Volunteer Coordinator

• Join the friendly team at one of Australia’s most successful Community Legal Centres
• Supportive culture with a strong focus on staff wellbeing
• Not for profit salary packaging and additional leave benefits
• Part-time or full-time contract to 30 June 2027

We are:

Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS), a nonprofit providing essential legal support and advocacy for people who have fled persecution to find safety in Australia. We help refugees, people seeking asylum, stateless individuals and those who are displaced. Our vision is of justice and dignity for and with refugees and since 1987, we’ve helped tens of thousands of people secure protection in Australia.

RACS provides free, dedicated legal services to people seeking asylum and refugees. Through individual advice sessions, community education and public advocacy, RACS strives to ensure that individuals and families, at risk of persecution or other forms of significant harm, gain access to equal and fair representation before the law, and are granted protection by Australia, and opportunities to seek family unity, in accordance with Australia’s international obligations. 

The Role:

The primary role of the Volunteer Coordinator is to engage and empower the team of volunteers to be effective in their roles. This is a key role, as volunteers are critical to the delivery of RACS’s intake services.

This is a fixed-term contract to 30 June 2027, on either a part-time or full-time basis onsite in Randwick. Travel to our outreach service at Auburn may be required on occasion. 

You will:

• Coordinate recruitment, interviewing and training of volunteers, interns and Practical Legal Trainees (PLTs)
• Onboard and induct all new volunteers, interns and PLTs
• Manage rosters to ensure there are sufficient volunteers and PLTs each day in the Randwick office and at our weekly Outreach services in Auburn
• Coordinate and supervise a large team of legal volunteers, interns and PLTs daily
• Delegate daily tasks to volunteers and PLTs and provide support where required to ensure tasks are completed
• Maintain and continue to develop RACS’s volunteer management platform (Involve)
• Consistently identify and action opportunities to increase volunteer engagement within the organisation and improve the volunteer experience and flow
• Identify and organise training and development for volunteers
• Run the daily volunteer debrief

You are:

Highly organised and self-motivated and looking for an opportunity to use your exceptional people skills to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable people. The successful candidate will have the following:

Essential

• High-level communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate with a wide range of stakeholders in a confident and a respectful manner
• Ability to supervise and empower volunteers to be effective in their roles
• Ability to work under pressure, manage time and priorities effectively and meet strict deadlines
• Ability to work independently and in a diverse team
• A commitment to refugee and human rights issues 

Desirable

• Experience managing or coordinating large teams, particularly the professional and personal development of student volunteers
• Recruitment experience
• Experience working with people from a non-English speaking or a vulnerable background
• Experience or exposure to working in a Community Legal Centre or Migration practice and the ability to work in an environment with limited resources
• Communications skills in a language other than English will be considered highly favourably.

Salary:

The remuneration for the position is at the SCHADS Award rate Level 3, plus superannuation contribution and loadings. Salary packaging is available to enable you to increase your take-home pay.

To Apply:

If you’re ready to join our team, please submit your CV, together with a cover letter addressing the above selection criteria. Applications will close at 9am, Monday 24 August. Interviews will be held in the fortnight following with a view to commence at RACS as soon as practical. To find out more, contact Kirsty Wood on (02) 8317 6537.

Please note, we will be checking applications as they come in, and we may make decisions prior to the application close date should we find appropriate candidates.

RACS is committed to working together to achieve a more inclusive community. Our workplace strives to be one that embraces and celebrates diversity and the wide range of skills, expertise and experience we can all bring to strengthen our dynamic, collaborative, and responsive environment. RACS encourages people from all backgrounds to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, people that identify as LGBTQIA+ and people with disabilities.

Non-lawyers employed by RACS are required to comply with s 121 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law.

RACS particularly welcomes applications from those with the lived experience of seeking asylum, including those on temporary visas with the relevant permission to work.