Peer to Peer Coordinator

About the Organization

The qathet Community Action Team is leading a coordinated and centralized response to the toxic drug supply crisis in the City of Powell River and throughout the qathet region. Stakeholders across the region meet monthly to create and develop programming aimed at eliminating fatalities due to overdose. The qCAT’s non-profit lead is Lift Community Services of qathet Society.

Lift Community Services focuses on helping all people thrive in the qathet region by reducing social inequities and by providing support and advocacy for anyone who needs it. Our vision is a welcoming, inclusive, and diversity-affirming community that is free of poverty and full of heart. At Lift, we believe a thriving, sustainable community comes from a collaborative, equitable, future-focused approach.

Our programs and services include employment services, supportive housing and homeless outreach, temporary shelter services, literacy programs, health services, outreach, immigrant services, adult and family on-demand support. We also provide community leadership and development in overdose response planning, poverty reduction planning, and other projects that develop a more connected and resilient community. Lift operates many resource centres in our community, including the local WorkBC Centre, the Community Resource Centre, qathet Complex Care Housing, the iOAT Clinic, the Family Place, and the Dr. Elsie Paul Literacy Centre and the Nook Social Enterprise Cafe both located at the Powell River Public Library.

Lift Community Services serves a diverse community, and our goal is to build a team reflects that diversity. People of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives are encouraged to apply.

Opportunity

We are looking for a creative, skilled and experienced individual to pilot an initiative supporting people in accessing Opioid Agonist Therapies (OAT). In this role, you will coordinate and support a team of outreach workers with Lived Experience of OAT, ensuring services are available to people in need of OAT in qathet

This role includes a little bit of everything on the OAT continuum: hospital OAT starts, Dr appointments, pharmacy visits, motivational interviewing and transportation, connection to health teams and other supports as needed. As a coordinator, this also will mean you are mentoring and training staff, creating intake and other documents, maintaining client files and hiring outreach team members.

We are looking for a dedicated individual who is committed to making a difference in the lives of the people we serve. We see OAT as a protective factor in a poisoned drug supply, and want to give people a shame-free, dignified chance at medically assisted therapy. To see the full job description, click here.

Overview

• Hours: 35 hours/week
• Shifts: 5 days per week/7 hours per day- days of work candidate dependent
• Hourly Wage: $26.60 to start, on a 5-step wage scale
• Benefits: Competitive extended health benefits and an up to 4% matching RSP plan
• Time off: 3-week’s Vacation, 2-weeks sick Leave, 1-week Wellness Leave
• Reports to: Community Development Manager
• Start Date: ASAP
• Closing Date: Open until filled
• Questions? Contact: Kathryn Colby, Community Development Manager, kathryn@liftcommunityservices.org
• To Apply: Submit a resume and cover letter

Key Tasks and Competencies

• Support workers to meet the needs of the program through coaching and hands-on management.
• Build and maintain strong community partnership relations
• Liaising with educators and other services to ensure appropriate training and professional development for support workers.
• Operationalizing education and supports for capacity building in PWLLE support team
• Working with support team in order to ensure clients are meeting 90-day compliance with OAT
• Liaising with client care teams to assist with OAT compliance goals.
• Participate in cross-site coordinator meetings to ensure site and programming overlap is accounted for ethically and accurately.
• Bi-weekly timesheets and other HR duties related to supervising a team in current context of Lift Community Services and crises of homelessness, poverty and toxic drug supply

Qualifications

• Lived experience with substance use and recovery is a Bonafide requirement of this position
• Demonstrated ability to recognize and overcome barriers specific to rural and remote settings
• Experience relationship building with community partners and medical practitioners
• Strong working knowledge of harm reduction, OAT therapies and recovery models that are inclusive
• Proven ability to work in pressurized environments and in a multi-disciplinary environment

• A Degree in related field to human services or a Combination of knowledge and experience

• Specialized knowledge relating to Opioid Agonist Therapy pathways, Toxic Drug Supply Public Health Emergency and Motivational Interviewing training is an asset

Experience

• A strong working knowledge of support work related to people who use drugs
• At least 2 years’ experience in a supervisory role
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team environment

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to design client tracking and procedure materials
• Procedure and workflow development is an asset
• Communications skills such as writing and reporting

• Ability to coach and build capacity in a team
• Ability to respond appropriately to crisis and problem solve in moments of pressure
• Experience and/or a desire to working alongside people with lived and living experience of substance use
• Understanding the intricacies and nuances related to working alongside people who use substances
• A strong understanding of the biopsychosocial model of care

Other

• A satisfactory criminal record check, including a vulnerable sector check, is mandatory at time of job offer.

We appreciate all applications, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

As an inclusive employer, we would like to make the recruitment process as accessible as possible. Please contact us to let us know how we can best support you.

We live and work on the homelands and territories of the Tla’amin People. We honour the land, the Tla’amin People, and their treaty and continually seek to strengthen our relationship and responsibilities to them as guests in the territory.