Community Ambassador (Family Wellbeing Pilot Program)

Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services (AAMHCS) is a Community Health Centre that aims to provide services and address system inequities to improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable immigrants, refugees, and their communities. The Centre envisions a future in which Toronto’s diverse communities achieve health with dignity.

Access Alliance is one of seven community agencies participating in the City of Toronto Family Wellbeing Pilot Program. The goal of the pilot program is to create more inclusive, accessible, and equitable system navigation for families, through community-based, population-focused engagement, while creating positive parenting practices and enhanced family functions.

The focus of the pilot is on supporting equity-deserving families who are disproportionately and most negatively impacted by youth violence in Scarborough, and that have historically experienced systemic oppression and exploitation. The target audience in this pilot are parents, guardians, caregivers, families, and communities who support youth (ages 10-29) most vulnerable to involvement in crime and violence (guns and gangs).

As part of the Family Wellbeing Pilot, Access Alliance is focused on Newcomers in the Oakridge catchment area. The Access Alliance ambassadors will work with the Family Wellbeing Program team to conduct a variety of place-based and population-specific activities to provide education, resources and referrals to services that will allow families to improve their wellbeing.

Role Description

• Receive contact referrals and connect directly to community members through engagements such as one-on-one interactions, in-person and virtual consultations, community events, webinars, and others
• Ability to provide outreach and service in “non-traditional” and culturally appropriate, community-based ways that are responsive to the needs of gang involved families and communities.
• Provide culturally appropriate prevention and intervention services to parents, caregivers and family members who support youth that are involved in gang involvement or on the pathway toward targeted violence and their families through service coordination, gang awareness education, employment and training supports, parenting skills development, cultural and community education, mental health supports
• To liaise, consult and collaborate with key stakeholders in the community: City services, Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Provincial Youth Outreach Workers, Probation and Parole, Boards of Education, Ontario Works Family Caseworkers, mental health and employment focused agencies and other service providers as required regarding the needs of gang involved families.
• Facilitate the delivery of information to the community, through multilingual, multi-platform engagement methods through culturally appropriate engagement and outreach sessions
• Provide navigation supports on how to connect to appropriate services and follow up using the 3 touch points (will meet each parent 1-3 times to support in increasing access, education and support in navigating systems)
• Help individuals and families develop a plan for system navigation, including scheduling check-ins and reminders
• Assist Family Wellbeing Teams in establishing relationships with relevant community groups such as landlords, superintendents, building managers and tenant groups to increase engagement and uptake in the pilot program
• Participate in community health and social services education opportunities through agency site-visits, tours and workshops
• Receive support from and work in collaboration with the Family Wellbeing Coordinator
• Attend regular team meetings for updates; ability to be agile as the pilot progresses
• Attend all relevant training opportunities provided by Family Wellbeing Teams, the City, agency partners etc.
• Attend and contribute to “peer to peer” Community of practice monthly meetings for ongoing information sharing, decompression, and issues escalation
• Participate in professional development opportunities to lead fellow ambassadors in mentorship, advisory and education supports
• Complete and submit Family Wellbeing Ambassador reports at the end of each shift to identify outreach findings and trends
• Ability to research and connect parents, caregivers and family members to programs and services
• Remain agile and ready to adapt to developing pilot needs

Recommended Qualifications and Assets:

• Lived experience and/or experience working with Newcomer communities, and/or Newcomer organizations.
• Lived experience and/or experience working with families of the most vulnerable gang involved youth in conflict with the law and social justice systems, and/ or marginalized communities.
• Experience working in Oakridge, Scarborough, or neighbouring communities.  
• Knowledge of and sensitivity to the life experiences and needs of gang involved families and marginalized communities. 

• Excellent interpersonal skills to deal effectively with staff, all levels of management, City of Toronto staff, Family Wellbeing Consortium partners, pilot key partners and internal/external service providers.
• Diploma in social services or a field relevant to youth development, family development, social justice systems, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience identifying family and youth needs and providing guidance to parents, caregivers, and family members.
• Experience with engagement, outreach and making referrals.
• Considerable experience using Microsoft Office applications (MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint) to produce reports and presentations.
• Understanding of adult education principles, practices, training, and evaluation methodologies.
• Fundamental knowledge of youth development and family principles.
• Well-developed written and verbal communication skills.
• Understanding of organizational effectiveness principles and how they relate to overall program outcomes.
• Ability to learn new reporting systems (e.g. online contact referral process and electronic tracking systems) to track and initial contacts into the pilot.
• Experience in organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and meet deadlines. 

Please be advised that our organization requires all staff, students, and volunteers must be fully vaccinated. Proof of vaccination can be obtained from the Ministry site. 

Application Method: 

With “Family Wellbeing Ambassador” in the subject heading, please send your resume and cover letter by April 9, 2024 at 5:00 pm to: familywellbeing@accessalliance.ca

Applications will be reviewed as soon as they are received.

No phone calls please.

We thank all applicants for their interest but only those selected for an interview will receive acknowledgement. Please note that a criminal background check (Vulnerable sector) will be conducted for this position. We encourage applications from individuals who reflect the broad diversity of communities we work with, including those from racialized and 2SLGBTQI+ communities.