Senior Practitioner

Jesuit Social Services; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Organisational values and impact

Supportive environment

Induction & Orientation program

Ongoing training & development

Employee assistance program

Competitive salary + salary packaging

Generous leave

Job summary

Jesuit Social Services in Melbourne is seeking a Senior Practitioner (0.8 EFT) for the Complex Needs Youth Response Program, a pilot aimed at delivering tailored support to young people aged 16–21 with complex needs.

You will work to engage hard-to-reach youth, assess risks, and coordinate with services to improve outcomes while contributing to program learning and policy impact. The role offers competitive remuneration and structured professional development.

Qualifications

• Significant experience engaging with extremely marginalised young people who present with complex needs.
• Extensive knowledge of frameworks and approaches to support young people from diverse backgrounds.
• Capacity to assess and mitigate risk to ensure safety and wellbeing.

Responsibilities

• Deliver tailored intensive support to young people with complex needs.
• Identify barriers to engagement and help youth access mainstream services.
• Contribute learnings to improve services and systems and support program development.

Skills

Engaging marginalised youth

Risk assessment

Stakeholder engagement

Strong communication

Job description

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.

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

Senior Practitioner (0.8EFT), Complex Needs Youth Response Program (8month position – June 30 2027)

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturdays 10.00am -6.00pm

About the role

We are seeking an experienced practitioner to deliver individually tailored intensive support to young people experience a range of complex needs including mental illness, psychological distress, cognitive impairment, neurodiversity, substance use, and trauma. The Senior Practitioner will work with young people to identify and overcome their multiple barriers to engagement with mainstream services, and contribute learnings to influence and improve services and systems to better meet their needs.

Competitive remuneration, plus salary packaging benefit, is offered together with ongoing professional and career development as well as opportunities for personal growth.

About the program

The Complex Needs Youth Response Program (CNYR) is a pilot program (until June 30 2027) providing individually tailored support to young people aged 16 – 21 residing in Northwest Metro Melbourne, who face multiple barriers to accessing the mainstream service system due to their combination of complex presenting needs (mental illness, psychological distress, cognitive impairment, neurodiversity, substance use, and trauma) and require individually tailored intensive support to successfully engage with services.

The pilot aims to demonstrate an effective approach to engaging with and providing support to the target cohort, as well as to influence services and systems to better meet their needs.

About you

This role will suit a candidate with:

• Significant experience engaging and working effectively with extremely marginalised young people who present with a range of complex needs.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of frameworks and approaches to effectively support young people, including those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.
• Capacity to continuously assess and mitigate risk at a program and participant level to ensure safety and wellbeing of self and others.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Applications close at 5.00pm on Monday 16th November 2026.

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.