Senior Practitioner

Youth Support and Advocacy Service; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 64,000 - 80,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

5 weeks annual leave

Salary packaging available

Superannuation

Job summary

Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS) Sunshine VIC is seeking a Senior Practitioner to work across the KEYS OOHC and CALD AOD Outreach programs, delivering specialist AOD interventions and support to young people and their families.

The role requires leadership through case consultation and collaboration with care teams, focusing on trauma-informed practices and risk management within complex care contexts.

Qualifications

• Experience in assessment, treatment and care of young people with alcohol and other drug concerns.
• Knowledge of adolescent development and trauma-informed AOD practice.
• Ability to provide case consultation, mentoring and reflective practice.
• Understanding of complexities in Child Protection and out of home care with CALD/refugee/indigenous communities.
• Ability to balance engagement, risk management and collaborative care planning.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist AOD intervention and harm minimisation for young people in OOHC.
• Deliver secondary consultation to care teams and families.
• Support care coordination across KEYS OOHC and CALD AOD Outreach.
• Build partnerships with Child Protection and residential care services.

Skills

AOD intervention

Adolescent development

Trauma-informed practice

Case consultation

Mentoring & leadership

Risk management

Collaborative care

Education

CALD/OOHC knowledge

Job description

Youth Support and Advocacy Service - Sunshine VIC

Remuneration SCHCADS level 6 dependent on qualifications and experience + superannuation

5 weeks Annual Leave

Fixed term, part time (60.8 hours per fortnight)

Up to $15,900 for living expenses + up to $2,600 towards meals and entertainment can be tax-free through NFP Salary Packaging

About us

Youth Support + Advocacy Service (YSAS) is one of Australia’s largest and most comprehensive, youth specific community service organisation that enables young people experiencing serious disadvantage to access the resources and support they require to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

YSAS is a Child Safe organisation. We actively promote the safety and wellbeing of young people, and are committed to protecting young people from harm or abuse who come into contact with and/or access our service.

At YSAS we are committed to people of a diversity of backgrounds and identities being included, represented, and having the opportunity to participate equally in the life of our organization and the communities in which we provide our services. We strive to create the conditions where people feel safe, enfranchised and valued. We value lived-living experience wisdom, insight, and knowledge.

About the position

The Senior Practitioner role will be working interchangeably across the KEYS Out of Home Care (OOHC) program and the CALD AOD Outreach Program, responding flexibly to the needs, priorities and practice requirements of both programs. Across KEYS, the role provides specialist Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) intervention, secondary consultation and harm minimisation support to young people in OOHC, their careers and broader care team members and their family.

Key Selection Criteria

Demonstrated experience in assessment, treatment and care of young people experiencing alcohol and other drug concerns, including those with complex needs who may be involved with Child Protection, Out of Home Care and young people from CALD, refugee or indigenous communities.

Demonstrated knowledge of adolescent development, trauma-informed AOD practice, with experience in delivering assessment, care planning, therapeutic interventions, crisis response and collaborative outreach.

Demonstrated ability to provide practice leadership through case consultation, mentoring, reflective practice and to support high-quality service delivery.

Demonstrated understanding of the complexities faced by young people involved with Child Protection, Out of Home Care, including trauma, co-occurring needs and placement instability.

Demonstrated understanding of youth AOD practice frameworks, with the ability to balance therapeutic engagement, risk management, professional judgement and collaborative care planning.

Demonstrated ability to build collaborative partnerships with Child Protection, residential care, youth justice and other community services to deliver coordinated care.

Highly developed communication, engagement and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with young people, families, carer and professionals.

What our young people request from our workers:

Young people across YSAS have spoken out and given feedback about the qualities that best describe a good YSAS worker:

“A good worker takes the time to understand your interests and doesn’t treat everyone the same.”"“Young people believe that a good YSAS worker is empathetic and good at actively listening in a non-judgmental way, is relatable, down-to-earth and able to build trust and rapport in a consistent manner”. “It takes time to trust someone, but it’s worth it when you know they’ve got your back”. Young people have also raised that genuine human connection is an important quality, “being authentically human”, while having a holistic, flexible, and adaptable approach that considers the entire context of a young person’s life and their intersectionalities. “It’s about making sure workers don’t just tick boxes but genuinely want to see us thrive”

Regardless of where they are based or what position a worker has, everything we do at YSAS is about young people and their families.

For full details of the position, please view the POSITION DESCRIPTION below

Why work with us?

YSAS has a true commitment to flexible working, ensuring that individual, team and client needs are met

YSAS offers additional leave entitlements such as gender affirmation, ceremonial leave for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, fertility leave, blood donors leave, a generous Parental Leave Scheme and the ability to purchase additional leave.

Access to learning and development opportunities

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Please Note:

As part of our Employment screening process you will be required to undertake a National Criminal History check and have a current Working with Children Check.

You must have Australian work rights to apply for this position.

Further Enquiries

For a confidential discussion about the position, please contact, Emma Hutchinson, Community Manager, on 0417380***regarding Senior Practitioner position, Recruitment Ref. Number - 076_2026.

YSAS is an equal opportunity employer, and we welcome applications from all sectors of the community.

YSAS has a zero tolerance for child abuse and is committed to the provision of a child-safe organisation.