Organisation: Headspace
Job Title: Youth Participation Advisor
Word Limit: 3 Pages
Location: National Office Melbourne
With strong experience as a youth advocate and project facilitator, gained over a varied work history, I am now seeking a new challenge that will allow me to draw on the skills I have developed throughout my career. The position of Youth Participation Advisor with headspace is a great match for the strengths and transferrable skills that I bring to a role. Able to work equally effectively in an autonomous environment or as a contributor to a team, I have a range of strengths that meet the abilities and knowledge sought by the selection criteria for this role.
A Bachelor of Applied Science — Occupational Therapy, has given me the capacity to work with individuals and groups, assisting them to overcome the limitations and restrictions that are caused by psychological or emotional difficulties. This health-focused degree equips me well to work in the mental health sector.
With strong experience in developing, managing, and facilitating youth-focused projects, I have a solid understanding of strategies for securing youth participation and engagement, and a record of accomplishment of success in achieving this. In a role with a youth participation-working group supported by headspace, I supported the Youth Advisory Committee in a project to revamp a headspace centre. Commencing by consulting with young people about their needs of the centre, I utilised peer and social networking tools to recruit six young people to form a working group to take ownership of the project. Through providing them with the tools to approach the centre revamp strategically, I enabled, and assisted the working group to develop the scope and framework of the project. Maintaining an engaged and empowered group, I supported these young people in successfully delivering an ongoing remodelling of the headspace centre, which has received positive feedback from users.
My knowledge of the mental health sector has been further developed through my formal education in occupational therapy, and my extensive work with mental health peak bodies. I have led, consulted, or participated in numerous projects and activities facilitated by organisations such as headspace, the Safe Schools Coalition, and Ygender, who are working in the mental health space. One of my notable roles in this field has been as a project developer for the Transgender Victoria | Ygender ‘What Makes an Ally?’ project — a population health based venture to increase the mental health of young people. During this project, I successfully applied for a Healthy Equal Youth (HEY) grant, which is part of Victorian Government funded initiative to support the mental health, and wellbeing of same sex attracted, and sex and gender diverse young people. In order to apply for and receive this grant, I had to demonstrate the ways in which the project would foster healthy relationships between trans*, and gender diverse young people and their allies, thereby increasing the mental well-being of these youth.
I am an ardent believer in providing young people with the tools to develop their own work, facilitating lifelong outcomes, and building their resilience and resourcefulness to benefit them in their futures. My work and volunteer activities have been directed intensively to the promotion of youth wellbeing, demonstrating my passion for working with young people.
Having worked extensively in the youth sector, with a particular focus on the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTI, and gender diverse young people, I have developed strong professional networks among mental health bodies, youth advocacy bodies, and Local Government entities. These networks extend through metropolitan and regional Victoria, and Australia-wide. Having strong networks consisting of multiple bodies has enabled me to facilitate collaboration between groups for the benefit of young people. In developing the ‘What Makes an Ally?’ project, our key informants were young people who discussed the available services they were aware of; these networks were utilised to advocate for resources for the project. Reliance on networks within the youth mental health sector meant that we were able to take the project to both Bendigo and Warrnambool areas, where we would not have been able to service, had it not been for the ability to use networks to facilitate collaboration to deliver positive outcomes.
An extensive history of developing, and managing projects has enabled me to develop strong leadership skills, which I am able to rely on to effectively deliver results. I have a record of accomplishment of instigating and leading successful projects. In 2012, I initiated a project to support Ygender volunteers, for which I applied and obtained grant funding. In an example of my ability to successfully liaise with stakeholders, I led a radio project through headspace Collingwood where, having identified that the young people involved were interested in developing their public speaking skills, I liaised with the producers of a radio show run by the Mental Health Fellowship to provide them with the opportunity to participate in the show. I confidently and comfortably communicate, and negotiate with the Board of Directors of the Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS), demonstrating my ability to work effectively within senior organisational levels.
