Job Description
Through its core values of Courage, Respect and Excellence, CAMH is implementing its Strategic Plan: Connected CAMH, to transform lives, ignite innovation and discovery, revolutionize education and drive social change. CAMH is more than a hospital, it is a cause. CAMH is on a mission to change the way society thinks about and responds to mental illness. They aim to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and shape a world where mental illness is central to our healthcare system – a world where Mental Health is Health.
To learn more about CAMH, please visit their website at: www.camh.ca.
To view our Land Acknowledgment, please click here.
Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO, www.youthhubs.ca) is an Integrated Youth Services (IYS) initiative designed to address the service gaps in the youth mental health and substance use sectors in Ontario. YWHO supports local service providers to work together in a new way, providing young people in Ontario aged 12 to 25 with access to a full range of integrated services that support their individual needs, including mental health and substance use supports, primary care, education, employment, housing and other social services in one youth-friendly space.

Outcomes are rigorously evaluated within and across hubs focusing on positive outcomes in areas of wellness important to youth and their families. This initiative engages youth, family/caregivers and other partners through a co-creation process, ensuring services are designed and delivered according to their needs. YWHO’s IYS model is designed to improve experiences and outcomes for youth by:

• Increasing access to rapid, low-barrier services;
• Reducing transitions by providing care in one location; and,
• Providing tailored, high-quality programs co-developed with youth to meet their needs.

YWHO is currently comprised of 32 local hubs (or YWHO Networks) that provide services to youth and families in over 40 communities, as well as a Provincial Office (PO) situated within the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) that provides support to all of these YWHO Networks across the following key areas: implementation, operations, data and evaluation, youth and family engagement, equity, knowledge mobilization, communications, and more.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

YWHO is currently seeking two (2) part-time, contract (12 months) Program Engagement Co-Facilitators (Youth Engagement Specialists) to work at the YWHO Provincial Office in Toronto. Reporting to the Manager, Equity and Engagement and working closely with the Program Manager Provincial Initiatives, the successful candidates will be integrated within the Equity and Engagement team to support provincial youth engagement initiatives at YWHO, including a project that will integrate gender-based violence (GBV) programming into select YWHO hubs across the province.
The YWHO Provincial Office is working with YWHO Hubs across the province to co-develop, implement, and evaluate coordinated gender-based violence (GBV) supports within our YWHO Hub services. GBV is a significant public health issue and consistently associated with youth mental health, substance use, and physical health challenges. The initiative will support a new GBV role within 10 hubs; train and build capacity across sectors to recognize, prevent, and treat GBV within YWHO Hubs; establish a GBV care pathway for routine GBV screening, prevention, and early intervention; ensure youth engagement and co-design; and assess the impact of our coordinated intervention supports.
The Program Engagement Co-Facilitators will work alongside service providers, implementation, equity, engagement, evaluation, and research staff to ensure that YWHO projects, provincial-level engagement processes, staffing, activities and outcomes are more relevant and better reflect the needs of young people with lived/living experience of mental health and substance use challenges.
The successful candidates will draw from their own lived/living experience with mental health and substance use challenges and/or gender-based violence (GBV), and prior or current experiences accessing health and social services. They will also bring a system level perspective in community or grassroots engagement, youth advocacy work, and/or other related work in the GBV sector.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• Familiarity with the mental health and substance use field, and knowledge of Ontario’s mental health and substance use system/services.
• Strong organizational and time management skills, and the demonstrated ability to collaborate and work on a team, as well as the ability to function independently.
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal, communication (oral/written), collaboration, community engagement, and creative problem-solving skills and abilities.
• Experience working with partners of diverse ethno-racial and cultural backgrounds, and a demonstrated commitment to principles of equity, inclusivity, respect, and social justice.

The Program Engagement Co-Facilitators will be responsible for outreach, recruitment, and the onboarding of youth advisors. They will support meaningful engagement of youth by co-facilitating advisory group meetings, focus groups, and public/virtual consultations with broader groups of people with lived/living expertise. This will include working with other Youth Engagement Specialists, the Engagement CH&E Coordinator, and additional staff to support a network of Youth Advisors at YWHO PO to provide input, ongoing feedback, guidance, and/or to co-design project initiatives to ensure youth’s needs and preferences are met.
As part of their role, the Program Engagement Co-Facilitators will support administrative tasks related to engagement activities, including scheduling meetings/consultations using available tools (e.g., doodle polls), preparing agendas in advance of meetings, taking notes, and communicating with various staff and teams across the PO. The Program Co-Facilitators will also contribute to knowledge translation and education activities, including the development of training, infographics, tip sheets, webinars, and videos. The Program Co-Facilitators will use their lived/living experience and expertise to support YWHO sites with local youth engagement.
The Program Co-Facilitators will also work alongside the YWHO PO GBV project team to contribute to the ‘Preventing Cycles of Violence: Addressing Gender-Based Violence and Mental Health in Integrated Youth Services’ project to ensure youth are able to actively participate in decision-making processes and reflect a lived experience/service user perspective across YWHO initiatives.
The YWHO Provincial Office at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) supports a healthy workplace that embraces diversity, encourages teamwork, and complies with all applicable standards and requirements. These positions are based in the Greater Toronto Area. Travel throughout Ontario will be required, including regular in-person meetings in Toronto. This role will require occasional evening and weekend hours.
Job Requirements
Program Engagement Co-Facilitators will have at least one (1) year of experience supporting, connecting, or engaging with people with lived/living experience of mental health and substance use challenges, and/or GBV in the mental health and social service sector. The Program Engagement Co-Facilitators will have lived/living experience as a recipient of health and social service supports, which may include experiences with mental health, substance use and/or GBV services.
Program Engagement Co-Facilitators will have prior experience working with youth/young adults. They will have familiarity with the GBV service sector, knowledge of Ontario’s mental health and substance use system/services.