Connecting People to Employment Pathways

Launch Housing’s Employment Program is a pilot project launched early this year to assist with long-term employment pathways for individuals with a lived experience of homelessness who are not in the workforce.

With more than 24,800 Victorians experiencing homelessness on any night there continues to be an increased demand for our services.

Because of the structural separation of homelessness services and employment programs, people who access our services find it difficult to receive a coordinated response to help them back into the workforce.

This innovative program, tailored specifically to those with a lived experience of homelessness, provides opportunities to access employment services and create long-term employment pathways, not just job readiness.

Employment Broker Viv says the tailored service gives clients more opportunities to become job ready and move back into the workforce with more proactive support, guidance and of course – flexibility.

Barriers to Employment

Individuals experiencing homelessness face many challenges when trying to access employment programs and re-join the workforce. These obstacles include:

• Increased private rental market competition
• Changing labour market
• Lower levels of education and skills attainment
• Long wait list for public and transitional housing
• Low income for people not in the labour market
• Youth unemployment

(Image attributed to Unsplash)

Employment Team

To assist people in finding the right opportunities and establishing cohesive working relationships Launch Housing’s Employment Program employs a number of staff including an Employment Broker as well as two Employment Coaches.

The Employment Broker role:

• Identifies opportunities
• Secures job vacancies
• Enables work experience
• Finds apprenticeships

Meanwhile, our Employment Coaches improve the work-readiness of participants, using coaching and mentoring skills to prepare candidates.

Over the last month we recruited an additional Employment Coach to provide client mentoring and coaching for the referred program participants.

Launch Housing’s Employment Broker Viv says, “We’re excited to welcome a new Employment Coach, coinciding with the addition of an internal youth-specific aspect of the program. This program addition provides weekly engagement through career mapping, resume and cover letter writing, online applications and employer visits.”

Re-Entering the Workforce
Launch Housing clients face unique obstacles in their journey to re-enter the workforce. As such, it’s important to create easy links to employment services for individuals experiencing homelessness.

For one of Launch Housing’s Employment Program clients, re-entering the workforce meant overcoming significant personal challenges to secure a full-time job in the transport and logistics industry. This client continues to have weekly interaction with our team and has successfully maintained employment for the last three months.

Launch Housing provides employment pathways into the workforce for clients who deal with the structural separation of homelessness services and employment programs, with more than 24,800 Victorians experiencing homelessness there continues to be an increased demand on our services.