The majority of my work is with people from marginalised and vulnerable groups, where establishing a trusting and productive relationship can be difficult due to the caution resulting from previous negative life experiences. When interacting with people in my work, I keep foremost in my mind the understanding that while I may have my own experience of a situation or event, different individuals and communities will have their own lived experiences, of which I need to be respectful and cognisant. I build connections, and develop trust with individuals and communities, through listening, observing, and allowing progress to be made over time. In working with a group, I place great emphasis on the commencement on the group interaction, at which time I discuss matters such as confidentiality, safety, and equality within the group. One part of my current work involves interacting with a group of young Sudanese men. Over a period of months, I have begun to develop relationships within this group. This has been achieved through being respectful of people’s boundaries, mindful of delicate political and emotional matters, and by observing and responding to the group’s reactions to me.
Part of my work is undertaken on a freelance basis, involving me delivering training and workshops to groups of people. In this capacity, I am required to plan and organise the workshop delivery as well as develop the content according to the project brief, relying entirely on my own administrative and organisational skills, without the benefit of the support of an office environment. My administrative and organisational skills are also utilised in the preparation and writing of grant applications, which require detailed planning and accurate documentation provided in accordance with strict timeframes. I have well-developed project management skills,
which I have demonstrated in the successful delivery of events such as the Ygender LGTBI Queer Skate Day (lesbian, gay, trans*, bisexual and/or intersex) and the headspace GLBTIQ Community Development Project.
Comfortable in a fast-paced, time-pressured environment, I currently work in a capacity where I am required to manage a multitude of different priorities, such as the individual young people with whom I am interacting, projects which I am overseeing, negotiations in which I am engaged, and presentation and promotional activities, which I am undertaking. I take on involvement with multiple projects, and maintain a broad engagement with a diverse range of individuals, community groups, and organisations. By maintaining a calm and measured approach to my work, and engaging in thorough planning of time and resource allocation, I am able to deliver outcomes on all fronts of engagement, while maintaining the ability to adapt to changing priorities.
A confident and clear communicator, I am equally comfortable conversing through written or verbal means. I possess a demonstrated ability to communicate clearly across electronic and print forms, on the telephone, and in face-to-face environments. My record of facilitating and working with groups both small and large, demonstrates my ability to successfully communicate and build rapport with people in a face-to-face setting. Success in obtaining grants such as the HEY grant for the ‘What Makes an Aly?’ project, demonstrate the clarity of my written communication, as grants are secured only where the value and relevance of the project to the grant purpose can be properly communicated by the grant application writer.
While comfortable working independently, I am equally capable of working in, and contributing to a team environment. Operating as a freelance consultant and facilitator, I undertake workshop and training delivery on an independent basis. In pursuing this work, I am reliant solely on my own initiative and judgement to provide outcomes meeting the client brief. Conversely, much of my work requires successful contribution to a team environment. My participation in the Safe Schools Coalition’s ‘Gender is Not Uniform’ project, took the form of collaboration with a number of bodies, including the Zoe Belle Gender Centre, Ygender, and Minus18. Because of this collaboration, we developed a campaign, including a resource guide, and online content to support schools in supporting genre diverse young people. Approaching this goal as a collaboration ensured that an increased diversity of voices of young people were part of the development of these resources.
My work at headspace Collingwood has been reliant on the strategic plan of the organisation to inform my activities, and I am familiar with the development of projects around research findings. My work to date has been almost exclusively in the community and not-for-profit sector, the area in which I feel passionately about making my contributions. My experience in this environment has developed my ability to ethically manage the situation of working with volunteers, and I am able to sensitively and appropriately facilitate collaborations between volunteers and paid employees.
As required by the selection criteria, I hold a current Working with Children Clearance. Please find attached my resume which further outlines my skills and experience. Thank you for your time in considering my application, I look forward to speaking with you to discuss the strengths I can bring to this position.
