Supportive Living House Staff

The **House Staff and Relief/Casual Staff** will work as a team member, to deliver the Supportive Living Program within one of three home locations. Home locations are in Middleton, Windsor and Kentville, N.S. The homes accommodate 5- 9 youth and provide staff and programming support for gaining life skills, mental wellness and finding belonging in the local community.

**Key Responsibilities**

1. Facilitate recreation and learning opportunities as directed by the core planning team and that reflect your unique skills, talents, and hobbies.

2. Facilitate life -skill learning through.
- Meal planning, food preparation and grocery shopping in accordance with the Canada Food Guide and Safe Food Handling guidelines
- Time and money management
- House chores.

3. Facilitate reflective conversations about life choices and goals.

4. Monitor safety and security of the house and its members. This may mean monitoring security cameras in some homes.

5. Provide listening support and model emotional regulation.

6. Respond calmly in accordance with policy and procedure to crisis such as medical emergencies, suicide attempts, self harm, or violence.

7. Encourage youth to adhere to their own goals, boundaries, and the community expectations.

8. Model healthy lifestyle choices, respectful communication, and clear boundaries.

9. Provide regular reports.

10. Join weekly team and training meetings. These may not always fall within your scheduled shift but require attendance.

**Requirements**:
**Education**:

- 2 -year Youth Work Dip., Child and Youth Care Dip., Addictions and Community Outreach dip. or equivalent training and experience OR
- Degrees in Community Development, Recreation, Nutrition, Sociology or Psychology will also be considered in combination with an internship or experience working with at risk youth (16-24).
- Five Core Competencies (MANDT, ASIST, NVCI, Mental Health First Aid and First Aid AED Level C). We can also provide some training.
- Equity and inclusion training or equivalent
- Inclusive language training or equivalent
- Applicants must demonstrate a strong ability to manage crisis situations and accomplish household tasks at night with little supervision. Time allotted for sleep will be from 11pm
- 6am unless needed to intervene in a crisis.
- Scheduled programming will focus on recreation, sleep hygiene and wellness.

Other training assets:

- Safe Food Handling
- Peer Mentoring
- Non-Violent Communication
- Motivational Interviewing
- Transformative or Community Mediation

Professional Experience:

- Two years minimum experience working with at-risk youth aged 16-24. This includes youth who are (or are at risk of being) homeless, trafficked/exploited, are engaged with the criminal justice system, have behavioral disorders and are marginalized.
- Essential to your success in this role is awareness of a trauma informed approach, and understanding of physical, psychological, and emotional needs of equity seeking youth. You must have knowledge and understanding of historical factors such as discrimination and trauma and its impact on youth development. You must have an understanding and experience working with culturally and socially diverse youth and demonstrate experience working from a strengths-based and relationship-based perspective.

Personal and Life experience:
We welcome applicants who are well developed, emotionally mature people who demonstrate some of the following traits.
- Experience working with youth in community-based settings.
- Understanding and experience working with culturally and socially diverse youth.
- Commitment to teamwork.
- A proven ability to emotionally regulate under stressful situations.
- The ability to listen empathically without moral evaluation or judgment.
- You work to understand your own upbringing, beliefs, biases, and privilege.
- You are highly developed, responsible, and aware of your own trauma response.
- You are engaged in the local community.
- You are a self
- directed motivated learner.
- You demonstrate experience working from a strengths and relationship-based perspective.

**Working Conditions**

Your personal resilience and ability to act decisively and with sound judgment in routine matters or crisis situations is critical. The PYOA workplace differs substantially from traditional office settings, where you will facilitate and maintain an awareness to provide safety and security for youth, visitors, and employees. While we take precautions, youth may demonstrate trauma-based responses where Nonviolent Crisis Intervention (NCI) techniques may be required to ensure a safe environment.

We expect staff to be able to respond with calm and compassion while acting in accordance with policy and procedure to crisis such as medical emergencies, suicide attempts, self harm, or violence.

**Support and Performance Review**

Staff will creatively approach their role with a set of program guidelines and job expectations within the policies of the o