Mental Health and Career Advocate

**Mental Health and Career Advocate (6-Month Contract)**

HIEC is an innovative not-for-profit social enterprise that focuses on partnership, mentorship, and workforce development in Ontario. With over 30 years of experience as an active community-focused organization, HIEC’s goal is to enhance career education and inspire youth to make informed career decisions. We offer a team environment that encourages innovative ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Reporting to HIEC’s Program Manager, the Mental Health and Career Advocate is a skilled organizer with experience working with diverse stakeholders and a dedication to bringing mental health awareness to the forefront.

It is important to note that in this role, the Mental Health and Career Advocate will notbe diagnosing individuals who use our services. This is a non-clinical based role and therefore, this position will not be offering clinical based sessions.

**Key areas of responsibility will include**:

- Complete skills assessments and evaluations with job seekers to determine their interests, aptitudes, and abilities
- Assist clients with resume writing, job searching and interview preparation
- Create detailed job search plans for clients, providing support and guidance
- Work with our AppSearch team to identify suitable employment opportunities for clients
- Assess the need for additional assistance, such as rehabilitation, retraining, financial assistance, and refer clients to the appropriate service providers
- Provide established workers with information on maintaining a job or moving within an organization, dealing with job dissatisfaction, or making a mid-career change
- Collect labour market information for clients regarding job openings, entry and skill requirements and other occupational information
- Ensure that the individual is an active participant in all phases of the job placement process
- Assist clients with establishing strong job seeking skills, positive attitudes, and interview readiness
- Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current job seeking methods
- Connects the multiple systems already in place that provide equitable, quality career awareness, exploration, preparation, and training programs while ensuring internal programs align to the broader workforce development systems in the state and working to guide external programs into alignment
- Design program offerings based on data collected by our user base
- Create workshops and facilitations for our internal organization and staff

**Key Competencies**:

- Strong relationship building skills, with a demonstrated ability to foster and maintain constructive interpersonal relationships
- Advocates must possess a solid understanding of human behaviour and psychology, while maintaining a compassionate, yet professional approach, one that may require assisting the patient on several different levels
- Knowledge of, and/or experience dealing with mental health issues and contemporary concepts and a strong commitment to human rights
- High level of advocacy, negotiation and investigative skills in a range of situations
- Strong commitment to working ethically with integrity, professionalism and commitment
- Politically and culturally sensitive
- High degree of resourcefulness, flexibility, and adaptability
- Strong morals and ethics, along with a commitment to privacy
- Excellent follow through on action items while keeping the team informed of progress and maintaining high energy and enthusiasm
- Superior planning, organizational and project management skills with ability to re-prioritize assignments and seek managerial guidance when necessary
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced setting
- Strong interest in building rapport with youth, youth empowerment, and adults
- Passion for community outreach and relationship-building with diverse stakeholders particularly within a network
- Ability to develop digestible and effective e-learning content
- Ability to take leadership and manage projects in a fast paced, virtual team environment
- Ability to cope with and embrace change, risk, ambiguity, and uncertainty

**Qualifications to Succeed**:

- Post-Secondary education with a focus on Social Work, Psychology, or a similar field
- Knowledge of theory, principles, and practices of career transition, counselling, and career development preferred
- Experience working with equity deserving groups and knowledge of systemic barriers when joining the labour market is considered a strong asset
- High level of critical and logical thinking, analysis, and/or reasoning to identify underlying principles, reasons, or facts
- Experience with institutional databases, public access sites, and primary research skills
- Knowledge of systemic barriers to the skilled trades
- Experience creating and facilitating presentations and/or workshops to small and large groups
- Experience working with not-for-profit organizations is a strong asset
- Proven ability with e-learn