Program Manager, Children & Young People’s Rights Program in Melbourne

Westjustice is a rights-based Community Legal Centre serving Melbourne's West on the lands of the Bunurong and Wurundjeri peoples across the LGAs of Wyndham, Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay, Melton and Brimbank, a population of over a million people. Melbourne's Western Suburbs are the thriving backbone of the state, and home to Australia's most diverse and fastest-growing population. Westjustice's purpose is to deliver targeted services and drive meaningful change to achieve fairness, safety and justice for Melbourne's West. We work to uphold people's rights by providing free legal, social work, financial counselling services, community engagement, and advocacy for systemic reform across the five impact areas of Workers' Rights, Children and Young People's Rights, Women and Gender Diverse people's Rights, Economic and Housing Rights, and Our Team.

We provide place-based, multi-disciplinary programs, and partner with values-aligned organisations to focus on serving those most impacted by these issues, and to ensure people have access to the services they need where they need them. Through our work, we consistently see complex legal issues and the cyclical impact they have on longer-term justice, economic, health, and life outcomes. This is why our services and programs focus on prevention and early intervention in the cycle of economic precarity, criminalisation, violence and housing insecurity. It is also why we advocate for legal, social and policy reform to ensure the people of Melbourne's West have access to services and the best version of justice.

Benefits & Culture

• Be a part of an organisation that 98% of our employees are proud to work for
• We pay 3% above the SCHADS award
• Not-for-profit salary packaging up to $15,900 per annum
• Flexible working conditions
• 17.5% annual leave loading
• Passionate, professional and dedicated team
• Gifted additional paid leave over the Christmas holiday period
• Strong focus on collaboration, wellbeing, inclusion and diversity

The Role

Westjustice is seeking an experienced and values-driven Program Manager to supervise our dedicated team of youth lawyers in the delivery of exceptional legal services to children and young people aged 10-25. The Program Manager is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of our practice, providing casework supervision, mentoring and practice support to our lawyers, with a focus on civil law. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in youth law and help develop the program through innovative ideas and partnerships to improve legal and broader life outcomes for our clients, in line with Westjustice's strategic priorities.

Working with a multidisciplinary team, you will:

• Manage and oversee the operation of the School Lawyer Program, Unlocking Pathways Program, Wyndham Law Courts Children's Court Family Violence duty roster and Youth Law Clinics
• Provide high-quality legal supervision and technical expertise to lawyers in the Children & Young People's Rights (CYPR) team, with a focus on civil law
• Work collaboratively with the CYPR Director and CYPR Criminal Program Manager to foster and develop positive team culture

Role Requirements:

• Unrestricted practising certificate and substantial experience working with child and youth clients in one or more relevant areas of legal practice, such as child protection, family violence and personal safety, youth crime, youth education/employment law, victims of crime and youth debt/consumer law.
• Demonstrated leadership and management skills
• Demonstrated ability to work strategically and collaboratively to build strong stakeholder relationships and partnerships across sectors to improve outcomes for clients.
• Ability to set and deliver high-quality work outcomes.
• Strong commitment to social justice

This position is primarily based in our Sunshine office.

Remuneration:

Salary – $131,000 per annum (dependent on experience) plus employer funded superannuation in accordance with Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth).

The successful applicant will require a current Working with Children's Check and a Police Check or be prepared to apply for both. Applicants must possess the right to work in Australia. People with lived experience of the justice system are encouraged to apply. A police check result does not automatically disqualify an application which in each case will be individually assessed for the relevant role. Westjustice is committed to building a diverse workforce. We strongly encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people living with a disability, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, mature age workers and LGBTIQA+-identifying people.

If you require any adjustments throughout the application or recruitment process, please contact us. Any information disclosed will be held in the strictest of confidence.