About the organisation
Jesuit Social Services is a social change organisation working to build a just society where all people can live to their full potential. We reflect on the critical factors shaping our contemporary world; the social, political and economic contexts, and we adapt our practice to work with those most in need.
Since 1977, Jesuit Social Services has provided services to some of the most disadvantaged in our community.
We place a high priority on advocacy and are a leader in policy development and research.
About the role
The Worried About Sex and Pornography Project (WASAPP) Coordinator is responsible for providing strategic leadership, support and direction to the design, establishment, development and evaluation of an online service for young people worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviour. The service will include live chat and online resources for young people regarding concerns about their sexual thoughts or behaviours including harmful sexual behaviour and pornography use.
The role offers an exciting opportunity to lead the development and continuous improvement of the WASAPP practice model, staff induction resources, and psychoeducational online resources. The successful candidate will provide practice leadership and support for service delivery including supervising practitioners delivering the service (when the program is fully established).
The role also includes providing support with advocacy, stakeholder management and partnership development aimed at building the program effectiveness and broader systemic change to prevent harmful sexual behaviours.
Competitive remuneration, plus salary packaging benefit, is offered together with ongoing professional and career development as well as opportunities for personal growth.
What Jesuit Social Services can offer you:
- An organisation that lives its values, through its day to day work
- A welcoming and supportive relational environment
- A comprehensive Induction and Orientation program
- Ongoing training and development related to your role
- Employee assistance program
- A competitive salary plus salary packaging benefits
- Generous leave
About the program
The Men’s Project is an initiative of Jesuit Social Services launched in 2017. It provides leadership on the reduction of violence and other harmful behaviours prevalent among boys and men, and builds approaches to improve their wellbeing and keep families and communities safe.
Our vision is for good men, respectful relationships and safe communities.
We will achieve this by:
- research to understand the behaviours and underlying attitudes of men and boys including related to violence, child sexual abuse and the well-being of men and boys themselves.
- promoting positive change around gender norms related to what it means to be a man in the 21st century as well as building skills to intervene to prevent violence; and
- developing innovative ways to stop cycles of violence and harmful behaviour among boys and men.
The Men’s Project builds on Jesuit Social Services’ over 45 year engagement with boys and men in trouble, but it also involves us leading new work to reduce violence, to improve the wellbeing of boys and men, and to keep families and communities safe.
WASAPP is an action research collaboration between the University of Melbourne and Jesuit Social Services that aims to work with young people concerned about sexual thoughts and behaviours. It has been developed alongside our collaboration to establish the Stop it Now! program in Australia. Stop it Now! is primarily designed to prevent child sexual abuse by engaging adults worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviours in relation to children, as well as concerned family and friends, and professionals. Stop It Now! includes access to an anonymous live chat service to work with adults concerned about child sexual abuse with the aim of preventing harm.
The recent Australian Child Maltreatment Study (Matthew et al., 2024) indicated that child sexual abuse carried out by another young person is the most common form of child sexual abuse for Australians aged 16-24 years old. Although there are a range of well-established services that respond to harmful sexual behaviour, there are currently no national secondary prevention services in Australia that work with children and young people who are worried about their sexual thoughts or behaviours. The importance of addressing harmful sexual behaviour via primary, secondary and tertiary strategies was highlighted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017).
WASAPP aims to address this service gap by establishing and refining an early intervention service for children and young people who have engaged in or are at risk of engaging in harmful sexual behaviours.
About you
This role will suit a candidate with the following skills and experience:
- Postgraduate degree in social work, psychology, or a related field.
- Relevant professional experience (at least 3 years) in services working with young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour and/or within the child sexual abuse field – and demonstrated understanding of harmful sexual behavior and trauma-informed approaches to working with young people.
- Demonstrated capabilities in project management and coordination, including capacity to build and maintain productive relationships and work collaboratively with key stakeholders and partners
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to synthesise and communicate complex information.
- Strong conceptual and analytical skills, with a demonstrated ability to develop innovative solutions to complex problems.
How to apply
- Upload your resume and cover letter incorporating your responses to the Key Selection Criteria from the Position Description.
- For further information please contact Dee Nicholas, Senior Practitioner for Stop It Now! Australia on 0429501930
Applications close at 5.00pm on 3rd July 2024
Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and the closing date may be subject to change without notice.
Jesuit Social Services is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion. We celebrate and welcome all people regardless of ethnicity, cultural background, age, gender, sexuality, disability or religious affiliation.
We strongly encourage applications from all community members including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, members of the LGBTIQA+ community, people with a disability, people of culturally diverse backgrounds and working parents.
Jesuit Social Services is a Child Safe organisation and is committed to protecting children and young people from harm. We require all applicants to undergo an extensive screening process prior to appointment.
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