Follow-Up & Transitional Support Worker; Housing

Follow-Up & Transitional Support Worker (Housing)

Job Category: Community Outreach/Counselling/Social Work

Employment Type:

Contract Full Time Salaried-12 months

Number of Vacancies: 1

Anticipated

Start Date:

August 1, 2024

Final date to receive applications:
July 27, 2026 at 5:00 pm

Be the Spark! Join our passionate team of Employment and Community Programs and help us to achieve great things in our community!

“You Got This!” a Home for Good program supports clients with a history of homelessness, who leave the streets or leave incarceration and achieve permanent housing with supports after they move in. The Follow-up Support staff work within a Housing First case management framework, which is client centred and based in harm reduction, to assist with community integration, life skill development, financial stability, socio-recreational interaction, recovery, and housing stability.

Follow-up supports are assessed on an on-going basis based upon a client's specific needs and level of support needed to meet their goals; a case management plan will be developed and monitored.

In this role, you will:

• Attend client transfer meetings.
• Work with youth to develop client crisis plans.
• Assist clients with community mapping and community integration by facilitating connections to community social and recreational activities through accompaniment.
• Actively involve clients in planning, goal setting, and decision making; develop goals related to life skills development and employment options.
• Connect clients to other community and/or ongoing supports such as mental health, and/or physical health, and/or substance use/harm reduction resources and supports.
• Assist clients with referrals; accompany the client to appointments, and walk with the client in their community to identify and connect with local resources.
• Conduct regular home visits focused on specific activities/outcomes that result in the client moving toward independence.
• Ensure Assertive Engagement, which involves actively looking for and locating the client in the community as required.
• Act as a Landlord contact and support.
• Actively work with the clients to prevent eviction, which includes checking monthly with the landlord to ensure rent was paid, participate in landlord mediation, etc.
• Assist clients to move towards achieving long-term income stability, which may involve collaboration with TESS/Ontario Works (OW) worker, referrals to employment supports, pursuing an ODSP application, and accessing other financial literacy programs.
• Maintain regular case notes to track progress on client goals and highlight next steps, landlord communications, referrals, and crisis plans.
• Assist clients with re-housing and complete required documentation.
• Ensure clients are discharged from services as prescribed by Eva initiatives and the YMCA (or Funder requirements).
• Attend a monthly case conference with program partners.
• Provide ongoing assessment, case management, care coordination, and monitoring of client's needs; monitor and evaluate clients' changing needs and coordinate individualized services.
• Document; maintain member case files and ensure quality audit measures are achieved in accordance with the YMCA and funder's standards.
• Respond to and investigate enquiries, complaints, and emergency situations involving clients; assess the situation and present and implement solutions; listen, mediate, negotiate, and provide support and guidance to resolve issues.
• Participate in research activities and program development and delivery.
• Liaise with staff from other programs and community agencies to provide program information or advocate for transfers/placements of clients.
• Adhere to all Vanauley St. YMCA protocols and practices as well as Association and other relevant policies and procedures.
• Participate in volunteer supervision, staff meetings, and professional development trainings as required.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

You bring:

• Post-secondary education in social or human services or equivalent experience
• Training certificate in defusing hostility and/or crisis prevention
• Minimum of two years of experience in a setting that provides service to homeless or street-involved youth, including case management
• Ability to work flexible shifts
• Working knowledge of the Residential Tenancies Act, Landlord and Tenant Board processes, and other relevant housing legislation
• Knowledge and ability to integrate anti-oppression, critical disability, LGBTQ2S and trans-positivity, trauma, recovery approach in support of mental health, and strengths-based principles into practice
• Knowledge of the issues that lead young people to become homeless and the ability to work with youth in a respectful, non-judgmental, and consistent manner
• Extensive skills in mental health, harm reduction, and support for marginalized individuals with complex needs
• Commitment to working in a socially inclusive environment, responding with sensitivity and personal awareness to the diverse needs of members, including visible and non-visible…