About Women's Legal Service WA

Women’s Legal Service WA is an accredited and specialist gender-specific community legal centre, providing trauma-informed services to women around Western Australia who are financially disadvantaged, prioritising assisting women who have or are experiencing family violence.

In addition to poverty and family violence, WLSWA clients live with multiple vulnerabilities and complex unmet social and legal needs that creates additional barriers to accessing justice.

WLSWA practice areas include family law, child protection and care matters, family and domestic violence and criminal injuries compensation. The specialised legal services provided by WLSWA ensure that clients access a single legal service, that is responsive to their different legal needs. Assistance is tailored to ensure continuity in support and mitigate re-traumatising clients with a high complexity of legal and social issues.

WLSWA aims to empower WA women to make informed legal choices and participate fully in legal processes that greatly impact on their lives and the lives of their children.

WLSWA also promotes and advocates for women’s human rights to be upheld and fosters legal and social change through a range of strategic activities, including community legal education and policy reform.

WLSWA provides socio-legal assistance to women in collaboration with our sector partners.

About the role

Social work at WLSWA is an important aspect of our innovative and integrated socio-legal assistance to women. Ensuring that women’s co-occurring unmet legal and non-legal needs are responded to in a coordinated and holistic way leads to better outcomes.

Social workers at WLSWA work alongside legal practitioners to assist with practical and psychosocial needs that are critical to addressing women’s legal needs, including case management, systems navigation, safety planning, and social and emotional wellbeing and counselling to cope with stress, re-triggered trauma and promote recovery. Social workers also assist women to navigate and access other services in the community sector. These supports are oriented towards early intervention.

WLSWA has various social work positions in different program areas currently vacant. These are fantastic opportunities to be part of innovative approach to support women who have experienced violence, disadvantage and discrimination. More details of these, and applicant’s preferences, will be discussed with candidates during the interview process.

1. Working Women’s Centre WA

WWCs provide free information, advocacy, advice and assistance to women on workplace issues, including workplace entitlements and rights, gender issues, cultural diversity, discrimination and sexual harassment. WLSWA is implementing the Western Australian WWC in partnership with Circle Green, and who currently deliver the WA Workplace Respect Project. The WWC service model is holistic and trauma-informed, to ensure that issues in relation to the workplace are addressed in the context of women’s other needs.

2. Sexual Assault Legal Service WA

SALSWA is pilot program that WLSWA is delivering state-wide in partnership with Aboriginal Family Legal Services and Ruah Legal Services, all specialist community legal services. Socio-legal assistance to victims-survivors of sexual violence will be integrated, culturally appropriate and trauma informed.

The aim of the SALSWA is for clients to have improved justice outcomes. Services will be provided from as early and close to the place of disclosure as possible and tailored to meet the unique needs of each client and include legal and community services.

In both programs the social worker and the lawyer will work collaboratively to ensure that women’s legal and non-legal needs are addressed in a coordinated and holistic way. Critically, the social worker will assist women to navigate the community service sector and facilitate linkages with other specialist supports as needed. Based in the Perth office, social workers may be required to undertake some travel to regional centres to deliver services on an outreach basis.

For a confidential discussion about the position, please contact Dr Jennie Gray on 0427 017 467.

A position description is attached.

To submit your application please click 'Apply Now' by the closing date.

We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible. If the suitable candidate is successful prior to this date the ad will close early.