Caring Dads Senior Family Practitioner

The Position: 

Caring Dads is an early intervention program developed in Canada by the University of Toronto and Changing Ways, for fathers who have physically abused, emotionally abused or neglected their children, or exposed their children to domestic violence or who are deemed to be at high-risk for these behaviours.  The Caring Dads program is a 17-week, empirically-based, manualized group parenting intervention for fathers, systematic outreach to mothers to ensure safety and freedom from coercion, and ongoing, collaborative case management of fathers with existing service providers and other professionals involved with men’s families. Caring Dads combines elements of parenting, fathering, family violence and child protection practice to enhance the safety and well-being of children.

The Senior Family Practitioner monitors the safety of the family and provides for psycho- social assessment of each family member’s needs.  This integrated, coordinated approach will strengthen safety, needs and goals of all family members of the family.

To Be Successful in this Position You Will Need:

• A relevant tertiary qualification in Social Work, Psychology, Early Childhood Specialist and/or related behavioural sciences at degree level with substantial experience; or associate diploma level with substantial experience in the relevant service stream, or less formal qualifications with specialised skills sufficient to perform at this level.
• Resilience to work with and support clients who have been exposed to trauma.
• High level of experience and skills in engaging adults and children, and in conducting assessments
• Demonstrated experience in working with families where there is family violence, including a knowledge of practice approaches such as trauma informed practice and other family violence theories and practice frameworks.
• Knowledge of early childhood development, trauma informed practice and theories such as attachment theory.

Please Note: It is mandatory for the successful applicant to hold a current Working with Children Check and be prepared to undergo a National Criminal History Check prior to commencement.