Peer Support Team Leader

Peer Support Team Leader

Merge Cafe | Lifewise | Karangahape Road, Tamaki Makaurau

Lead with lived experience. Support whanau towards housing. Create connection, dignity, and hope.

At Merge Cafe, we believe everyone deserves connection, dignity, and a safe place to call home.

More than a cafe, Merge is a vibrant community hub where people experiencing homelessness, hardship, mental distress, addiction, or social isolation can find connection, practical support, and a sense of belonging.

Through kai, whakawhanaungatanga, and peer support, we walk alongside whanau as they navigate challenges. The Peer Support team helps strengthen wellbeing, reduce barriers to support, and support whanau towards sustainable housing and positive life outcomes.

We are seeking an exceptional Peer Support Team Leader to lead and support our Peer Support team. This role will help shape the future of lived experience practice at Merge.

About the Role

As Peer Support Team Leader, you will lead a dedicated team whose purpose is to walk alongside whanau experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, helping them navigate barriers and connect with the supports needed to achieve housing stability and wellbeing.

Reporting to the Merge Service Manager, you will provide leadership, coaching, supervision, and support to the Peer Support team. You will foster a positive, reflective team culture and ensure lived experience practice remains authentic, values-based, and grounded in mutuality, hope, and empowerment.

You will support your team to build trusted relationships with whanau, strengthen engagement, and reduce barriers to support. Working alongside internal and external partners, you will help create pathways to housing, wellbeing, and community connection.

Working closely with the Merge Service Manager and wider Lifewise teams, you will champion lived experience leadership and contribute to the development of a thriving peer workforce.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading, supporting, and developing a team of Peer Support Workers
• Providing supervision, coaching, mentoring, and professional development
• Supporting safe and effective peer support practice
• Supporting staff to navigate complex situations and challenging conversations
• Building strong relationships across the housing, homelessness, health, and social service sectors
• Championing lived experience leadership and workforce development
• Contributing to service improvement, innovation, and organisational learning

About You

• You are someone who believes in the power of lived experience to create change.
• You'll bring leadership experience, a strong understanding of peer support practice and the Te Pou CPSLE competencies.
• A relevant Level 6 or 7 qualification, and a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Most importantly.
• You'll be able to build authentic relationships, inspire hope, and support both whanau and kaimahi to thrive.
  

Why Join Merge?

Every day at Merge is different.

You'll be part of a team that values authenticity, compassion, courage, and respect.

You'll have the opportunity to lead a dedicated peer workforce, contribute to ending homelessness one whanau at a time, and help create a community where everyone belongs.

Most importantly, you'll be joining a service that believes lived experience is not only valuable, but essential.

We strongly encourage applications from people with lived experience of homelessness, mental distress, addiction, recovery, or other life challenges, and from Maori, Pacific, and other communities who reflect the people we serve.

Come and help create pathways to housing, connection, and hope in the heart of Karangahape Road.