Helpline Practitioner

JSS•Richmond, VA

20h•Onsite

About The Position

As a Helpline Practitioner, you will utilize your specialized knowledge to offer evidence-informed psychoeducation, support, and advice to individuals contacting What’s ok? Australia. This new service focuses on the prevention of harmful sexual behaviors and will launch in 2026, providing a national anonymous helpline and online early intervention service. The service is designed for young people concerned about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviors, as well as parents, carers, and professionals concerned about a young person’s problematic and harmful sexual behavior. The service aims to foster safety, responsibility, healthy development, and early intervention to prevent harm through a compassionate, non-judgmental, and evidence-informed approach. This is a unique opportunity to be involved in the development and launch of an innovative national service. As the What’s Ok? Australia helpline is in its establishment phase, successful applicants will have the chance to influence service delivery, practice approaches, and resources for young people, families, carers, and professionals across Australia. The role also involves maintaining best practice and service quality through supervision, reflective practice, and professional development, while contributing to a supportive and collaborative team dedicated to innovation in offense prevention and child protection. The position is based at the Richmond office and offers flexibility, up to 0.6 FTE (three days a week or equivalent), with some after-hours work included. Competitive remuneration, salary packaging benefits, ongoing professional and career development, and opportunities for personal growth are offered.

Requirements

Tertiary qualification/s and/or relevant experience in social work, psychology, or the social sciences is essential.
Commitment to and demonstrated practice experience with young people who are concerned about their own sexual thoughts and behaviours or have engaged in harmful sexual behaviours.
Commitment to and demonstrated practice experience with children who are at risk of experiencing child sexual abuse and their families.
Commitment to and demonstrated practice experience working on a helpline managing difficult and challenging topics.
Commitment to and demonstrated practice experience in other relevant fields (e.g., family violence).
Proven ability to apply psychological, social work, or behaviour change knowledge, approaches, and evidence-based frameworks (e.g., trauma-informed practice, Good Lives Model) when working with young people to prevent or disrupt harmful sexual behaviour and improve practice outcomes.
Superior written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

Provide evidence-informed psychoeducation, support, and advice to individuals contacting What’s ok? Australia.
Contribute to shaping service delivery, practice approaches, and resources for the What’s ok? Australia helpline.
Maintain best practice and service quality through supervision, reflective practice, and professional development.
Contribute to a supportive and collaborative team culture dedicated to innovation in offense prevention and child protection.
Assess and respond to risk, including safety planning.
Respond to questions and concerns related to relationships, consent, boundaries, and harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) in an age-appropriate and developmentally informed way.
Fulfill administrative requirements, including data entry and case note writing.
Write professional reports.