Addictions Counsellor

**Reports to**: Manager of Addiction Services

**Positions Available**:1 part-time (21 hours per week)

**About Porchlight Counselling and Addictions Services**

For 84 years, Porchlight Counselling and Addictions Services has been supporting our community with counselling, building healthy relationships, community engagement, addictions services, and targeted supportive housing. We want everyone to have access to affordable, caring, person-centred, trauma-informed, culturally appropriate supports that meet their unique needs. Our vision is for a community where there is equality, respect, empathy, and inclusion, and this is why we get up in the morning and do the work that we do.

Our team enjoys working collaboratively and we strive to value each other, because we know people are our most important resource. Our staff and volunteers work to support each other and value a healthy work-life balance. We see our clients as people first and aspire to walk alongside them towards growth and healing. We invest in our staff and work to support their growth as both individuals and team members.

Our team has been providing addiction supports in Cambridge for over two decades, with a focus on helping people experiencing homelessness navigate the treatment and recovery system. This December, the YWCA Cambridge will open a new 20-bed emergency shelter for women. In partnership with the YWCA, Porchlight will provide mental health and addiction supports on-site at the shelter. That’s where you come in.

**Areas of Professional Responsibility**:
This position uses a substance intervention model that provides the understanding of harm reduction Medical Assisted Treatment approaches. On the continuum of care, this role includes the ability to resource clients to substance use/alcohol treatment options for recovery, based on the Stages of Change. This role will provide support 2 days per week in a shelter setting, and one day per week within the agency’s Recovery Home team. The counsellor works collaboratively with clients as part of a multi-disciplinary team of agency colleagues and colleagues from partner agencies to:

- Provide interventions relating to intake, assessment, education, treatment, consultation, and referral for clients who are currently experiencing, or are affected by problems related to substance use.
- Provide individual addiction counselling, supports, and participate in psychoeducational groups for clients.
- Work within the framework of the agency’s services. This includes shelter services and within recovery homes. Depending on the location, this may include using both harm reduction and an abstinence-focused model.
- Work effectively with clients who present with multiple and complex challenges
- Review client progress and makes adjustments to treatment plans in collaboration with other service providers, based on a client-centred approach. This may include pre
- and post-treatment services.
- Provides ongoing feedback and support to clients.
- Make referrals to outside agencies.
- Be available to share an on-call schedule and work in more than one location, including engaging with the public where needed.
- Complete administrative duties as it relates to the preparation/process and evaluation of the programs
- Participate in collaborative team meetings, including staff meetings and supervision
- Exhibit a thorough knowledge of agency policies and procedure as well as applicable program funders and their requirements
- Other responsibilities as mutually agreed upon with the Supervisor and/or Executive Director

**Qualifications**:

- An educational background that supports this work, including Addictions Counselling Diploma or certification, Social Services Diploma, Community and Addictions Worker Diploma, or a related discipline from an accredited post-secondary institution.
- Certification or currently registered and working towards certification with the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation (CACCF), receiving a designation of no less than a Canadian Certified Addiction Counsellor.
- Minimum of three year (3) recent related experience working within the Addictions and Mental health service sector.
- Experience working with vulnerable populations including the unhoused.
- Significant understanding of substance use and mental health issues, concurrent disorders, and evidence-based treatment practices.
- Comprehensive knowledge of and experience in facilitation or co-facilitation of psycho-educational groups.
- Ability to provide culturally competent service to clients.
- Ability to deal effectively with crises, including a threat of self-harm, or harm to others.
- Knowledge of mental health and trauma, and how they relate to addictions.
- Knowledge of available programs and services, their interrelationships, and their function in delivering services in the community.
- Excellent organizational, interpersonal and written communication skills.
- Familiar and proficient with c