Early Years Settings Lead – Family Violence Prevention

Part-time (0.8 FTE) Fixed Term Contract until June 2028

About The Role

Are you passionate about creating safer, more respectful communities for children and families?

The City of Ballarat is seeking an experienced and collaborative leader to take on the role of Early Years Settings Lead – Family Violence Prevention. This is a unique opportunity to drive prevention and early intervention work across Ballarat’s early years sector and make a meaningful impact on the wellbeing and safety of children and families.

Funded through the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing as part of Respect Ballarat, this role will strengthen the capacity of early years settings to prevent, identify and respond to family violence through a coordinated, whole-of-setting approach.

About This Opportunity

The City of Ballarat is committed to advancing community wellbeing, gender equality and child safety. With local family violence rates higher than the Victorian average, this role offers an important opportunity to contribute to prevention and early intervention where it is needed most.

As part of Respect Ballarat, this position will contribute to a nation-first, whole-of-community model that works to prevent gendered violence through coordinated action across the places people live, learn, work and play.

Early years settings are central to this work. They are trusted places for children and families and play a vital role in promoting respectful relationships, strengthening gender equality, supporting safe family environments and identifying concerns early. In this role, you will help drive lasting practice change across Ballarat’s early years sector and strengthen the local response to family violence prevention.

What does my new role entail?

In this role, you will provide leadership across early childhood education and care, kindergarten, Maternal and Child Health, health services, community services and family support services to embed evidence-based family violence prevention and early intervention approaches.

You will work closely with a wide range of partners to:

• lead and coordinate implementation of the program across the early years sector
• establish and support governance and cross-sector networks
• build strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders
• analyse data, local evidence and sector knowledge to inform priorities and action
• co-design and deliver workforce capability development and professional learning
• develop practical tools, resources and guidance to support sustainable change
• monitor outcomes, meet reporting requirements and contribute to long-term sustainability

This is a highly strategic and collaborative role suited to someone who can work across systems, build trust and influence change in complex environments.

About You

You are a collaborative, strategic and values-driven professional who is passionate about strengthening early years settings to prevent family violence and create safe, respectful and inclusive environments for children and families.

To Be Successful In This Role, You Will Demonstrate

• Strong understanding of the drivers of gendered violence and evidence-based primary prevention approaches, including how these apply in early years settings.
• Knowledge of whole-of-setting approaches, including embedding prevention and early intervention through organisational culture, leadership, policy, procedures and everyday practice.
• Understanding of family violence dynamics and risk, the Victorian family violence system and relevant information-sharing, child safety and mandatory reporting obligations.
• Ability to apply an intersectional and culturally safe lens when working with children, families, services and communities.
• Experience building workforce capability through facilitation, coaching, reflective practice, resource development and professional learning.
• Highly developed collaboration, communication, research, analytical, negotiation, problem-solving and reporting skills, with the ability to work across sector and organisational boundaries

You Will Also Bring

• A tertiary qualification in social work, community development, education, psychology, early childhood or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of relevant qualifications and experience.
• Demonstrated experience in primary prevention and/or early intervention related to family violence, gender equality and respectful relationships.

To Apply

To apply for this position please click on the apply button and submit your application. The closing date for this position is 26 July 2026

Please ensure that you provide a cover letter, current resume and answer the screen questions based on the selection criteria.

The successful applicant will be required to undergo a full employment medical and police check.

Contact

For further information on the above position, contact Vanessa Vagg, Coordinator Early Years Partnerships, ***email_hidden***, 0417520451

The City of Ballarat is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a safe and inclusive working environment that embraces and values diversity, flexibility and child safety. We welcome applications from all walks of life and celebrate the diversity and richness this brings to our workplace and reasonable adjustments will be made to the process to ensure equitable access. We undertake an employment screening process to ensure this commitment is upheld, this includes ensuring the successful candidate holds a valid working with children check and satisfactory criminal history record check.