and allies.

Our current activities include:

• Phone and web counselling and referral /
  Switchboard is the Victorian partner in the national QLife service. QLife provides anonymous and free LGBTIQA+ peer support and referral for people in Australia wanting to talk about sexuality, identity, gender, bodies, feelings, or relationships.
• Community connections for older LGBTI people /
  Switchboard’s Out & About program aims to reduce social isolation and loneliness through creating friendship and connection between LGBTI seniors living anywhere in Victoria and peer volunteer visitors.  
• Rainbow Door /
  Rainbow Door is a free specialist LGBTIQA+ helpline providing information, support, and referral to all LGBTIQA+ Victorians, their friends and family during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Rainbow Door supports people of all ages and identities with issues that may include suicidal thoughts, family and intimate partner violence (including elder abuse), housing, alcohol and other drugs (AOD), relationship issues, sexual assault, legal issues, social isolation, mental health and wellbeing.
• Suicide Prevention /
  Our Suicide Prevention Program puts responding to the challenges of suicide among LGBTIQA+ communities at the core of Switchboard’s work. We work nationally to provide suicide prevention, intervention and postvention programs to LGBTIQA+ people, with an emphasis on building community resilience through peer-led and lived experience activities.
• QTIBPoC Programs /
  In consultation with key stakeholders, Switchboard’s QTIBPoC Programs will build on our previous QTIBPoC Project in continuing to build internal capacity in relation to meeting QTIBPoC community needs and extend into targeted services as outlined below. Our Queer, Trans and Intersex Bla(c)k and/or People of Colour (QTIBPoC) programs aim to build greater equity for LGBTIQA+ people who are Bla(c)k, People of Colour and/or People of Faith. 

Position Overview

Employment Type: 0.8 EFT (30.4 hours per week), 12-month contract

Location: Flexible, working from home and/or the Switchboard office in St Kilda, Melbourne. Some office time and in-person meetings may be required.

Reports To: CEO

Direct Reports: None

Renumeration: Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award 2010 Level 6 Pay Point 1. This includes an additional 10.5% superannuation and the option of salary packaging. Tax benefit available from salary packaging, with the possibility to salary package up to $15,900 of annual salary.

Position Description

The Senior Policy Officer position is a newly created role to support Switchboard Victoria’s capacity to closely review and respond to the Mental Health Royal Commission implementation, and Victorian mental health sector reform more broadly.

Working closely with each of Switchboard’s core programs, this position is responsible for providing policy expertise and producing intersectional insights into the current and ongoing mental health system challenges that LGBTIQA+ individuals face. the knowledge and expertise embedded in Switchboard can be shared in real time with the Mental Health Royal Commission reform processes.

As determined in the Victorian mental health reform, stakeholders with lived experience of suicide must be at the forefront of leading suicide prevention solutions. To increase the inclusion of LGBTIQA+ lived experience throughout this reform, Switchboard established a specialised LGBTIQA+ peer-based lived/living experience of suicide network. This network will support and inform the work of the Senior Policy Officer, and provide opportunities for governments and service providers to directly seek out LGBTIQA+ lived experience engagement throughout the reform.

Responsibilities and Duties

The successful candidate will focus on participating in working groups and sector consultation processes, and facilitating meaningful and essential contributions to inform the reform of the Victorian mental health system, including a focus on strengthening access and inclusion of LGBTIQA+ people who identify as Queer, Trans, Intersex and Bla(c)k and/or People of Colour.

LGBTIQA+ Lived Experience Facilitation and Collaboration

• The Senior Policy Officer will work closely with the Switchboard LGBTIQA+ Lived Experience Network, to ensure that the knowledge and expertise from the Network, as well as the knowledge derived from Switchboard’s programs and service provision, can be shared in real time with those involved in Victorian mental health sector reform. The Switchboard LGBTIQA+ Lived Experience Network currently engages more than twenty LGBTIQA+ people who experience thoughts of suicide, have survived suicide attempts, are bereaved and/or care for other who experience suicidality.
• The Senior Policy Officer will collaborate closely with the Suicide Prevention Manager on key policy documents to ensure Switchboard’s exemplary suicide prevention practice is translated into policy reform.

