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 online 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 (HSB) via primary, secondary and tertiary strategies was highlighted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017).
WASAPP aims to enhance preventive responses by establishing an online early intervention service for children and young people who are at risk of engaging in HSB to prevent the onset or reoccurrence of harmful sexual behaviour. The program will include online resources which young people can access independently regarding questions and concerns about sex, pornography, child sexual abuse material, concerning sexual behaviour between peers, and other themes relevant to the prevention of HSB. Alongside the online resource the program will include an anonymous helpline where young people can access support, psychoeducation and advice from experienced practitioners to support them to lead a happy and harm free life.
About the role
The Senior lead Harmful Sexual Behaviour is responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction to the design, establishment, development and evaluation of an innovative online service for young people worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviour. The new service will include online resources (and at a later date an anonymous helpline) for young people regarding concerns about their sexual thoughts or behaviours including harmful sexual behaviour, pornography use and problematic online behaviours.
The role offers an exciting opportunity to lead the development of the Worried About Sex and Pornography Project (WASAPP) practice model, practitioner training resources, psychoeducational online resources, and other practice content to build a service which imbeds best practice approaches and offers a trauma-informed and non-judgmental service, which prioritises the safety of children.
The role includes leading stakeholder management and partnership development aimed at: building the program effectiveness and referral pathways; identifying opportunities for collaboration to facilitate broader systemic change to prevent harmful sexual behaviours; and identify funding opportunities.
The successful candidate will use their extensive expertise of harmful sexual behaviour to identifying emerging needs and trends regarding harmful sexual behaviour and feed into our organisational child sexual abuse prevention agenda including advocacy, research and service development.
This role is a 12-month contract starting at 0.6 FTE for 3 months, followed by 0.8 FTE for 9 months. There may be opportunities for contract extension contingent on funding outcomes.
Competitive remuneration, plus salary packaging benefit, is offered together with ongoing professional and career development as well as opportunities for personal growth.
About you
This role will suit a candidate with the following skills and experience:
- Postgraduate degree in social work, psychology, or a related field.
- Extensive experience in working with young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour and ability to demonstrate expertise in effective practice approaches.
- Strong capabilities in project management, 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, and summarise written content that is accessible and engaging for young people.
- Strong conceptual and analytical skills, with a demonstrated ability to work autonomously 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 Georgia Naldrett, Clinical Manager – Stop It Now! on 0460 299 505
Applications close at 5.00pm on 26th November 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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