Youth Development Worker - North York, Canada - Unison Health and Community Services

Description

Youth Development Worker (YDW) - Pathways to Education Program

Full-time, Contract (January, 2023 to March 31, hours per week

$23.92 to $28.34 per hour (commensurate on experience & education)
Unison Health and Community Services is a non-profit, community-based organization that serves neighbourhoods in North West Toronto.

Operating out of six locations, Unison offers core services that include primary health care, counselling, health promotion, Early Years programs, legal services, harm reduction programs, housing assistance, adult protective services, Pathways to Education and a Diabetes Education Program.

Unison's mission is working together to deliver accessible and high quality health and community services that are integrated, respond to needs, build on strengths and inspire change.

We are seeking a full-time, Youth Development Worker (YDW) to build relationships with students by providing financial, academic, and social supports; monitoring individual student progress and encouraging cross-program participation within Unison and with other support agencies.

The YDW will report to the Program Supervisor, Pathways to Education.


Job-Specific Responsibilities:

• Establish and maintain effective relationships with parents/guardians, volunteers, school/community partners and within the Unison team through regular contact and communication.
• Use Knowledge of Ontario High school Curriculum, EQAO Assessments and credit accumulation to support students' succesfully progress through each grade of high school.
• Support students in developing an action plan for meeting identified goals;
• Provide information and resources to support the student/family to carry out the action plan.
• Make appropriate service referrels for students to support their wellbeing.
• Work with students to regularly evaluate their plans, recognize their successes and to set new goals.
• Provide students with information on alternative forms of programming when necessary and collaborate with Program Facilitators to collect and maintain clear records on students who are participating in Alternative forms of programming.
• Provide advocacy on academic, postsecondary, employment readiness and other issues relevant to the student's overall wellbeing.
• Collect, review and document student information to identify where additional support and followup may be required i.e.) timetables, attendance records, report cards etc.
• Maintain accurate and up to date physical and digital student files.
• Collaborate with school administration and teachers to ensure students' learning needs, Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and differeing abilities are accomodated.
• Contact parents/guardians where appropriate, to discuss student progress and participation in school and programming.
• Participate in Pathways team meetings and maintain ongoing communication with Program Facilitators to strategise on improving student engagement and participation.
• Participate in ongoing client conferencing with other Pathways team members.
• Facilitate academic and social supports programming usually between 4:008:00 p.m.
• Collaborate with youth program support workers around administration, programming, and security and safety routines at programming sites.
• Supervise, orient, and support programming volunteers.
• Manage group dynamics among students and volunteers including addressing challenging student behavior and supporting volunteers with group facilitation and management.
• Model for volunteers the skills and techniques for positively engaging students.
• Organize space, routines and materials for academic and social programing.

Organizational Responsibilities:

• Participate in team and organizationwide meetings and committees, initiatives and events.
• Develop work goals in conjunction with supervisor, identifying action plans, learning objectives and professional development needs.
• Participate in performance appraisal process including selfevaluation component.
• Adhere to all policies and procedures of the organization.
• Submit encounter data and/or statistics, administrative forms and reports in a timely fashion.
• Orient, supervise and support students and/or volunteers as required.
• Identify, report and debrief on client safety incidents, good catches, occupational health and safety incidents and near misses.
• Other duties as required.

Job Specific Qualifications:

• Relevant diploma, degree, certificate or professional training in area related to youth, including but not limited to social work, community development, social services, education, or recreation.
• 23 years of experience working with youth in one or more of the relevant areas.
• Knowledge of approaches to providing support to youth with special needs, youth at risk and youth from lowincome and/or culturally diverse communities.
• Detailed knowledge of the secondary school system and postsecondary transitions as well as an un