Stakeholder Engagement and Sector Partnerships

• The Senior Policy Officer will be required to attend regular meetings and engagements with the Victorian Government (both in-person and online) to lead Switchboard’s participation in the Victorian mental health reform, as well as prepare reports and documents for state government departments and other stakeholders as required.
• The Senior Policy Officer will be required to participate in working groups and sector consultation processes, related to Switchboard’s areas of work.

• The Senior Policy Officer will be involved in supporting Switchboard’s LGBTIQA+ organisational partnerships in collaboration with other senior staff members, and preparing for future partnerships with mental health services.
• The Senior Policy Officer will be involved in leading trainings, workshops or stakeholder engagement/community consultation processes as required.

Policy Development, Data Analysis and Evaluation

• The Senior Policy Officer will be responsible for the preparation of draft policy documentation in areas of LGBTIQA+ and mental health, including data analysis and writing for a professional government audience.
• The Senior Policy Officer will assist in government policy initiatives relating to Switchboard’s areas of work, as needed.
• The Senior Policy Officer will assist in in-depth and informed evaluations on the performance of key policy initiatives in practice, through capturing data from Switchboard’s programs (including mental health, multicultural, older peoples, suicide prevention and family violence).

Selection Criteria

Essential

1. Identify as a member of the sexuality, sex and/or gender diverse (LGBTIQA+) communities.
2. Demonstrated commitment to cultural awareness and with multicultural, multiracial and/or multifaith and First Nations communities.
3. Demonstrated nuanced understanding of the complex issues faced by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA+) communities.
4. Qualifications in social work, law, health, community services or similar.
5. Previous experience (work or volunteer) in one or more of the following sectors: mental health, counselling, family and intimate partner violence, sexual assault, aged care, disability, AOD, housing, youth, community health or similar.
6. Demonstrated experience (work or volunteer) with policy work within the health and community services sectors, including the drafting of policy documentation.
7. Demonstrated experience working with government departments and staff, including a working knowledge of policy reform.
8. Demonstrated experience facilitating community consultation (mental health and/or LGBTIQA+ community experience highly regarded).
9. Well-developed written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
10. Well-developed data analysis and evaluation skills.
11. Well-developed planning, time management and organisational skills.
12. Well-developed interpersonal skills, including the ability to work effectively and respectfully within a team.

Desirable

• Demonstrated professional or lived experience working with multicultural and/or multifaith communities and First Nations communities, and a demonstrated understanding of what it means to take an antiracist and intersectional approach to your work.
• Ability to speak a language other than English.
• Lived experience of navigating the mental health sector as a service user, support person or carer.
• Familiarity with the Mental Health Royal Commission and Victorian Mental Health Reform.
• Demonstrated experience working with mental health sector leaders.
• Demonstrated experience working with senior government staff.
• Experience with training delivery and workshop facilitation.
• Completion of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) in the past 2 years

Conditions of recruitment and appointment

• Application and interview against selection criteria and appropriate referee checks
• Appointment upon successful completion of National Police Check and obtaining a current Employee Working with Children’s Check (WWCC)
• The successful candidate must abide by the Switchboard Code of Conduct and policies and procedures
• The successful candidate must have a right to work in Australia.

To find out more 

Please make yourself familiar with Switchboard’s purpose and programs by visiting our website at www.switchboard.org.au.

Contact:

For more information on the role, please contact Joe Ball on email [email protected] using the subject line: Senior Policy Officer enquiry via EthicalJobs.

To apply:

Please click Apply Now to apply with a resume, cover letter and document addressing the selection criteria.

 Please carefully review the selection criteria for this position, which you should systematically address in your application (essential and desirable).

NOTE: Applications that do not address the Selection Criteria will not be considered.

Application support:

For support with your application, please visit https://tgv.org.au/peersupport/job-application-guide

Switchboard Victoria is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion in our workforce and will consider all qualified applicants, regardless of sex, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability or national origin. 

Switchboard especially welcomes and encourages applications from people who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander; trans, gender diverse or intersex; disabled; carers; live with HIV, are culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), People of Colour and/or People of Faith; identify with having lived experiences of suicide and mental ill-health.