Youth Indigenous Wellness Mentor

CASUAL & PART TIME SHIFT WORK 

Hourly Wage + Shift Premium 

Are you an intergenerational role model? Are you passionate about listening and cocreating opportunities with Indigenous youth to build self belief, belonging, and meaningful purpose in their daily experiences? Are you passioante about Indigenous young folk building spaces and relations that reflect their value?

EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum post-secondary education; preference in areas related to Indigenous Community Development, Indigenous Wellness, Youth Engagement , Community or Human Services diploma; 

• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in developing and delivering Indigenous culturally rooted programming with urban Indigenous youth; 

• Candidates who self identify with FNMI ancestry and/or who demonstrate an applied understanding of Indigenous cultural safety in responding to emergent needs of urban Indigenous young people are preferred; 

• Candidates without the specific education or work experience, but who possess an appropriate combination of life experience, traditional knowledge and/or other academic qualifications will also be considered. 

SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES 

• As helper, you are nonjudgmental, non-assumptive, curious, and you carry a fundamental belief in the capacity of every person to make informed decisions about their experience of identity, belonging, and quality of life; 

• You have a demonstrated capacity to engage with youth from a strengths based and relational practice, excellent listening skills, and meaningfully validate emotions and amplify change talk; 

• Demonstrated skills engaging and sustaining culturally safe and trauma informed engagement with Indigenous young women living co-occurring experiences of loss, who have recently experienced direct harms, and who have had limited experiences with spaces that reflect their value and capacity. 

• Applied knowledge of intersectionality relative to contemporary colonial harms impacting UNDRIP rights and Indigenous Wellness in the lives of urban Indigenous young women: the Child and Family Services Act, the Mental Health Act, Ontario Works, Homelessness and Housing sector and benefits, NHIB, as well as other relevant legislation, services AND their impact on individual experiences of Indigenous Wellness; 

• Capacity to pro-actively assess and prioritize engagement, crisis and individual support of residents within the context of a living home and routines that care for the spirit of Tewegan; 

• Clear, concise, timely and effective written documentation. 

• Sustains a self reflective practice, a commitment to self care and to ongoing learning in practice;

• Ability to work within the policies, standards, procedures and the vision, mission, and core values of Tewegan Housing for Aboriginal Youth; 

• Ability to understand, speak or willingness to learn an Indigenous language would be considered an asset; 

QUALIFICATIONS 

Tewegan Housing for Aboriginal Youth We believe that every Indigenous young person bears gifts and capacities fundamental to our healing and our selfdetermination as an urban Indigenous community, AND frequently, Indigenous young people encounter harms in our environments that interrupt their experience of self-belief, connection, purpose and value. Tewegan aims to increase Indigenous youth wellness by interrupting the risk of harms of colonization in the daily lives of Indigenous young folks: 

a. Stemming harms from ongoing threat of loss, 

b. Locating stressors to their domain of colonial practice,and by 

c. Co-creating culturally safe assets that emplace self-belief, confidence, purpose, and belonging. 

Under the direction of the Executive Director, deliver daily in-house support with young women living at Tewegan or Alumni of the larger Tewegan community. Through an Indigenous Harm Reduction lens (culturally safeand trauma informed), Youth Indigenous Wellness Mentors are responsible for pro-actively modeling the daily routines of the house while supporting, guiding, and co-creating individual opportunities with each resident to effect their experience of belonging, self belief, and home in urban Indigenous Ottawa. 

SERVICE RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Engagement:  Welcoming, engaging, and maintaining culturally safe, trauma informed and co-created rapport with residents (including intake documentation and IDHR Safety Audit, preparation of Welcome Baskets, room cleans...etc.);  Ensuring that Indigenous Harm Reduction Safety Audits are co-created and updated with each individual resident; 

• Build on daily in-house routines to foster forward movement and wellness in COVID-19 realities; 

• Providing daily support to residents in problem solving systems navigation and practicing daily life skills; 

• Periodically, support co-delivery of land based youth gatherings with service partners; ¨ Conduct themselves across community domains (on or 'off' work, social media..etc.) in a manner consistent with the practices of an intergenerational role model.

In the context of COVID-19, this will include:  

• Attending training and maintaining IPAC PPE standards in execution of service delivery (daily routines), including managing exit and entrance of the building by residents, supporting residents on self-isolation, supporting new intakes in isolation, meal preparation and in day to day general engagement with co-workers and residents 

• Identification and disclosure of strategy and support plan for wellness, self-isolation planning in the event of a positive test, and proof of vaccination status.  

• Commitment to the maintenance of the highest standards of prevention and control of infectious diseases for the duration of employment across domains.  

• Be capable of sustaining a scheduled rotation of 12 hr shifts.  

• Role modeling and engaging residents in care, cleaning, and maintenance strategies for all areas of the home and land base; 

• Reference check 

• Satisfactory Vulnerable Sector Check 

• Current Standard First Aid/CPR, Non Violent Crisis Intervention, & ASIST certification. 

• Ability to work flexible hours as determined by Executive Director or designate in relation to essential service requirements