Executive Director; Eli's Place

Overview

Location:

Guelph, Ontario (onset likely a minimum 3 days a week).

Compensation: $160,000 - $190,000

Is This You?

We are seeking a visionary and dynamic Executive Director to lead the opening and strategic growth of Eli’s Place, ensuring the delivery of exceptional, client-centred care and outcomes. You are at the point in your career where you are ready for the responsibility and overall accountability of bringing an organization’s vision to life alongside a highly seasoned and experienced board.

You are deeply passionate about the transformative power of long-term residential (~6 months) therapeutic care with supported transition into the community to assist young adults facing severe mental illness. You understand the need and that 1 in 24 adults have serious mental illness and there are families desperately trying to find solutions and institutions to meet escalating needs. You want to be at the forefront of inspiring hope, reducing stigma and raising awareness.

You believe in the Eli’s Place model and how it will increase employment and education attainment and reduce crisis interventions, substance abuse and death by suicide. You are great with people and at building relationships. You are comfortable working with senior volunteers and sophisticated stakeholders. You understand Board Governance because you’ve (ideally) reported to a Board of Directors or have sat on a board yourself.

You have a strong operations background, and you have successfully hired and led diverse and dynamic teams and although you may not have direct experience being a clinical director, you ideally have management experience in the mental health, addictions, rehabilitation, and other residential setting space and understand health policy and legislation.

Does this sound like you? If so, please read on…

Eli’s Place is a new, mission-driven non-profit organization dedicated to providing a supportive and therapeutic residential farm-based treatment centre for young adults (ages 18-35) navigating serious mental health challenges. The centre will offer integrated, evidence-based treatment, fostering a community of recovery and well-being.

After conducting an in-depth global review of 33 centres, Eli’s Place chose the 108-year-old proven effective model of Gould Farm. Employment rates of the Gould Farm program participants went from 14% at departure to 81%, eighteen months after participation. Only 5% had a re-hospitalization and 100% were in stable housing 36 months after participation. Eli’s Place plans exciting next steps to enable opening.

They have reached an agreement with representatives of the Ignatius Jesuit Centre (IJC) to lease their existing residence, just north of Guelph, to define the path forward. Eli’s Place will be non-denominational/non-religious.

Some renovations to the residence will be for clients and to ensure there are dedicated spaces necessary to offer a variety of treatment modalities and to provide a safe and secure environment. Set within a 600-acre conservation area, Eli’s Place clients will find a quiet and nurturing space to begin their healing. Together with some of the IJC staff, Eli’s Place will provide outdoor programming rooted in farming, gardening, conservation, trail management and other seasonal activities.

This tranquil setting will provide the therapeutic milieu at the heart Eli’s Place model. The Jesuits of Canada have owned this land for over 100 years, cultivating spiritual growth and ecological engagement through programs in land stewardship, education, and community agriculture. Eli’s Place will complement IJC’s longstanding charitable and community-focused work, offering a program within a spiritual—though explicitly non-religious—framework that is central to the mission.

Mission Statement

Eli’s Place will be a rural, residential treatment centre for young adults with serious mental illness focused on promoting sustainable recovery and resilience through the acquisition of life and work skills within a therapeutic community. In addition to our core mission, we are actively engaged in education aimed at raising awareness and understanding of severe…