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Coordinated Service Planning for Children and Youth with Multiple and/or Complex Special Needs

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Position: Service Planning Coordinator (SPC) - Full Time Contract (37.5 hrs/week) to March 31, 2025 (with possibility of extension)
Salary: $31.97-$36.00/hr.
Location: Niagara Region- Hybrid (Remote and In-person)
Available: Immediately
Application Deadline: April 26th , 2024 4 pm

Summary:
The Niagara community is committed to ensuring that children and youth with multiple and/or complex special needs and their families have access to timely, quality and family-centred coordinated service planning. The goal of coordinated service planning is to improve service experiences and outcomes for children and youth with multiple and/or complex special needs and their families through the support of a Service Planning Coordinator who will connect them to the multiple, cross-sectoral services they need as early as possible, and monitor their needs and progress through a single coordinated service plan.
Although Contact Niagara is the lead agency for Coordinated Service Planning in the Niagara Region, this is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative service involving partners from a variety of sectors, including, but not limited to, developmental services, mental health, rehabilitation services, Francophone and Indigenous services, and other health and education sector partners. As the Coordinating Agency, Contact Niagara is responsible for ensuring the consistent implementation and delivery of Coordinated Service Planning across the Niagara Region.
The successful candidate will demonstrate exceptional ability to perform the following aspects of the position:

1. Provision of direct service coordination to families of children and youth with complex special needs, which will include:

• Providing case-specific service planning consultation/ coordination/ case management supports to families of children and youth with multiple and/or complex special needs by acting as the identifiable point of contact, and being responsible for developing/monitoring, with involved partners, a single coordinated service plan that recognizes all of their goals and service needs, and builds on their child/youth’s strengths;
• Ensuring families connect with the right services in their service delivery area, or elsewhere in Ontario as appropriate, and monitor how children and youth are progressing through their service plan over time;
• Coordinating/facilitating/participating in cross-sectoral care-team meetings as needed to support development, consistent implementation, and ongoing review of the coordinated service plan.

2. Supporting Contact Niagara as the CSP Lead Agency as needed to ensure consistent and effective delivery of outcomes-based Coordinated Service Planning across service providers in Niagara, which will include:

• Participating in implementation readiness and capacity building activities across the service systems in Niagara;
• Supporting the development of planning processes to maintain consistent implementation and delivery;

3. And participating in the collaborative development and implementation of a program evaluation framework.
4. Involvement and supportive roles in other projects as requested/related to the position.

For more information on Ontario's Special Needs Strategy and Coordinated Service Planning, please visit Programs and supports for children and youth with special needs at www.children.gov.on.ca

Required Skills and Abilities:
The ideal candidate will possess the following:

1. Minimum 5 years of experience working with families, children and youth with multiple and/or complex special needs, with demonstrated experience in coordinating services including navigating multiple service systems/sectors;
2. Demonstrated understanding of issues impacting families of children and youth with multiple and/or complex special needs and the exceptional provision of high quality, family-centered care within the context of recognizing the diversity of individual families;
3. Demonstrated experience in recognizing and understanding the unique experiences of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, particularly as it relates to accessing and receiving health, education and social services; and experience in supporting Indigenous Peoples from a place of cultural humility;
4. Demonstrated experience in recognizing and understanding unique barriers to accessing and receiving services that Francophone children, youth and families face, and experience in supporting them in a culturally safe and competent manner (bilingualism in French/English is considered a strong asset);
5. Demonstrated experience in working within a framework grounded in health-equity, recognizing, understanding and supporting the unique experiences of individuals and the unique barriers to accessing and receiving services that members of racialized, 2S+LGBTQ, Newcomer and other marginalized communities, face, and experience in supporting them in a culturally safe and competent manner;
6. Demonstrated experience in providing identity-affirming care;
7. Demonstrated experience and competence in the practice of family/youth engagement at individual, organizational and system levels;
8. Demonstrated experience and competence working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, preferably working across agencies / systems in the provision of coordinated care;
9. Demonstrated experience in working with children/youth with different diagnoses (confirmed or suspected) and their families; for example, ASD, ID/DD, FASD, ODD, complex medical needs, etc.;
10. Demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective, collaborative relationships with stakeholders;
11. Comprehensive knowledge base of children/youth services in the Niagara area, and demonstrated ability to access and work with these providers;
12. Excellent interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills;
13. Demonstrated problem solving, critical thinking, and conflict resolution skills;
14. Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams, families, and community services;
15. interdisciplinary teams, families, and community services;
16. Demonstrated commitment to quality improvement and adherence to developed protocols;
17. Demonstrated excellent time management and stress management skills; ability to navigate challenging situations and conversations, while adhering to imposed deadlines, policies and/or protocols.
18. Demonstrated effective facilitation skills; experience with motivational interviewing is considered a strong asset.
19. Access to a vehicle, valid driver’s license, minimum $2M liability insurance.

These skills are generally acquired through:

1. Successful completion of a Master’s degree program in social work or one of the helping disciplines (i.e. psychology, applied disability studies, counselling, etc.) and five years of increasingly responsible comparative experience; or,
2. Successful completion of a Bachelor’s degree program in social work or one of the helping disciplines (i.e. psychology, applied disability studies, counselling etc.) and seven years of increasingly responsible comparative experience; or,
3. Successful completion of a related Program in the Health/Social Services stream or one of the helping disciplines (i.e. psychology, applied disability studies, counselling etc.) and/or previous related work experience and a minimum of seven years requiring similar skills and abilities as outlined above.

Contact Niagara strives to be an equitable and inclusive employer. Our commitment to equity is grounded in an Organizational and Program-wide commitment to achieving a working, teaching, and learning environment that nurtures identity-affirming services and is free of discrimination and harassment, including barrier free recruitment and selection processes. Please advise us if you require accommodations during any part of this process.

Contact Niagara actively seeks candidates from First Nations, Métis and Inuit, Francophone, racialized and 2S+LGBTQ communities, and those with lived experience accessing services.

We thank all candidates for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.