Family Support Specialist

A Family Support Specialist can be the first line of welcome, information, and health system navigation for clients and families living with childhood disability. Working as part of the hospital’s Client and Family Integrated Care (CFIC) team, the Family Support Specialist facilitates client and family-centred approaches to education, training and evaluation. The position plays a key role in client and family information sharing, resource development, workshop coordination, and supporting peer networking activities at Holland Bloorview. This role also supports the Hospital’s social needs screening initiative and Family Navigation Hub, a service that supports clients and families to connect with resources related to social determinants of health such as access to food and housing.

The Family Support Specialist will advance Holland Bloorview’s mission, vision and values by supporting clients and families to find appropriate, meaningful and evidence-informed education resources and workshops in a timely manner; partnering with hospital staff, students and trainees,Youth and Family Leaders (lived experience experts and volunteers) to design user-friendly education resources and workshops; and advocating for client and family choice in health care design and daily living.

**Develops and Coordinates Workshop & Events**
- Partners in the development, coordination and evaluation of a family workshop calendar from September to June of each year
- Uses a multimedia and multimodal approaches to designing and integrating virtual workshops and events and in-person learning options (wherever possible)
- Prepares communication plans to effectively promote family workshops and events both within and beyond Holland Bloorview, including monthly Parent Support Network and CommunityCONNECT events.
- Liaises with workshop presenters and hospital partners, and promptly responds to client and family questions and concerns regarding workshops and events
- Partners with Family Leaders (lived experience experts and volunteers) to co-design and deliver Holland Bloorview’s Parent Support Network: a series of topic-specific peer support and education sessions for parents and caregivers of children living with disability
- Sources new and existing learning materials and partnerships to supplement family workshops and topics for Parent Support Network
- Partners with members of the CFIC team and other hospital programs to continuously improve the impact of family workshops and Parent Support Network (e.g.,audience diversity, promotion, accessibility, alignment with hospital strategies)
- Supports Family Leaders to co-facilitate Parent Support Network sessions and participate in CommuntyCONNECT events
- Collects and integrates the feedback of clients and families, staff, students and trainees, and Family Leaders regarding family workshops and events
- Provides qualitative and quantitative data on workshop evaluations, when requested
- Performs administrative tasks as needed: coordinating workshop scheduling, room and audio/visual bookings, setting up and facilitating events through virtual learning platforms, managing registration and evaluation, tracking and analyzing workshop participation metrics in database
- Updates resources and events on the hospital’s Online Family Resource Centre website clearly and consistently
- Assists Clinical Lead of Family Navigation Hub in implementing social needs screening across the hospital and promoting general awareness-raising of health equity, social determinants of health and Family Navigation Hub activities.

**Client and Family Information Consults**
- Ensures the Family Resource Centre offers a warm and welcoming space to the 8,000+ inpatient and outpatient clients and families that visit Holland Bloorview annually
- Provides personalized support and information consults in person, over the phone and over Zoom; and by using a range of methods and materials
- Conducts social needs screening tool inviting families to self-identify as having unmet social needs and facilitates referral process to the Family Navigation Hub
- Facilitates the expansion of resource material including multi-lingual, alternative formats and multiple modalities to ensure greatest ease of use and accessibility
- Refers clients and families to partner agencies and organizations as appropriate
- Collaborates with Holland Bloorview employees, students and trainees, and volunteers to develop and maintain an up-to-date collection of relevant, diverse and credible information for clients and families (e.g., educational tip-sheets, videos, online resources, and pamphlets)
- Networks with community agencies to support information sharing with families

**Education**
- Post-secondary degree or diploma in a related field, such as social work, education, multimedia design, community and social services, health services or equivalent work experience
- Training and/or relevant experience in client and family-centred care, c