Financial Counsellor

Location:  North Queensland - Cairns or Townsville

About the Organisation

Tenants Queensland (TQ) was established in 1986 and seeks to represent the interests of all Queenslanders who rent their home including those living in marginal tenures such as caravan parks and rooming accommodation. We pride ourselves in providing specialist advisory services to renters, advocating on behalf of them, and securing improvements to Queensland’s residential tenancy laws

The Role

We are looking for a competent Financial Counsellor, with a strong commitment to social justice, to extend our range of tenant advisory services for Queensland residential renters.

The Financial Counsellor will deliver financial counselling services from within TQ.  By using our established offices statewide, they will support renters facing financial challenges.

You must hold, or be eligible to hold, an associate or accredited membership of the Financial Counsellors Association of Queensland.

Key Accountabilities: 

• Establish an appropriate model of referral and integrated service delivery within the organisation
• Deliver high-quality financial counselling advisory services to residential renters from diverse backgrounds which help prevent tenancy failures and mitigate financial hardships
• Identify key and recurring issues for renters to inform educative and law reform responses
• Develop tools for community education
• Build the capacity of other workers supporting clients managing challenging financial situations 
• Meet all contracted and required performance targets of the program
• Ensure compliance with all organisational policies and procedures

Specific Duties:

• Develop a referral, intake and assessment process based on the needs of Queensland renters and current tenancy advisory processes 
• Deliver services to mitigate the risks of economic and financial hardships and tenancy failures:
  • Tailor services to individuals’ needs and capabilities, considering the best use of finite resources.
  • Use a range of communication mediums to deliver services (e.g. telephone, face to face meetings, information technology)
  • Undertake financial assessments of clients to understand their financial needs and goals, their strengths and financial challenges.
  • Empower clients to self-advocate with relevant creditors and services such as utility providers, to mitigate the risks of economic and tenancy failure.
  • Advocate on behalf of prioritised clients
• Identify, develop and deliver on community education needs and resources to support the financial well-being of Queensland renters.
• Collect data and support the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the financial counselling program. 
• Support organisational capacity building through development and delivery of internal training or professional development
• Maintain the professional requirements and ethical standards of the financial counselling profession
• Contribute to the development of TQ law reform and policy 
• Undertake administrative duties arising from the role
• Other duties as the employer may reasonably direct from time to time

Core Capabilities:

• Highly developed skills in financial counselling
• High level of interpersonal skills, including the ability to negotiate and advocate on behalf of clients, communicate to a range of stakeholders from a variety of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.
• Highly developed verbal and written communication skills including a high level of computer literacy and ability to efficiently use a database for clients records.
• Ability to work with people from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds
• Ability to work independently and as a member of a team

Essential Requirements: 

• A Diploma of Financial Counselling (CHC51115) 
• Three – five years’ experience in delivering financial counselling services
• Eligibility for membership of the Financial Counsellors’ Association of Queensland
• A commitment to the principles of social justice
• Understanding or demonstrated ability to rapidly acquire knowledge of:
  • Queensland tenancy laws
  • Financial counselling services
  • The community services sector

Applications

Please submit your CV and cover letter which addresses the Core Capabilities found in the PD

• Email to recruitment@tenantsqld.org.au
• Mail to Level 1, 87 Wickham Terrace, SPRING HILL 4000

Closing Date (Extended)

Applications close 5pm Tuesday 2 April 2024 

If you would like further information, please feel welcome to contact Julie Bartlett on (07) 3832 9447 or email: mail@tenantsqld.org.au

Tenants Queensland is an equal opportunity employer.