Refuge Worker
Refuge Workers, also known as special care workers, work with children and adults in a variety of capacities. They may work with high-risk children who live in residential facilities, group homes, or correctional facilities, or they may provide emotional and psychological support to people who live in refuges.
Duties and tasks
- Ensuring children are following facility rules and disciplining them and filing disciplinary reports when infractions occur
- Ensuring children in group homes are washed and fed
- Planning, coordinating, and supervising individual and group activities for children in residential care facilities
- Steering refuge residents to welfare services as necessary and needed
- Supervising children in residential or group homes
- Working with residents of refuges to provide emotional support
Skills required
- Ability to perceive when others are in need of help
- Active listening
- Empathy
- Interpersonal skills
- Positive and nonjudgmental attitude
Working conditions
Refuge Workers may live where they work, as in a children's correctional facility, group home, or other residential structure. They may also commute to a place of refuge or other facility on a daily basis.Professional associations / Industry information
Australian Institute of Welfare and Community WorkersAustralian Youth Affairs Coalition
Careers That Matter
Carers Australia
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