Family Support Worker
Career Description
About Us
We’re Little Dreamers, Australia’s leading non-profit organisation working with Young Carers around the country. A Young Carer is anyone under the age of 25 who currently provides, or intends to provide, care in their family for a parent or sibling who has a chronic illness, mental illness, disability or addiction.
Founded in 2009 by a Young Carer, we love building and delivering high quality programs that create deep and meaningful impact in the lives of young people providing care in their families. And we’re pretty good at it too.
To date, we have supported over 5,000 Young Carers, we deliver eight core programs alongside ad hoc supports, advocacy and community awareness campaigns. We have strong corporate partnership and funding relationships and have raised over $5 million to improve the quality of life for Young Carers around Australia.
We have even received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II and have been named as an internationally best practice organisation for Young Carer support.
Our team is made up of incredible humans working across VIC, NSW, QLD. We are humble, hungry, kind and work hard to reach our goals. We believe in a world where every single Young Carer is supported by someone or something by 2030. Sounds fun right?!
By joining the Dream Team, you will play an integral part in supporting young people who often miss out on having a childhood.
About the Role
As a Family Support Worker and wellbeing liaison, you will be responsible for the ongoing management and support of a caseload of Young Carers in Victoria. You will adopt a person-centred approach to case management and ensure that support is provided to Young Carers by being the wellbeing liaison on camps and programs, and supporting post-program engagement to enhance their overall health and wellbeing. This role is essential in empowering Young Carers and promoting their overall quality of life.
Core Responsibilities
Family Support Management
- Manage a caseload of Young Carers and maintain regular communication with Little Dreamers’ families;
- Manage the client database, including note taking and updating of family information;
- Plan support for families across all Little Dreamers programs and manage referrals out to relevant programs and organisations;
- Adapting processes and systems alongside the Family Support Manager and Head of Programs to support high risk families as needed;
- Build community connections, resources for referrals and referral partnerships;
- Disseminating useful information and resources to families.
Wellbeing
- Develop and implement a comprehensive Wellbeing Framework across all our programs in order to foster a positive youth development environment;
- Provide proactive support, ensuring the delivery of high-quality programs to our Young Carers either on respite camps or programs in Victoria.
Community Outreach & Engagement
- Working with Family Support Manager and the Head of Programs team to conduct outreach to schools, local councils, hospitals, organisations and community groups to identify and engage Young Carers in services and programs as required;
- Identify opportunities for collaboration and partnerships;
- Represent Little Dreamers in the community; and
- Support parents and educators to understand Young Carers including who they are, how to identify a Young Carer and what to do next.
Key Selection Criteria
- Qualification in social work/counselling or equivalent tertiary related field;
- Mental health certified;
- Minimum 2 years experience working with young people, delivering programs and providing case management;
- Capacity to respond and resolve complex issues and problems quickly and with limited resources;
- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail;
- Ability to manage competing priorities and work to a deadline;
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team;
- Ability to coordinate administration, logistics and other projects in a fast-paced environment; and
- Outstanding relationship-building skills, with the ability to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders and bring others on board with the Little Dreamers vision.
Desirable skills and qualities:
- Accreditation within a relevant Australian professional association – Australian Counselling Association, Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, or Australian Association of Social Workers;
- Lived experience of being a Young Carer;
- Understanding of and commitment to Young Carer issues and needs; and
- Understanding of the not-for-profit sector.
Benefits
When you join the Little Dreamers Team, you join a community of people committed to making a difference. We come together with shared values, passion and a collaborative culture. We are a rapidly growing organisation with access to a lot of development opportunities. We operate within a leadership structure that accepts and embraces everyone’s ideas and hard work to create the world that we want to see for Young Carers.
You also get access to salary sacrifice packaging, internal EAP program, up to 10 days of paid carers leave, and generous parental leave packages.
Finally, we care as much about you as we do about our Young Carers. The Little Dreamers team is a family and we offer flexible working and regular team bonding events.
Application Process
This position is classified as a Level 3, fixed term 12 month contract, part time employee (22.8 hours per week) under the Social Community Home Care and Disability Industry Award 2010 (MA000100). This position is fixed term through June 2026.
Classification
Please email your application to careers@littledreamers.org.au, using the subject line: Family Support Worker
Please include the following:
- Responses to demonstrate your experience with each of the Key Selection Criteria
- Your CV including two referees
*We include this because it creates an opportunity for those who are more comfortable with communicating verbally. If you’re not comfortable submitting a video, please let us know and we’ll make a note of this.
Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed before the closing date or during the following week. Applicants who are not selected for an interview will be notified by email.
Have questions? We prefer enquiries via email to careers@littledreamers.org.au due to the volume of calls we receive from applicants.
To learn more visit www.littledreamers.org.au
The Little Dreamers team lives, works and plays on Aboriginal land. Our HQ is located on the land of the Woi Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and we share our respect to elders past, present and emerging leaders. To learn more about Wurundjeri history, head to www.wurundjeri.com.au.
