Senior Practitioner ReConnect

About you

This role will suit a candidate with the following skills and experience:

• An understanding and empathy for the challenges facing individuals as they transition from custody to the community.
• Demonstrated capacity and experience to manage staff and programs that provide outreach support and case management services to people released from prison, including individuals who have engaged in high profile, violent and sexual offending.
• Highly developed verbal and written communication skills; and stakeholder management.
• An understanding of risk management and the capacity to assess for risk and respond appropriately.
• We encourage applications from individuals with lived experience of the justice system.

About the program

ReConnect provides transitional support to eligible men and gender diverse individuals who are exiting adult prisons across Victoria and who will be residing in the North and West metropolitan regions of Melbourne. In order to facilitate community reintegration and reduce recidivism, the program supports participants to address seven critical domains: housing, mental health, alcohol and other drugs (AoD), employment, education and training, independent living skills and family and community connectedness. Jesuit Social Services is looking to recruit an experienced Senior Practitioner to manage a small case load of participants with multiple complex needs; and to coordinate a small team of outreach-based case managers, providing direct line supervision and working as a part of the broader leadership team. We work with individuals who have been assessed as having a high risk of recidivism and high reintegration support needs, as well as those who have engaged in high profile, violent and sexual offending. The appropriate candidate will need to be confident in working directly with this cohort and provide staff guidance and supervision in areas such as sexual offending and working with men who use violence. The program is dynamic and fast paced, with a high level of administrative requirements and the ability to be adaptable and responsive to the needs of the program.

The program is funded through the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) and is part of the Corrections Victoria Reintegration Pathway (CVRP). The aim of the program is to support eligible individuals to effectively reintegrate back into the community on their release from custody. The program supports people to address their individual and complex transitional needs through a responsive, tailored and flexible support approach to facilitate community reintegration and reduce re-offending. The key objectives of the program are to:

• Implement an individualised transitional plan for participants which addresses key needs to reduce re-offending and ensures continuity of care
• Provide assertive outreach and practical assistance to participants to successfully reintegrate into the community

Assist participants to address the underlying causes of their offending and achieve positive outcomes in key intervention areas.