Social Planning Associate

**Career Opportunity**

The Region of Waterloo is currently recruiting for a:
Temporary Full Time Social Planning Associate

Department: Community Services
Division: Housing Services
Hours of Work: 35 hours a week
Location: 99 Regina St. South, Waterloo, Ontario

**Our Story**:
Committed to fostering opportunities for current and future generations, the Region of Waterloo is an inclusive, thriving and sustainable region of connected rural and urban communities with global reach. Our mission is to serve, engage and inspire, by delivering quality services to a diverse population of 630,000+, while creating a healthy, collaborative environment of learning, respect and innovation.

This is a place where employees are valued and recognized for their talents and contributions to our success. Our employees take pride in making a difference in people's lives through the work that we do. We are looking for people like you to help make it happen.

**Our Team**:
In Community Services, we work toward creating a community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and no one is left behind. We take an integrated approach to service delivery where the service user and the community are partners in that vision.

In Housing Services, we believe that communities thrive when everyone has a place to call home. This vision guides our every decision. We serve community members experiencing homelessness, housing instability, and housing affordability challenges in Waterloo Region. We are a Service System Manager, funder, and service provider.

**The Opportunity**:
As an integral part of the leadership team, you will provide project management and planning-related leadership, support, and expertise to management, staff and community partners. You will build community capacity, lead service, staffing, and system reviews, and make recommendations regarding funding allocations and identifying and addressing strategic and system-level policy gaps and opportunities. You will analyze data, engage in program research and evaluation, prepare and present reports, and respond to inquiries from Council, Senior Management and Community Members. You will work collaboratively with Community Services staff in other work areas to promote opportunity for integration and to support efforts to prevent and end homelessness and increase access to affordable housing.
- Assists internal and external stakeholders to identify strategic and system-level policy gaps and opportunities. Leads service, staffing, and system reviews, and recommends changes to senior management. Makes recommendations regarding funding allocation and additional resources. Develops and advises on implementation plans. Analyzes, develops, and recommends policies and guidelines.
- Provides planning-related leadership, support, and expertise to management. Identifies issues, needs, resources, and opportunities for integrated planning across divisions, departments, and the community, and facilitates same.
- Manages projects to design and implement social planning processes and frameworks (e.g., service plans, long-term system plans) and is accountable for ensuring objectives, work plans, and timelines are set and met. Leads project teams.
- Develops and facilitates community capacity building. Represents assigned Division/the Department on related committees and at community functions.
- Provides leadership, support, and expertise in program research and evaluation to internal and external stakeholders. Develops methodology and data collection tools. Analyzes data, predicts trends, prepares reports, and makes recommendations on program and policy changes.
- Promotes the Department’s vision and philosophy of integrated customer service within and across divisions, across departments, and within the community, with stakeholders.
- Creates and maintains the Department’s component of the Regional Emergency Plan, as directed.

**To assume the role as Social Planning Associate you will have a profile that reflects the following strengths**:

- Knowledge of municipal and provincial social service and healthcare programs and related legislation; interrelationships between levels of government, public administration, strategic and social planning, research and evaluation, community development, program administration, and factors impacting social wellbeing and quality of life, normally acquired through a Master’s Degree in a related field (e.g., Social Work, Social Planning, Community Psychology, Social Policy, Human Service Administration), plus progressively responsible related experience in a social services or related field.
- Knowledge of and ability to comply with policies, procedures, collective agreements, and relevant legislation, guidelines, and direction.
- Proven research, analytical, organizational, and problem solving skills to create project goals and objectives; develop work plans; make systematic and rational judgments; schedule and organize events; and take a broad vi