Engagement Coordinator - McCain Centre-camh

Through its core values of Courage, Respect and Excellence , CAMH is implementing its Strategic Plan: Connected CAMH, to transform lives, ignite innovation and discovery, revolutionize education and drive social change. CAMH is more than a hospital, it is a cause. CAMH is on a mission to change the way society thinks about and responds to mental illness. They aim to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and shape a world where mental illness is central to our healthcare system - a world where Mental Health is Health. To learn more about CAMH, please visit their website at: www.camh.ca . To view our Land Acknowledgment, please click here . Based in the Child Youth & Emerging Adult Program, the donor funded McCain Centre is focused on enhancing and improving the design, delivery and effectiveness of mental health and substance use care systems, services and policies for youth aged 6-25 through patient-oriented clinical and health services research. The McCain Centre combines established and innovative research techniques and includes a focus on ensuring youth voices are centred in their initiatives. As an employment equity employer, CAMH actively seeks First Nations, Inuit and Métis candidates, those from ethno-cultural backgrounds, women, transgender and gender diverse people, people with disabilities, people with experiences of mental health and substance use, and intersecting identities. As a McCain Centre team member you will ensure that McCain Centre values are implemented; particularly regarding anti-oppressive and anti-racist best practices and youth-centredness. The McCain Centre is currently seeking a full-time, contract (1 year) Engagement Coordinator to join our team. The Engagement Coordinator will report directly to the project lead, with a dotted reporting line to the McCain Centre Manager. The Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for supporting the Canadian Youth Mental Health Insight (CYMHI) Platform project. Other projects may also be assigned. The Insight Platform aims to optimize mental health for youth across Canada through open data, machine learning, and knowledge exchange by providing a state-of-the-art informatics platform to support knowledge and data integration, open data, machine learning, and improved communication between stakeholders. The McCain Centre is using an approach that recognizes youth as equal collaborators with researchers and clinicians, engaging them in research projects, conferences and educational presentations to share their knowledge, recommendations and solutions. In this role, the Engagement Coordinator will be involved in supporting a team of youth and family/caregivers with lived/living experience with mental health and/or substance use challenges to implement participatory research and system transformation initiatives in the context of a broader clinical research team. This will include overseeing the activities of the Youth and Family Advisory Committees, a group of youth and family members/caregivers with lived/living experience with mental health and/or substance use challenges who support and advise researchers to ensure their work is grounded in the needs and viewpoint of youth, family, and community consumers. Ideally, the coordinator will be an expert in the McCain Centre engagement model, including its implementation, administration and evaluation. The Coordinator will be expected to work collaboratively with the research team, other McCain Centre staff, and community partners. The Engagement Coordinator will be an expert engagement program developer and facilitator, and will be able to lead the development of engagement projects, support social media engagement, blogging, oversee the development of interactive and developmentally-informed presentations, workshops and on-line and print resources, and teach prospective co-facilitators about effective youth engagement and facilitation. Additionally, they will contribute to proposals, reports and manuscripts. Further, the Engagement Coordinator will be an expert in using participatory action research strategies involving robustly engaging diverse end-users in co-creation/co-design projects, interviews, focus groups and other user-centered modalities. And as engaged collaborators, the Engagement Coordinator will support the development of a program that incorporates both evaluation approaches reflecting the priorities of the Centre’s leadership and youth and family/caregiver stakeholders, along with a research program that involves people with lived experience as investigators and collaborators. Involvement in this range of activities demands that the Engagement Coordinator be adept at working within teams that involve engaging and activating people with lived experience along with people with other types of expertise including health care professionals to researchers, digital developers, editors, graphic designers, external funders and project managers. Central to this role will be a thorough understanding and an ability to apply strategies that support equity and inclusion of people with lived experience. Lastly, because issues of access, literacy, health literacy and social inclusion are central to this work, the Engagement Coordinator will possess high-level communication skills, including both oral and written communications, especially as they are applied to plain language writing and editing. Responsibilities include: You will support a workplace that embraces diversity, that relies on teamwork and effective collaboration and that complies with all applicable regulatory and legislative requirements. This position is located at 80 Workman Way. The successful candidates will have at least 3 years of experience working as a facilitator and lead engagement facilitator within a participatory action setting, or 5 years of experience working within a peer support setting, or another setting where lived experience as a recipient of mental health and/or addiction services is a core component, combined with proven expertise in facilitating youth focus/consultation/advisory groups and integrating the input of youth. Professional-level project coordination and verbal and written communication skills are required. Proven experience of working within a co-creation model, where power-sharing and inclusion are integral to the success of the project, is required. Expertise in working within participatory action research and/or patient-oriented research is highly desirable. While fundamentally being a collaborator within a large team, the ideal candidate will be able to independently execute the implementation and scale-up of the McCain Centre Youth Engagement Initiative. The successful candidate must have proven experience as both a facilitator and as a facilitation trainer. Ability to work effectively in a wide range of settings, with individuals from diverse backgrounds, is a must. Expertise in working with web-based technologies is a desirable skill in this position. Bilingualism (French/English) and/or proficiency in a second language would be an asset. The successful candidate will be able to work independently as well as part of an extensive multi-site team. The candidate will support a healthy workplace that embraces diversity, encourages teamwork and complies with all applicable and regulatory requirements. This role will require travel and some evening hours. The successful candidate will have sound knowledge of inclusive environments and will support and implement anti-oppressive and anti-racist best practices in the workplace. Understanding of and appreciation of systemic and personal privilege related to diversity, with ability to work with stakeholders of diverse identities and ethno-racial and cultural backgrounds is required. All applicants offered and accepting employment must complete a Vulnerable Sector Police Records Check. The offer of employment will be conditional upon receipt of the satisfactory Vulnerable Sector Police Records Check.

Location: Toronto, Ontario, CA

Posted Date: 7/3/2025