Reintegration Advocate

The Mustard Seed is seeking a compassionate candidate who is understanding and sensitive towards individuals facing challenging circumstances, including substance use disorders and housing instability.

The Mustard Seed Pathways to Integration Program, aims to support recently incarcerated adults struggling with substance use and addiction in their transition back into the community. The program emphasizes recovery, stability, and overall wellness by building recovery capital and providing critical pre-release and post-release services. The Pathways to Integration Program collaborates with Calgary’s Remand Centres and Female Annex.

The Reintegration Advocate is committed to helping incarcerated individuals who experience poverty, housing instability, and substance use disorders to assist them in transitioning towards and maintaining sustainable and healthy lifestyles. The Reintegration Advocate connects clients with any needed external and internal resources. As the Reintegration Advocate, you will work closely with social workers and peer support workers to support individuals transitioning from provincial remand centres to community through system navigation to address the social determinants of health.

Employment Type: Full-Time, Fixed Term (Until March 31, 2028)
Schedule: Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Reporting to: Program Supervisor
City: Calgary
Number of Positions to Fill: 1
RFR #: 2253

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Meet with community members requesting advocacy support and determine their ID, Income, and housing goals with them to prioritize the support they require to achieve their goals;
• Complete the Wellness Advocate intake process;
• Build and maintain positive relationships with clients and create a welcoming, respectful, inclusive, and safe environment for them;
• Educate and empower clients to understand and achieve their rights and responsibilities, to facilitate their full participation in society;
• Contribute to general health and wellness programming including supporting or facilitating group initiatives and programs that increase knowledge and awareness of community health;
• Liaise with internal and external resources that will help clients achieve their goals if the support is beyond the scope of services provided by the Wellness Advocate. This includes maintaining existing partnerships as well as developing new partnerships;
• In regards to clients who have a Caseworker, complement the work of the client’s Caseworker by acting as a consultant and liaison for issues that require client access to external resources;
• Refer clients who do not have a Caseworker directly to internal and external resources;
• Advocate for clients as needed both to access resources within and outside the organization;
• Maintain relationships with agency partners and volunteers;
• Ensure clients accessed external resources, by completing follow up with guests and agencies;
• Contribute to community programs facilitation as needed;
• Follow protocols to ensure sanitized and organized professional workspace;
• Provide backup to Reception to ensure front desk is covered;
• Assist with training of new Wellness Advocates and Receptionists;
• Participate in case management teams when required;
• Provide crisis intervention, as necessary;
• Provide input into program evaluation upon request.

Administration

• Build a comprehensive library and knowledge base on community resources;
• Share and disseminate community resource information;
• Track assigned clients’ progress with external resources;
• Communicate relevant information to Caseworker about interactions with clients and observed behavior;
• Document client interactions, client referrals and client progress on documentation platforms (platforms vary with each city);
• Track statistics and prepare reports, as required;
• Attend meetings and training as assigned;
• Serve on internal and external committees, as requested;
• Provide input into the development of policies and procedures for designated programs;
• Keep clients’ records and information confidential, updated and secure.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• A minimum of an undergraduate degree in healthcare administration, public health, social worker, psychology, nursing, or a related field is preferred.
• Three to five years of related working experience preferred.
• Competence in use of MS Office.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Excellent administrative, time management and organizational skills.
• Self-motivated and ability to work independently.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Time more than regular working hours may be required on occasion.
• This position includes a combination of working between Health and Wellness Centre, various local Mustard Seed sites and external agencies both in Calgary/Edmonton (including but not limited to provincial remand centres).
• Local travel to various Mustard Seed sites and external agencies will be required.
• Position may require working and driving in extreme weather conditions. Being aware of the daily weather report is essential.
• Fast paced and demanding work environment.
• Daily interactions with colleagues and guests.
• Moderate physical effort required such as walking, standing, sitting.
• Moderate to intense mental effort required to respond to highly intense situations.
• Employees are to be aware that many of our clients may experience difficulties or impairment at times, which could result in them uttering threats, discriminatory statements, and other insults at your person. This may be in a raised voice, or in seeing unpredictable behaviour up to and including the possibility of them becoming aggressive.
  • Training on how to respond is provided, but this is to be considered typical working conditions. Many of our clients are unaware of the impact of these comments.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• As The Mustard Seed is a Christian ministry, we require our employees sign an agreement indicating that they will respect and not detract from our Statement of Faith.
• Must have legal authorization to work in Canada on a full-time basis for anyone other than current employer.
• A satisfactory employment background check and/or vulnerable sector check required.
• Please submit your cover letter along with your resume.
  
  

NOTE

• Your privacy is important to us. The information we collect is used solely for consideration for employment.
• We thank all candidates for their interest, however, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. The Mustard Seed reserves the right to amend job advertisements. No phone calls please.
• Please visit our careers page to see more job opportunities.