Community Connector Practitioner

Position

Community Connector Practitioner

Team

Family Services, Families & Community

Role Classification

SCHADS Level 5

Employment Type

Full Time, fixed-term contract until 30 June 2026

Location

Frankston and Sandringham locations (Bunurong Land)

From time to time the incumbent may be requested to work from, or be based at, other Family Life sites.

Reports To

Team Leader, Family Services, Families and Community  

Effective Date

August 2025 

Overview of Program 

Family Life has been working with vulnerable children, families and communities since 1970. At the core of our organisation is our vision to build capable communities, strong families and thriving children. As an organisation we celebrate diversity and inclusion. We value, respect, and listen to people who are culturally and/or linguistically diverse, gender and sexually diverse and people with a disability.

The Families and Community Program provides a number of programs to the community, which includes Brief Support, Community Bubs, Integrated Family Services (IFS), Integrated Family Services Plus (IFS+) and Family Preservation & Reunification Response (FPRR). These programs are aimed at providing an enhanced response to families with significant needs who have children under the age of 18 years old. The service is focused on strengthening the capacity of families to provide a safe, nurturing, and stable environment for their children.

The Family Preservation and Reunification Response (FPRR) program provides relational, evidence informed and targeted support to children and families through a collaborative and coordinated partnership between FPRR Practitioners and Child Protection. The Family Preservation and Reunification Response (the Response) offers an initial phase of rapid, intensive and flexible approach to support, followed by sustained support and transitions to other services based on need.

The aim of the Response is to strengthen families, promote children who are safe, healthy, resilient and thriving; while supporting parents/caregivers to create a safe and nurturing home environment. It does this through:

• Family preservation - creating safety at home to prevent placement of children outside of parental care.


• Family reunification - safely and rapidly building parenting skills to allow children to return home.

Position Objective

The Community Connector Practitioner role forms part of the Response in the Bayside Peninsula region. This position also plays a part in Family Life’s Place Based Community Activation approach. Recognising that the communities we support have immense resources to build the capacity of families.  

The Community Connector Practitioner will support families to build positive and meaningful connections within the community through providing practical support including outreach and centre-based activities.  This role will work closely with the Response Lead Practitioners, DFFH Navigators and care team members as they empower families to transition away from the intensive structured case management services.   

The Community Connector Practitioner role has a focus on strengthening the confidence and capacity of families to increase community connection and belonging. This is achieved through direct support, group work, community programs and secondary consultation with FPR providers. Engagement with the Community Connector program is voluntary.

The Community Connector Practitioner will work closely with the Brief Support Team and Community Activation team to enable community connection.  Finally, the Community Connector will collaborate with the broader Family services teams to develop groups and offerings that create engagement for families to develop their connection and networks

Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Manage a full caseload of families working with FPRR funded agencies across the Bayside Peninsula area, using trauma and evidence informed approaches to practice.


• Utilise evidence-informed tools to formulate strengths and needs assessments, safety plans, and community connection plans, approaching support from a strengths-based, attachment focused lens.


• Utilise systems and community capacity building skills to promote empowerment, independence and sustainable change.


• Deliver practical, targeted support to families consistent with their community connection plan, goals and recommendations from the care team. Identifying emerging community needs and designing/facilitating group/ community-based programs that promote connection, resilience and wellbeing.


• Maintain strong working relationships with the FPRR Lead Practitioners from funded agencies, ensuring collaborative and complimentary support to families.

• Work alongside the Community Activation team to ensure avenues for warm referral and smooth connection to activities and support.


• Build capacity in community resources to support local families on the caseload to access connection


• Work flexible hours, which includes work outside of 9:00am-5:00pm and some occasional weekend work, determined by the needs of the family and service availability.


• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the FPR module-based framework.


• Engage in regular supervision and reflective practice to support professional development.


• Actively contribute to the delivery of group work and community programs as part of the Families and Community program.

Key Selection Criteria

1. Bachelor Level qualification in Social Work, Psychology, Social Sciences or equivalent.


2. Experience supporting vulnerable members of the community to meet their goals using trauma informed, strengths based and person centred approaches.


3. Experience building strong relationships with key stakeholders, working as part of a multidisciplinary team to ensure wrap-around support to empower independence and connection to community level support.


4. Strong knowledge of the community resources and the ability to assess and link families based on support needs, service capability, accessibility and sustainability.


5. Ability to work effectively with families experiencing a range of complexities including mental health, alcohol and other drug misuse, family violence, adolescent violence, sexual abuse and trauma.


6. Strong understanding of the Child, Youth and Families Act 2005, Family Violence and Child Information Sharing Schemes and the MARAM framework.


7. Ability to promote safety and stability through ongoing application of risk assessment and safety planning.


8. Have a passion for networking and activating existing resources in the community for the benefit of local families. Including cross-service collaboration to develop and deliver on an identified need.


9. High level of verbal and written communication skills, including client record keeping, assessment and care team representation.


10. Highly developed time management skills, to manage and respond to a caseload of families from across a wide region.


11. Commitment to meeting the needs of at risk families and children guided by the organisation’s whole-of-family approach and community based model of service delivery.


12. Information technology skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, video conferencing platforms and client management systems.