Senior Participation Advisor Application Checklist: Documents, Evidence and a Targeted Question
A practical guide to the Senior Participation Advisor application, including the two-page cover letter, targeted question and evidence to prepare.
Introduction
This guide walks through the application task for the Senior Participation Advisor – Office for Youth (Statewide) role with the Department of Communities and Justice.
Based in Strawberry Hills with hybrid arrangements and statewide applications welcome, the position leads consultation and participation work that helps children and young people influence NSW Government policy, programs and decisions.
The role suits applicants who can plan and deliver complex engagement projects, adapt when circumstances change, analyse qualitative and quantitative information, and work respectfully with young people and a wide group of government and community stakeholders.
If you are working out how to apply for Senior Participation Advisor, your strongest evidence will connect project delivery with youth participation, sound judgement and clear advice.
For this application, you need an up-to-date resume and a two-page cover letter.
The cover letter must answer one targeted question about a project you planned and delivered, including how you adapted to changing circumstances and the outcome.
View the official Senior Participation Advisor role .
NSW Government applications are assessed against both the application instructions and the role requirements.
Your two-page limit therefore needs to carry two jobs at once: answer the targeted question with a strong example and briefly show how your broader experience meets the role's participation, stakeholder, analysis and project-delivery requirements.
Senior Participation Advisor – Office for Youth (Statewide) Role Snapshot
Role Title Senior Participation Advisor – Office for Youth (Statewide)
Organisation / Entity Department of Communities and Justice, Office for Youth
Job location Strawberry Hills, with hybrid working arrangements and statewide applications welcome
Job reference number **************
Work type Temporary full time, 35 hours per week, up to 15 November **** with possible extension
Grade Clerk Grade 9/10
Base salary $133,348 to $146,945, plus employer superannuation and annual leave loading
Application requirements tell you what the hiring team can assess at the first stage.
Meeting the document and page-limit instructions is part of presenting a compliant application, while the quality of your examples gives the panel evidence of how you would work in the role.
The targeted question sits inside the two-page cover letter, rather than as a separate response.
Plan the document as one connected argument: a concise opening, a substantial project example that answers the question, brief evidence against the remaining role requirements, and a clear closing statement.
Application Requirements For Senior Participation Advisor – Office for Youth (Statewide)
For this role, you need to provide:
Response within the cover letter to 1 targeted question, with a brief outline of how you meet the role requirements
The targeted question is:




Provide an example of a project you have planned and delivered and the steps you took to adapt to changing circumstances?
What was the outcome?
Use this wording when you prepare the response and check the online application before submitting for any additional screening fields.
The closing date is Sunday 30 August **** at 11:59pm AEST.
Read the official role page before you submit.
The role also has conditions that should be confirmed clearly in your application:
Tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline or equivalent experience
Availability for some evening and weekend work to meet the needs of participating young people
Willingness to travel regularly and stay overnight
These are eligibility and work-pattern requirements.
Keep them separate from your capability examples, then confirm them briefly where they fit naturally in the cover letter and application form.
NSW Government Candidate Requirements
Candidate requirements are the skills, experience and judgement the hiring team wants to see in your examples.
The strongest application will show how you create safe and useful participation opportunities, keep complex projects moving, make sense of evidence, and communicate recommendations to people with different needs and perspectives.
Use examples that make your personal contribution easy to assess.
Explain the consultation or project context, the choices you made, how you involved others, what changed while the work was underway, and the result for participants, stakeholders or decision-makers.
Candidate Requirements For Senior Participation Advisor At The Office For Youth
Requirement or capability from role
How to demonstrate it
Stakeholder engagement: builds strong relationships and collaborates effectively with children, young people and stakeholders to achieve outcomes.
Use an example that shows how you designed engagement around the needs of participants, built trust, managed different expectations and created a clear path for input to influence a decision or piece of work.
Project delivery: leads and manages complex projects, balancing priorities to deliver results on time and within budget.
Show how you set the project approach, coordinated people and resources, managed risks and reporting, adapted the plan when circumstances changed, and still delivered a useful outcome.
Research and analysis: uses data, evidence and environmental scanning to identify issues, assess risks and inform decision-making.
Explain how you gathered and analysed qualitative and quantitative information, tested what it meant, identified emerging issues, and translated the findings into a report, presentation or recommendation.
Youth participation and judgement: applies best-practice participation approaches and sound judgement to manage sensitive and complex matters.
Choose evidence that shows respect for children and young people's perspectives, appropriate safeguards,



careful handling of sensitive information, and practical judgement about participation methods, influence and follow-through.
The application requires a cover letter that answers one targeted question and briefly explains how you meet the role requirements.
Keep the complete cover letter within the maximum of two pages.
The table below shows how to give the project example enough depth while still covering the wider evidence the panel needs.
What to include
Opening paragraph Name the role and give a concise statement of your relevant youth participation, consultation, project delivery or public-policy experience.
Confirm your interest in helping children and young people influence decisions that affect their lives.
Provide an example of a project you have planned and delivered and the steps you took to adapt to changing circumstances?
What was the outcome?
Use one substantial example.
Set out the project's purpose, participants and constraints, then explain how you planned the work, what changed, how you assessed the impact, the specific adaptations you made, and the final outcome.
Keep the focus on your decisions and actions.
Stakeholder engagement and youth participation Add concise evidence of how you involved children, young people or community stakeholders appropriately, built trust, handled competing perspectives and made participation meaningful.
This can sit within the main project example when it is part of the same work.
Research, analysis and advice Show how you used consultation findings, data or environmental scanning to identify issues and turn evidence into clear reports, presentations or recommendations for decision-makers.
Broader role fit and essential requirements Briefly connect your experience to complex project delivery, sensitive matters, multiple priorities and sector uplift.
Confirm your relevant qualification or equivalent experience, unrestricted NSW driver licence, travel availability, and ability to undertake evening or weekend work.
Closing paragraph Reinforce the value you would bring to the Office for Youth and your readiness to deliver inclusive, evidence-based participation work across NSW.
What the panel will want to see in your examples
A clear project objective and your personal responsibility for planning and delivery
Specific changes that occurred and the judgement you used to adapt the approach
Genuine participation methods that respected children and young people's voices
Evidence that consultation findings influenced policy, programs, advice or decisions
Practical management of time, resources, risks, budgets and competing priorities
A defined result, including what improved, what was delivered, or what decision the work informed
Help With Your Senior Participation Advisor Application
The two-page limit makes this a focused application.
Your main project example needs enough detail to answer the targeted question, while the rest of the cover letter should show that you can engage young people safely, manage complex participation work and turn evidence into clear advice.
Before submitting, check the official role page and use the exact application wording shown in the portal.
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📌 Senior Participation Advisor – Office For Youth (Statewide) (New South Wales)
🏢 Team 3Thirty
📍 New South Wales