Association for Children with a Disability (ACD)

POSITION DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE:ACD Support Worker (0.6EFT)

REPORTS TO: Manager, ACD Support

LOCATION:Surrey Hills

January 2018

INTRODUCTION

The Association for Children with a Disability (ACD) exists to assist families of children with a disability (0 to 18 years of age) through the provision of information, support and advocacy

We aim to:

•Empower parents of children with a disability to be as self-sufficient as possible in advocating on behalf of their child and family.

•Promote and advance the rights of children with a disability and their families.

•Advocate on behalf of children with a disability and their families to ensure the best possible support and services are available.

•Work collaboratively with other organisations to improve the service system for children with a disability and their families.

Our services include:

•Information resources for families: In addition to our NoticeBoard magazine and the links and information on our website, we publish a range of information resources for families.

•ACD Support: Our ACD Support Workers provide a free telephone support service to assist families with information and support about any disability issue.

•ACD Educate: ACD provides evidence based and family friendly workshops to build parent capacity and understanding, and enable them to work towards achieving the best outcomes for their child across a range of settings including school, home, disability services, and the NDIS. We also work with professionals and the general community to build their understanding of disability from a family perspective.

•ACD Influence: We actively advocate for improvements to government policies that affect families of children with a disability. We also work to raise community awareness about disability issues through the media and community networks.

Our work is guided by our Strategic Plan (

ABOUT THE POSITION

The role of ACD Support Workers involves four key areas:

1.Individual parent/family support, information and advocacy

2.Community Education – in collaboration with the ACD Educate team

3.Other contributions to the ACD’s work which may include representing ACD on committees or networks relating to systemic advocacy

4.Internal Organisational/Administration

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Individual Parent Support, Information and Advocacy

•Work together within ACD Support team and respond to telephone requests from parents/families/carers for information and advocacy assistance.

•Support families to identify strategies to deal with a range of disability related issues.

•Empower parents and family members to initiate the action required.

•Work together with the ACD Support team and other staff to keep the core information resources we use for support work up to date.

•In situations where it is assessed that an issue cannot be resolved without a ACD Support Worker’s attendance, act as an advocate by attending meetings with families.

•Respond to requests from service providers for information to assist families they are working with.

2. Community Education

•Facilitate formal and informal workshops/talks for parents or professionals.

•Undertake other Community Education duties as agreed (e.g.; ACD Exhibit table at Expos as directed).

3. Other Contributions to ACD’s work including identification of systemic advocacy issues and committee representation

•Share responsibility with other staff for identifying issues arising from individual parent support work that suggest systemic advocacy would be beneficial.

4. Organisational/Administration

•Participate in ACD Support meetings, staff meetings, professional supervision and other agency meetings as required.

•Contribute to the general administrative work of ACD as per all other staff members, e.g. sharing the responsibility for answering phones and taking messages for other staff and mailing material for straightforward information requests.

•All ACD staff are expected to abide by the employment related policies of ACD.

KEY SKILLS (MANDATORY)

  1. An understanding of issues for families with a child or children with a disability.
  1. Knowledge of disability and the service system for families.
  1. Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to empower families through the provision of relevant information and other support.
  1. Sound problem solving skills, including the ability to analyse complex family situations and the range of possible individual and systemic responses.
  1. Capacity to undertake public speaking for both a parent/family and professional/service provider audience.
  1. Demonstrated capacity and commitment to working as part of a team.
  1. Ability to analyse government and other policy related to families of children with a disability.
  1. An ability to work independently within established accountability processes.
  1. A willingness to take direction from management.
  1. Sufficient computer skills to complete all computer related work without assistance, including proficiency in use of the Internet for searching for information and the use of the Microsoft Office suite.

OTHER SKILL AREAS (DESIRABLE)

  1. Direct life experience of the issues for families of children with a disability.
  1. Relevant tertiary qualification in social work, disability, child and family social welfare or related discipline.
  1. Proficiency in speaking one or more community languages and/or experience in working with CALD/ATSI communities. Please indicate in your application if you do speak another language or languages.
  1. Experience in use of Salesforce CRM.

FAMILY EXPERIENCES OF DISABILITY

The strength of ACD is the passion and energy of parents of children with a disability. Other family members, including grandparents and siblings, are also major contributors to our family perspective on disability.

Many of our staff members are parents or siblings or have other family connections with disability. Applicants are encouraged to include details of any family experiences of disability. This experience is highly valued by our organisation.

HOURS OF WORK

The position is 3 days a week (0.6 EFT) and working days will be negotiated with the successful applicant.

SALARY AND CONDITIONS

ACD is an independent not-for-profit community organisation, funded by a combination of recurrent and non-recurrent government and philanthropic arrangements. Remuneration is subject to negotiation and will be based on qualifications and experience. We offer salary packaging arranged through SALPAC

This position is for 12 months (with an initial 3 month probation period), with potential for ongoing.

The successful candidate will need to have or undergo both Police and Working with Children’s checks.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The ACD’s Committee of Management is ultimately responsible for the employment of all staff. Under current arrangements, this position is responsible to and takes direction from the Manager, ACD Support.

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