Housing Liaison Worker/transitional Housing Support

**INTERNAL/EXTERNAL POSTING**

Job Title**:Housing Liaison Worker/Transitional Housing Support Worker - VAW**

Status**:Indeterminate**

Hours**:28 hours/week - ability to work flexible hours (including evenings and weekends) is required**

Benefits**:Vacation leave, Personal leave, Cost-share insurance and health coverage, HOOPP pension**

Salary**:$49,554 (pro-rated to hours worked)**

Language **:Bilingualism (English/French) an asset**

Application Deadline**:February 19, 11:59 p.m.**

Bringing care and community together since 1986. Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre connects children, youth, parents, adults and seniors with services and resources in Ottawa west. We are committed to supporting our diverse communities in far west Ottawa by providing and coordinating accessible health and social services. Our work is guided by our four core beliefs: _empowerment_, _equity_, _partnership_ and _innovation_ and demonstrated through our day-to-day interactions with clients, partners, volunteers, members and staff.

Working at WOCRC means working within our Guiding Beliefs and making a difference to our community. As our employees support the community, WOCRC supports and values its employees by offering a generous wellness package including vacation leave, personal leave, insurance and health coverage, HOOPP enrolment, and maternity leave top-up for full-time indeterminate employees.

**Position Summary**

This is a dual-position role. Working 28 hours per week, the successful applicant will split their time between two positions. Firstly, by establishing and maintaining positive relationships with other VAW service providers to ensure timely and appropriate responses for women and children who have experienced abuse and are residing in social housing. Secondly, by supporting women, individually and in groups, who are trying to establish lives separate from their abusers.

**Principal Duties and Responsibilities**
- **VAW/Housing Liaison**_

**Liaise Between VAW Service Providers and Social Housing Providers**
- Respond to inquiries from housing providers about available, appropriate services for women residing in social housing. This requires keeping up-to-date records and information about resources available in the community;
- Coordinate regular meetings with social housing providers (Housing Advisory Committee) in order to facilitate ongoing discussion and identify housing-related issues;
- Coordinate and facilitate focus groups of housing and VAW front-line staff in order to identify ongoing, unresolved issues affecting VAW clients;
- Maintain positive relationships with community partners and stakeholders in the VAW and social housing sectors;
- Be a presence in the housing community with face-to-face relationship building.

**Community Outreach and Education**
- Connect regularly with Community Developers to discuss ongoing housing trends;
- Initiate and establish relationships with community partners providing services to VAW clients and develop referral protocols to these services from housing providers and VAW sectors;
- Develop and distribute relevant information packages and materials on a range of VAW information to housing providers;
- Coordinate and facilitate information/training sessions for staff of VAW and housing service providers.
- **Transitional Housing Support Worker**_

**Direct Service**
- Provide crisis intervention related to housing, through telephone and in person, with abused women. At times, this will require meeting women in an office setting, in the community, or in their homes (when deemed safe);
- Accompany women to community appointments, as needed (at times, this may involve transporting women to appointments, if safe);
- Coordinate and facilitate information and support groups for women;
- Coordinate regular meetings for city-wide Transitional Housing Support Workers in order to facilitate ongoing dialogue and identify needs;
- Provide systems navigation including information, resources, and referral (ie: counselling, financial support, employment, legal aid, interpretation, etc ).

**Advocacy**
- Advocate for the needs of clients;
- Promote and build links within the diverse local community to ensure that Health Equity and Inclusion perspectives are incorporated into differential frontline responses.

**Knowledge, Experience and Skills**
- Bachelor of Social Work or equivalent in education and experience;
- Minimum of two years of experience in the VAW sector;
- Demonstrated crisis intervention skills;
- Knowledge and understanding of the current VAW services and service providers;
- Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain productive working relationships with other community-based organizations;
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, multitasking abilities;
- Demonstrated skills in facilitating information and training sessions;
- Knowledge and understanding of the purpose, scope, and process to access and retain social housing;
- Demonstrat