Director of Programs

About this position

Date Posted: September 23, 2020
Posting #: 2020-51

Director of Programs (Full-Time, Permanent)

Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth provides safe shelter, supportive services, and long-term solutions to youth homelessness. We believe all young people deserve safe, affordable housing, great support, and access to the resources to reach their full potential.

Eva’s Initiatives is an innovative organization that works locally and nationally to prevent, reduce, and end youth homelessness. Under our crisis services umbrella, Eva’s Initiatives operates specialized shelter facilities, Eva’s Place, Eva’s Satellite and Eva’s Phoenix and a temporary Hotel location in the Scarborough area.  Under our programs and housing umbrella, Eva’s Initiatives offers wrap-around services to young people to build their skills and opportunities to excel in education, employment, life skills, housing and connections with family or people who feel like family to them.  We are also proud of specialized employment supports, including our in-house social enterprise Print Shop.

The Director of Programs is a strategic partner amongst the Leadership team, driving programming consistently across all sites at Eva’s Initiatives. This position leads program design and development by drawing from the latest research in youth development, trauma and resilience, evidence-based practices in youth programming, and integrates youth participation in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs.  Furthermore, all program design will be built using a foundation of deep understanding of systemic barriers that impact equity of outcomes for young people, and in particular, Black, Indigenous and Racialized youth.  This position requires an in-depth understanding of identity-centering and culturally responsive programs, specifically, Africentric programming, and builds programming in partnership with the Black community.

Maintaining, evaluating, and introducing efficient programming to strategically sustain operations to develop the quality of integration and activities for the Youth Eva’s serves. These programs include but are not limited to:

• Employment
• Education
• Life Skills
• Housing
• Family Reconnect
• Intake services
• Print Shop Social Enterprise

This position reports to the Executive Director (ED) and is located at Eva’s Administrative Office: 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 245, Toronto.  

Role Overview

In the first six (6) months, the successful candidate will be immersed in day to day ground level Program operations.  You will have a strong expert knowledge of Eva’s existing Programs to effectively assess and apply strategic vision and practices while developing Eva’s longer-term goals alongside the senior management team and grounded in an equity framework.  In particular, over the next 6 months, the candidate will be leading work to centre Black youth within our program design.

This role will be critical in supporting and collaborating with the SMT (Senior Management Team) to build an equity framework in alignment with Eva’s Guiding Principles and as a foundation to Eva’s strategic direction.   As a member of the leadership group, this role is accountable for collectively driving organizational change in relation to equity and systemic Anti-Black Racism & Oppression.

This position provides expert level strategic and operational guidance across the organization on programming for our youth in a unionized environment.  As programming work is integrated in all aspects of Eva’s operations, this role works collaboratively with the Executive Director, COO, Board of Directors, Senior Management Team, line Management team, young people, and relevant external stakeholders.   

Qualifications

• Sound understanding of the issues facing young people experiencing homelessness in Toronto
• Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate, and support a diverse management team across all Eva’s sites
• Broad experience in direct programming for young people who face systemic barriers to opportunities and often experiencing unequitable outcomes, in particular, Black and Indigenous youth; the Director will be equipped with the expertise to guide managers who lead their teams to deliver programs centred around community integration, life skill development, financial stability, socio-recreational interaction, recovery, and housing stability
• Working knowledge of public health models and concepts to work effectively with other health disciplines internally and externally, and to integrate health strategies with case plans 
• With integrity, utmost professionalism, credibility, and a commitment to developing managers within the portfolio, the Director encourages and cultivates working relationships amongst managers across Eva’s
• This leader is a natural builder with exquisite relationship skills and has adaptability to seamlessly move across the organization when needed
• Minimum five (5) years’ practical experience in the not-for-profit sector
• Experience working with Boards of Directors and Board Committees
• Experience managing multiple stakeholder relationships
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Social Work or related field or knowledge and expertise related to homelessness including issues related to youth homelessness and the barriers they face seeking long-term career-related employment opportunities
• Minimum of ten (10) years of related experience driving youth focused ‘Life’ programs across large diverse multiple sites within an organization
• Minimum of five (5) years’ experience cultivating and leading management staff in a unionized environment

Apply

Submit a cover letter and resume in one document by 5:00pm on October 7, 2020 to careers@evas.ca. Be sure to indicate 2020-51 Director of Programs in the subject line. No phone calls, please.

Eva’s is strongly committed to a workforce that reflects the diversity of the populations we serve. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals including applicants from all cultures, racialized communities, abilities, diverse sexual and gender identities, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. We are committed to a selection process and work environment that is inclusive and barrier free.

Eva’s has taken active steps to reduce the risk of transmission within our shelters, click here to learn what we are doing: https://www.evas.ca/blog/covid-19-update/

We acknowledge the land we occupy is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississauga's of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.  We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississauga's of the Credit and the Williams Treaty signed with multiple Mississauga's and Chippewa bands.

We also acknowledge all Treaty peoples – including those who came here as settlers – as migrants either in this generation or in generations past - and those of us who came here involuntarily, particularly forcibly dis-planted Africans, brought here as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery.

Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth

Administrative Office: 401 Richmond St W., Suite 245, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8
Phone 416-977-4497 | Email info@evas.ca | Website www.evas.ca

Connect with us @evasinitiatives