Domestic Abuse Practitioner

We are seeking a Domestic Abuse/Sexual violence Practitioner with an emphasis on wellbeing to join our Advocacy team as we continue through the third year of our three-year strategy for 2022-25.

This role requires working in partnership with other London domestic abuse support services, to provide pro-active emotional, practical and advocacy support for autistic adults and adults with learning disabilities, with complex or multiple needs who have experienced any form of domestic abuse/sexual violence.

The role will focus on emotional support to move forward after traumatic and harmful experiences, operating alongside the ISVA Service Manager and Senior ISVA you will be required to devise a programme of wellbeing activities to address other ways to enhance their resilience and wellbeing - working across London to provide non-judgmental, trauma-informed emotional support.  

Our ideal candidate will have a friendly and relational approach to working with clients.  You will have the ability to build trusting relationships, work in an empowering and inclusive way and support clients to heal following sexual abuse and develop coping capacity. You will be a self-motivated individual who will engage with a wider range of people who have experience sexual violence, and other barriers to justice.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an inclusive and passionate team, and you will be supported by the ISVA Service Manager in your ongoing development. Respond values and encourages working in a collaborative and compassionate way, as we support each other to address one of the most enduring injustices; of the experience of trauma to autistic people and people with learning disabilities and their families. 

This post is exempt under Schedule 9 Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010 and is only open to women.  

Further information about Respond  

An important part of our work at Respond is working in a trauma-informed way. What this means for us is that we hold in mind the impact of trauma at all levels of the organisation, and all staff take part in reflective practice or team dynamics.    

We provide a range of trauma-informed services for children, young people, adults and professionals. These include psychotherapy, advocacy, campaigning, training and other support services. The work we do is generally long term in recognition of research that clients with autism and learning disabilities who have experienced abuse and trauma take longer to process their trauma and to recover.

We are keen to encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates including people with lived experience, who are both interested in working in partnership to provide support, as well as supporting people with learning disabilities and autistic people who have experienced trauma.

We are committed to the furthering of human rights, equality, and positive social change through our therapeutic and advocacy work and are committed to anti-racism and other forms of anti-discriminatory practice. We recognise that we need to continually keep this as a focus in our work and as an integral part of our organisational strategy.   

We celebrate diversity as an employer and as a provider of services to people who often experience multiple discriminations because of (but not limited to) being autistic or having a learning disability and experiences of trauma.  

We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement in the person specification, we encourage you to apply anyway and demonstrate how your experience is transferrable for this role.  You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles within the organisation.

Respond Benefits package (all per financial year)

We offer a generous and comprehensive package of flexible benefits to all of our staff.

·         Hybrid working model, which means that if you’re full time you make a commitment to be working in the office at least two days a week, with the remainder working from home.  Part time hours are altered accordingly.  

·         Generous paid leave benefits including 28.5 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays), with some to be taken between Christmas and New year.  

·         Up to 4 weeks paid sickness leave at full pay and a further 4 weeks at half pay,

·         Discretionary study leaves to support training relevant to your role.

·         Paid leave to employees who may need to take one day off a year when a religious festival falls on a workday.

·         Up to 5 days paid time off for dependents per financial year.

·         Opportunity to apply for up to 2 days (14 hours) paid leave per year to participate in volunteering activities relevant to the role.     

·         Access to a workplace pension scheme, administered by NEST, with a minimum 5% employee contribution and 3% employer contribution from commencement of employment.

·         Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which includes 24/7 telephone service and counselling. 

  Note all of the above days per annum stated are pro rata’d for part time employees.

If you’d like to find out more about this role, please read through the job description and our person specification. When you apply, please send a CV and address the points in the person specification in an accompanying supporting statement.   Your statement should be no more than 2 sides of A4.  

Deadline for applications – Wednesday 7th  Aug 2024

Interviews - Week commencing 12th August 2024