Organisation : Brotherhood of St. Laurence
Location : Australia, Melbourne (Mernda)
Time required : Weekdays as agreed
Duration of project : Ongoing
Skill area : Community Services
Sector : Children, Community Support Services, Families
About the role
Children’s Playgroup and Program Assistant
Have fun and help build positive relationships with local families and children in the Mernda area. Be part of a vibrant team who run a weekly playgroup session, supporting the groups themed activities, including running story time.
The Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) Jindi team have partnered with Goodstart Early Learning and the City of Whittlesea to deliver integrated support to children and families at a crucial point in their development, helping them to thrive. Volunteers play an important role in the Jindi playgroup by building positive relationships with local families and the community.
Though volunteering with the Jindi team, you will play an important role in:
• Enhancing child learning and development
• Improving family and parent/carer wellbeing
• Increasing connectedness to community and other families
• Supporting the BSL team to provide a higher quality program
ROLE TASKS
In this role you will be part of fun and dynamic team who:
- Welcome families and children to the Early Years playgroups or programs and encourage them to explore the activities and play areas.
- Connect with the children and caregivers.
- Assist the Jindi team in-session, supporting a variety of tasks including making sure the activity areas are neat and appealing for children to play and the session runs smoothly.
- Help with manual handling tasks in setting up and packing up of the toys/activities before and after each session.
- Developing and facilitating a child’s activity or story time, with the guidance of the Jindi team.
Depending on your experience, skills and training, your supervisor might ask you to undertake other tasks relevant to this role’s purpose. All role-specific training will be provided by BSL.
Our commitment to child safety
This role will involve direct contact with children and/or vulnerable people.
We embrace diversity and work with people from many cultural and religious backgrounds. We take our Safeguarding responsibilities seriously and we are committed to providing an environment that is safe for children. Our stringent recruitment procedures make sure the safest and most suitable people work with the children in our programs. All successful candidates will undergo a robust screening process prior to starting in a volunteer role. We provide our staff and volunteers with ongoing supervision, support, and training in their work with children and vulnerable people.
About the organisation
At the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL), over 1400 staff and approximately 1,000 volunteers and students support our vision. Our work is focused in Melbourne and Victoria but branches out through our partners to every state and territory in Australia.
In Australia, poverty and disadvantage is experienced more in some communities than others. Our work focuses on places and groups of people experiencing hardship such as early school leavers and the unemployed. We create programs which prevent and alleviate poverty during four key life stages: childhood, adolescence, midlife and retirement.
One of our priorities is to work with state and federal governments and other community organisations to grow our successful programs. Our approach is informed by the best evidence, including the work of our own research and policy department.
How to apply
For more information, email the Brotherhood of St. Laurence Volunteer Engagement Team at volunteer@bsl.org.au.
To apply, click here.
The Brotherhood of St. Laurence is a Child Safe organisation.
Successful candidates will be required to apply for a Working With Children Check and Police Check.
Please quote in application: Children’s Playgroup and Program Assistant via Pro Bono Australia.
