Asylum Seeker Engagement and Connection Practitioner

Role Title: Asylum Seeker Engagement and Connection Practitioner

Team: Moringa Counselling Services Team

Location: Based in Brisbane (Woolloongabba) office, with travel to other locations as required

Level: Level 5 Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award ($100,783 - $105,349 per annum, pro-rata + leave loading and superannuation). Salary sacrificing available.

Reports to: Moringa Counselling Team Leader

Contract: Full-time (part-time considered). Fixed term 12-month contract. Healing the past, nurturing the future.

Our Vision

Healing the past, nurturing the future.

Our vision is for refugee survivors of persecution to live lives liberated from the harms of torture, trauma and human rights injustice. We exist to nurture meaningful futures by assisting refugee survivors to heal, belong and thrive in our community.

Our Values

Kindness

We care. In all our work, survivors of torture and trauma come first.

Optimism

We believe in meaningful futures. We are committed to healing being a journey of growth across mind, body and spirit.

Perseverance

We don’t give up. We understand that healing requires time, patience and courage for individuals, families and communities.

Fairness

We believe that recovery from trauma is about justice and that to heal is a human right.

Honesty

We act openly and ethically. We are committed to delivering impactful services.

Role Purpose

The primary purpose of this role is to ensure a responsive and welcoming initial contact and assessment for individuals and families seeking asylum who have been referred to QPASTT. This includes providing brief interventions that optimise their mental health and wellbeing. QPASTT provides a range of trauma recovery interventions designed to deliver meaningful trauma recovery outcomes for clients and communities from refugee backgrounds to heal, belong and thrive in our community with a sense of justice.

Character

We are looking for an Asylum Seeker Engagement and Connection Practitioner who is passionate about supporting refugees and asylum seekers' recovery from trauma, healing and thriving.

You will be compassionate and courageous in finding ways to engage and empower clients and their families presenting with a range of vulnerabilities.

We believe in cultural respect. We are looking for someone who is comfortable working with clients from many cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as sexual orientations and who is able to flexibly and thoughtfully adapt their practice to suit client needs.

We value creativity, adaptability and the ability to keep up to date with fast changing social trends and intervention opportunities in the context of a busy team.

We are looking for someone who enjoys developing their practice by making use of QPASTT’s supervision, internal training, team building and professional development opportunities.

Responsibilities

1. Review and respond to referrals from a trauma informed and culturally sensitive framework, including provision of welcome and first point of contact for clients in various locations (including in-office, tele-health, phone, schools, in-home and other outreach locations);

2. Conduct initial brief trauma-informed psycho-social assessments to establish expectations of, determine eligibility for, and prioritisation of service provision and identify initial therapeutic recovery goals;

3. Deliver appropriate short-term client related advocacy which supports healing and the opportunity to thrive and belong in the Australian community;

4. Provide brief intervention, including psycho-education, trauma-informed brief counselling and advocacy, to clients who are assessed as requiring short-term support or low to medium psycho-social needs;

5. Liaise with referrers and stakeholders;

6. Manage risk with clients with complex and/or crisis presentations in accordance with organizational processes and supports;

7. Identify emerging trends and key themes within communities;

8. Collaborate with Moringa Counselling Services Team Leader and Team members tomaintain relationships with key external stakeholders;

9. Ensure quality service delivery including accountability with contractual and organisational requirements. This includes the writing of case notes and client related professional reports;

10. Book relevant resources (e.g. rooms, cars, interpreters) to facilitate the provision of services in an effective and efficient manner;

11. Participate in the QPASTT Support line (duty roster);

12. Conduct wellbeing checks of client on the QPASTT waitlist;

13. Attend and participate in all agency activities that meet QPASTT’s organisational and professional development requirements. These include staff, team and agency meetings, professional development sessions, supervision and debriefing;

14. Ability to abide by the vision and values of QPASTT including our Code of Conduct as well as the policies and procedures of the organization;

15. Support research and evaluation initiatives of the organisation.

Requirements

1. Degree level qualifications in Social Work, Psychology, Counselling or Occupational Therapy, or equivalent. Eligibility for membership of the relevant professional body;

2. Good conceptualisation and ability to articulate refugee trauma recovery frameworks and the ability to apply these to undertaking trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, psycho- social assessments and interventions. This includes an understanding of key theories related to trauma recovery, development across the life span and attachment;

3. Ability to quickly build trusting, safe and respectful relationships across all ages in order to conduct psycho-social assessments;

4. Minimum two years’ experience in working within the human services sector, preferably with people from refugee backgrounds;

5. Experience in conducting assessments and/or interventions with adult clients, and (as needed) engaging with client’s family and carers;

6. Experience in providing short-term counselling interventions, therapeutic goal setting and an understanding of the counselling process;

7. A strong understanding or capacity to gain understanding of QPASTT services and the sector;

8. Ability to identify client-related risks and implement ways to reduce risk;

9. High level of communication and interpersonal skills, including written and oral, consultation, negotiation, advocacy, presentation and stakeholder liaison;

10. Desirable - have skills/experience in delivery of training and/or informal presentations.

Conditions of Employment

1. Current Positive Notice Blue Card and provision of a recent annual federal police check;

2. Current Queensland C Class driver’s licence;

3. Flexibility to occasionally work out of standard hours as required.

4. Ability and willingness to travel to other QPASTT offices and outreach locations;

5. The period of probation will be six months.

Application Process

To apply, please submit the following documents:

1. A cover letter detailing why you would like to work with QPASTT and how you meet the character requirements of the role, including a brief response (no more than 2 pages) to the responsibilities and requirements of the role.

2. Your resume detailing professional experience and education.

The final date to apply is 5pm Monday 8 December 2025. Please email your application to [email protected].