If you’re hoping to become of the First Nations staff members at Anglicare’s Homelessness Service, Women and Families (HSWF), don’t expect a stiff, traditional interview.
It’s more likely to feel like getting together for a yarn.
HSWF provides holistic, outreach-based and personalised support to help women make sustainable changes in their lives. A range of programs supporting women to increase their capacity to reach their full potential. It also helps them to sustain tenancies and develop their skills. This is achieved through a trauma-informed, recovery-orientated case management framework.
The team at HSWF has been on a journey to increase recognition to our First Nations people for some time. This includes the way staff are recruited through identified positions, as well as a more open and informal.interviewing strategy.
The more conversational ‘yarning circle’ approach allows interviewers to gain more insight into the knowledge, skills and personality of the applicant. It also gives the person being interviewed a better idea of the role and the service.
By guiding the conversation toward key selection criteria, the purpose of traditional interviews is still achieved. Though, in a more effective and inclusive manner.
The initiative builds on Anglicare’s ongoing work with yarning circles which can offer a rich and often powerful means of communication. Yarning circles value everyone’s contribution in the community and allow for deeper listening without interruption.
As one of our staff explains, “We are really present to the other person in the room in a yarning circle, and focused on hearing them.
“The benefit is that we are able to learn more about each other in this way.”
Based
on an article by Reconciling Histories interns, Luke Kratzmann, Jenny Nguyen and Emma Newman, University of Queensland.