Peer Advocate: Community

**Are you an individual with lived experience of human trafficking? Are you looking to make a difference in lives of survivor peers?**

**Restorations Second Stage Homes (RSSH) exists to support survivors of sexual exploitation and human trafficking by providing long term residential housing, survivor-led peer programming and holistic care.**

**We are hiring a Peer Advocate for a contract position.**

**Purpose**: A Peer Advocate is an individual with lived experience of human trafficking and/or commercial sexual exploitation who provides one-to-one and/or group based support to survivors receiving service at Restorations’ Second Stage Homes. A Peer Advocate works to empower survivors to build skills and make decisions that are rooted in both self-determination and autonomy.

**Responsibilities**
- **Peer Advocacy - Direct Service (75%)**_
- Community Peer Programming is delivered virtually to survivors living across southern Ontario and in person to survivors in the City of Hamilton and Halton Region. _The role of Peer Advocate: Community and Youth Support provides care to both community-based participants (including those residing at Nancy's House, Restorations' residential program in Burlington) as well as all youth participants enrolled in Peer Programming.
- Root all service within the values of Peer Programming and Restorations as a whole.
- Coordinate with fellow Peer Advocate(s) regarding the division of all community-based caseload participants to promote matches that support individualized care.
- Collaborate with the Program Manager of Nancy’s House to provide Peer Advocacy and programming to up to 3 residents of Nancy’s House.
- Collaborate with fellow Peer Advocate: Community + Residential Support regarding direct service peer programming as a whole, including relevant case conferencing and program facilitation.
- Collaborate with fellow Peer Advocate + Program Coordinator regarding youth specific programming development needs, maintenance, and evaluation.

**1-1 Peer Advocacy**:

- Establish and maintain relationships with Survivors through rapport and trust building.
- Maintain and model a personal wellness system that embodies self-care, self-awareness, development and growth.
- Highlight the learnings of common experiences with participants (related to lived experience) in a way that keeps the participant at the center of care - only when doing so aligns with the participants needs.
- Adopt an informed consent-based approach to care.
- Advocate with and, if necessary for, Survivors (with their informed-consent).
- Support Survivors to navigate relevant health and social services systems; connecting them to community resources (where appropriate).
- Support Survivors to address self-appointment areas of concerns: facilitating the exploration of options and solutions.
- Support Survivors to self-determine goals as they work towards a life of their choosing, acting as a support for their decision-making processes.
- Provide on-going individualized support that is led by the participant and is focused on maintaining meaningful connection within the supportive relationship.Provide accompaniment to appointments for emotional support/advocacy as well as casual community visits, transportation, and regularly scheduled meetings.
- Foster a sense of companionship to reduce isolation and promote positive community and social reintegration.
- Maintain clear and transparent communication regarding professional boundaries.
- **Youth Program Planning, Networking & Development (15%)**:_
- Collaborate regularly with Peer Advocate: Program Coordinator and the Executive Director regarding youth programming and toolkit projects.
- Work efficiently and effectively to meet work plan deliverable objectives as designated by the overseeing grant program.
- Participate in the assembly of an advisory committee to inform toolkit development.
- Build and maintain collaborative working relationships with local agencies and community partners to provide direct service to youth who have lived experience of commercial sexual exploitation and/or human trafficking.
- Engage in community partnerships to:Inform Peer Programming planning and development (identifying needs in existing services).
- Generate awareness of Peer Advocacy services available at Restorations - with an emphasis on youth access.
- **Administrative & Team Support (10%)**_
- Complete administrative duties and required documentation using client management systems utilized by Restorations.
- Follow all Restorations Second Stage Homes policies, procedures and guidelines and ensure adherence to all legal requirements related to ethical service delivery.
- Work as a team to conduct regular evaluations of Peer Programming including the evaluation of grant project proceedings, topic-based groups, drop-in groups, individualized services, and the overall effectiveness of Peer Programming.
- Engage in weekly meetings.
- Other duties as required.

**Qualificat