Disability Support Workers. Permanent Part Time - Hampton East

Empowering people with disability to live life the way they choose is at the heart of how Life Without Barriers has operated for over 25 years. This is an exciting opportunity to join our team and continue this mission. Support people with disability to have the choice, control, and independence to live their best life. If you’re passionate about inclusivity, respect, and making a meaningful difference, this is the career move for you.

Life Without Barriers is a leading social purpose organisation of 8,000 employees working in more than 500 communities across Australia. We support children, young people and families, people with disability, older people and people with mental illness. We work with people who are homeless and refugees and asylum seekers. Join a community of people dedicated to breaking down barriers.  

We want to employ people who reflect the diversity of our clients to ensure we can support each client's individual needs and wants. We encourage people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and people with disability to apply.

About the role

We are the residents who want to know if you are a person who is interested in supporting vulnerable people like us. Are you choosing to be a support worker to assist us to build our life the way we want? Are you choosing to want to spend time getting to know us? Are you choosing to enjoy our company and value us for the groovy people that we are? Are you seeking to inspire, empower and support us, the amazing people with a disability, to take charge of our lives? Is it your goal to be the best support worker that you can be? Are you a person who is funny with a good sense of humour and likes to have a good time at work? Are you a positive, happy, social person with a can-do attitude? Are you, kind, patient and respectful? Are you a go getter that likes to assist people with all aspects of their lives? If you’re passionate about working with vulnerable people like us, want to refine your skills as a carer by stepping into a disability support worker role with leadership pathways, peer to peer coaching and mentoring, and a strong network of professional support, then we would love you to join our team! If all of this, is you, – then we want you to be our disability support worker – we want you to assist us to have a brilliant life and help us to be the best person that we want to be! We can offer you a dynamic, fun place to work!

Key Responsibilities

• Provide quality direct support to service users in line with their support needs, the program they are accessing, and all support plans including the service users Individual Plan
• Increase the service users’ skills through independence, personal growth, and development through the provision of active support and their enhanced participation as a valued member of their community.
• Implement development programs and identify and support learning opportunities for service users.
• Assist in the delivery of programs that facilitate service users’ development of social networks and inclusion in community activities.

Client Relationship

• A. Uphold my rights - Understand and respect my rights. See my home as a real home for real people and uphold my rights both within my home and my community. Empower me to advocate for my rights in all settings.
• B.  Communicate effectively - Support me to express myself and adjust your communication style to suit me.
• C.  Build trusted relationships - Develop and maintain relationships with me. Build a strong rapport with me by working with me, seeing me the person and valuing who I am and those who are important to me, and do this based on mutual trust and respect.

Your Impact

• A. Show self-awareness and be self-reflective - Think about how your actions and attitudes impact on the quality of support you provide, seek feedback, and keep improving your practice.
• B. Work within your capabilities - Know your role and responsibilities, and when to seek support from others to develop your capabilities.
• C. Contribute, share and express your ideas, your thoughts, your skills – what can you bring to continuous improvement in all that we do. Your input matters.
• D.  Work collaboratively - You will need to be able to work collaboratively within a team to continue to develop yourself professionally within the disability sector and advocate for client centred service.

House Profile

Come and work in our homely, shared accommodation home in Hampton East – the home of 5 funky ladies in their late 40’s and mid 50’s with 2 sassy cats. We love parties, social outings like the theatre, going to the footy, eating out, movies and enjoying other aspects of active community participation support. Our staff assist us with activities of daily living including cooking, health and medical needs, behaviour support and personal care. We love to be out and about and we lead busy lives.

The house has a very experienced staffing team who have worked with us, the participants for a long period of time. Our staff have strong relationships with our families and stakeholders and are ready and willing to provide positive mentoring support to you in your disability worker role. 

Working with the team you will contribute to the delivery of high-quality services and achieve positive outcomes for all of us- both residents and staff. We, the residents are best supported with people who pay attention to detail, have experience and an interest in intellectual disability, autism spectrum, positive behaviour support and mental health. We, the residents, have support needs that vary in terms of levels of independence, including engagement in community participation. Active support, following strategies, being adaptable to meet our changing needs, sees support delivered in a person focus manner- just the way we like it.  The team are an experienced staff and are ready and willing to provide positive mentoring support to you.   

Roster Splits are:

• 41:30/44:30 – Including 2 Sleep-Over shifts per monthly roster.
• 48:30/50:00 -  Including 2 Sleep-Over shifts per monthly roster

Skills and Experience

• Certificate IV in Disability or equivalent Disability related qualification
• A current Senior First Aid (level 2) Certificate
• A current unrestricted Driver Licence
• Experience supporting people with Autism
• Ability to work unsupervised, some support shifts are 1:1
• A commitment to supporting and promoting the individual needs, skills, abilities and personal goals of people with disabilities.
• The ability to develop a positive relationship with service users and to support their Individual Personal Plan 

• Benefits

• •Pay rates starting from $26.55 per hour + penalty rates
• •Non-profit salary packaging benefits with Maxxia and other employee discounts
• •On-going training opportunities in a supportive and collaborative team environment
• •We are an organisation that champions diversity, inclusivity, and equality
• •An opportunity to work for one of Australia's largest social purpose organisations 

To Apply:  

Include your resume and covering letter in one document, click ‘Apply’ and follow the prompts. For any general enquiries including requests to view the roster line prior to applying; (not applications) including persons with disability that require adjustments please contact john.mcgrath@lwb.org.au 

Applications close Midnight Thursday 20th April.

To be considered for and appointed to a position at Life Without Barriers, you must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or hold a valid medical exemption certificate.  You will be required to provide evidence of your vaccination status during the recruitment process.

Life Without Barriers supports the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. We believe people with disability need to be heard and for these experiences to influence how support services like ours are delivered. View our statement here (https://bit.ly/2GzZGWA