Program Specialist

**Req ID**:186969**
**Location**:Central** Zone, **Public Health Services - Burnside**
**Department**:PH HP Communicable Disease Prevention CZ**
**Type of Employment**:Temporary** **Hourly FT long-assignment** (**100%**) x **1**
**Admin Professionals** P**osition**
**Posting Closing Date**:5-Sep-24**

Nova Scotia Health is the largest provider of health services in Nova Scotia, with some specialized services also offered to clients throughout Atlantic Canada. We’re on a mission to achieve excellence in health, healing, and learning through working together, which is reflected in the hospitals, health centres, and community-based programs we operate across the province. Our passionate team of professionals provides a variety of high-quality inpatient and outpatient services including academic, tertiary, and quaternary care, as well as continuing care, primary health care, public health, and mental health and addictions. Join a diverse team of innovators, collaborators, and creative thinkers today.

**About the Opportunity**:
The Program Specialist, Harm Reduction works with internal and external partners to coordinate
initiatives to take action and advocate for policy and system change for the creation of supportive
social, economic, and physical environments that prevent harm, reduce stigma, and protect and
promote health. The Program Specialist synthesizes data and evidence and uses knowledge
evidence informed programs, services, policies and strategies.
The Program Specialist provides leadership and advanced knowledge in health promotion, health
protection, harm reduction, and community development theory and practice to promote and support
the development of policies, programs and services and physical, social and built environments to
reduce health inequities and address the determinants of health. The Program Specialist uses health
promotion and harm reduction approaches which support empowerment, participation, partnerships
and equity to perform their work in healthy public policy, community health assessments,
community development and mobilization.
The position is responsible for:

- Providing expert level advice, evidence and best practice on advancing the understanding of harm reduction, stigma reduction, and trauma informed work
- Coordinating projects, initiatives and teams working on a specific content issues with internal and external partners
- Contributing to knowledge translation by retrieving, assessing and synthesizing complex research findings.
- Contributes to the development of policies and programs aimed at empowering marginalized populations and reducing stigma, in collaboration with key stakeholders
- Collaboratively developing tools, indicators and measures to enable an understanding of health protection and healthy communities work and how it translates related to specific issues.

**About You**:
We would love to hear from you if you have the following:

- Bachelor’s in health promotion, sociology, or other relevant field with 5 years relevant experience.
- Master’s degree in public health, health promotion or other relevant field with 3 years relevant experience.
- Knowledge of and experience in:

- working with stigmatized populations, and individuals who have experienced trauma.
- Strong skills and experience in facilitation.
- Philosophy and core principals of harm reduction.
- media advocacy and communication.
- oppression and stigma as a social determinant of health, awareness, and study of one’s own
- power and privilege and, appropriate public health approaches to reduce health inequities.
- evidence-informed decision-making tools and practices, conducting rapid evidence reviews and producing evidence briefs.
- innovative systems thinking with an understanding of working with communities and community-based organizations.
- the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, gender-based discrimination and other social inequalities that affect both people’s vulnerability and capacity for effectively dealing with drug related harm.
- interacting with municipal units, communities and community leadership within zones.
- working in coalitions and building strategic partnerships.
- community development and mobilization.
- project management techniques and processes.

Please ensure your resume is up to date and includes all relevant education, experience, training, and certifications.

**Hours**:

- Temporary Full Time Long Assignment/ 100% FTE/ 70 Hours Bi-weekly
- Start Date: Sept. 2024 / End Dates Feb. 2026 (approximate 18-month term position)

**Compensation and Benefits**:
$39.23 - $45.79 hourly

**Once You've Applied**

Thank you for your interest in this position. Only those applicants selected for an interview will be contacted.

This is a Admin Professionals bargaining unit position. Preference is given to bargaining unit employees for unionized positions. Employees are encouraged to view their seniority hours and dates in their SuccessFa