Health Initiatives Manager Waterloo Region, ON, Canada

At House of Friendship, we believe in what we are doing. We get out of bed each day to make a difference in our community; to walk with and to serve. We are not happy with the status quo. We get energy from ongoing learning and growth. We lead with passion and believe without a doubt that everyone deserves to belong and thrive. We live and breathe our values of Compassion, Inclusion, Justice, Dignity and Hope. And we have fun!

Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? It is!

We are hiring for an individual to join our Housing Services team as a Health Initiatives Manager. This role supports programming for participants living in ShelterCare and Supportive Housing. This role also works collaboratively with all House of Friendship programs. They will possess and utilize their passion for coaching and developing people and teams. They will provide leadership and coordinate the daily operation for the Health Initiatives team by providing supervisory support to staff involved in facilitating participant pathways and ensuring wraparound health supports are available.

This is a permanent, salaried, full-time (37.5 hours per week) position with paid sick time, personal days, vacation time; group health benefits and defined contribution pension plan. Schedule is generally Monday to Friday, from 8:30am to 4:30pm, with pre-planned evening and weekend work to support the 24/7 program operations. Valid G class driver’s license is required for travel throughout Waterloo Region. Successful completion of a Police Records Check (Vulnerable Sector) required pre-employment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, develop and support the team (staff, volunteers and students), including coaching and development, team dynamics, conflict management etc.
• Responsible for all aspects of leading a team including recruitment, retention, training and onboarding, supervision, performance assessment, development and management
• Responsible for the healthy and safe operation of the program; ensuring a physically and psychologically healthy work environment for all team members
• Responsible for the allocation of staff, students and volunteers based on the needs of each program and/or site
• Responsible for all aspects of service operation including development and review, budget, allocation of resources, and relationships with funders and community partners, staff and participant safety
• Responsible for all aspects of service data collection including completing audits of staff logs and running reports to ensure data collected is reliable and valid
• Responsible for ongoing service evaluation and quality improvement, leading service reviews and service evaluation initiatives
• Maintain high level proficiency with respect to confidentiality in compliance with Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA)
• Create reports and proposals to support or source funding. Responsible for the management financial functions
• Responsible for property management functions
• Collaborate with partners and agencies to provide relevant health services into House of Friendship environments
• Represent House of Friendship at various community development and neighbourhood related meetings and community forums and events; bringing relevant issues and solutions to the conversation
• Take a lead role in community consultation and leadership development initiatives
• Maintaining partnerships, presence at appropriate community tables/communities of practice
• On-call responsibilities for after-hours emergency crisis
• Committed to service integration internally/externally
• Champion Harm Reduction approaches across the organization

Job Specific Knowledge/Skills:

• Sensitivity to and knowledge of issues relating to and impacting on all genders and all marginalized populations
• Very strong leadership, team building and decision-making skills required including demonstrated strength in coaching and developing people and teams
• Experience with coaching and mentoring for personal growth and development, including the ability to coach others through conflict
• Commitment to work with and support training of students, volunteers and new employees as required
• Demonstrated skill in building and maintaining productive relationships (staff, community partners, funders)
• Demonstrated ability to calmly problem-solve in a fast-paced, sometimes stressful environment
• Passion for utilizing innovative approaches to providing supports in addiction treatment settings
• Knowledge of complementary therapies is preferred
• Demonstrated capacity for accurate and efficient documentation and computer data entry
• Commitment to stage matched, strengths based, person-centred quality psychotherapy services
• Advanced knowledge of and training in substance abuse and recovery issues
• Knowledge of Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care requirements
• Knowledge of local community agencies and resources is an asset
• Commitment to ongoing professional development and training
• Ability to accept and apply feedback and take initiative
• Group facilitation and management skills
• Familiarity with data collection tools used to set and monitoring targets and support improvement

Education/Experience:

• University degree in Social Work, Counselling or related field of study
• Professional registration, in good standing, with a regulated health professional college or related healthcare regulatory body in Ontario [e.g. College of Nurses of Ontario,Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW), College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO)]
• Minimum 3 years leadership experience, developing, leading and coaching a team required
• Knowledge of substances, problematic substance use, recovery oriented, stage matched interventions, evidence informed practices and clinical treatment modalities, including but not limited to Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy required
• Experience with collaboration, program development and program implementation
• Experience providing clinical supervision

Critical Skills:

• Commitment to understand and uphold the mission and values of House of Friendship is expected
• Exemplary emotional intelligence, resilience, communication, conflict management and problem-solving skills required
• Ability to work professionally as a team member with staff, participants and communitymembers
• Build solid and fruitful relationships with community partners and agencies to increase opportunities for innovation and positively impact outcomes
• Demonstrated ability to create and maintain a positive work environment including the ability to navigate change in a positive and productive manner
• Experience or strong interest in working with diverse populations including people from various cultural backgrounds, income levels, and sensitivity to their needs
• Strong intercultural competency, with the ability to recognize and respect cultural diversity, able to be diplomatic and sensitive to the dynamics of a culturally diverse workplace
• Experience with and commitment to using an anti-racism, anti-oppressive and trauma informed approach in consultation, program design, evaluation processes and service delivery
• Must be dependable, professional, flexible, a team player, and have a positive attitude
• Respectful, supportive and engaging approach to persons with physical and/or cognitive disabilities, addictions, mental health and other life challenges
• Excellent project, timeline and deadline management skills including skills in logistics and planning and detailed record keeping
• Able to model effective problem solving by recognizing the human, interpersonal and technical sides of a problem, show flexibility and explore possible solutions in an innovative and creative way
• Act as a change agent; contributing to continuous improvement and the successful implementation of change initiatives

Compensation:

At House of Friendship, we know that our team members are the key to the success of our organization and our ability to provide essential services to the community. In support of our mission and in alignment with our values, House of Friendship is committed to ensuring fair, market competitive, and rewarding compensation practices for all of our team members. We aspire to support our team members to create a great work environment where our team is able to thrive, succeed, and have a positive work experience.

House of Friendship compensation practices including our pay grid, have been developed using documented leading pay practices in the not-for-profit sector including Pathways to Decent Work (Ontario Nonprofit Network) and Ontario Living Wage Network. We value the experience that new team members bring to the organization and have a process in place to review previous related experience for placement on our pay grid.

We value the work that you do with fair pay and benefits:

• Time off includes four (4) weeks of vacation, 5* personal days (3 for the remainder of 2026) and sick credits totaling approximately 12 days per year
• Full-time benefit plan including Extended Health Care (EHC), Dental, Group Life, Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D), Long Term Disability (LTD), Flexible Spending Account and Employee & Family Assistance Program
• We believe strongly in supporting the mental health of our team members, including providing access to the Employee and Family Assistance Program, $2,000 for counselling services and our workplace Wellness and Psychological Health and Safety programs
• We help you save for the future by providing a retirement plan that includes a matched Group Pension Plan as well as a Group RRSP and a Group Tax Free Savings Account

Rate of Pay:

At House of Friendship all compensation ranges are categorized under a series of “grades” and we base our payment structure on internal equity.When determining rate of pay, a candidate’s past related experience will be taken into consideration.

Grade: 6 Manager I

Min: $34.62

Mid: $39.36

Max: $44.09

Working Conditions:

• Generally daytime hours with pre-planned evening and weekend work to support the 24/7 operation of services as needed
• On-call rotation for program leadership and direction during times of crisis in some programs
• Intensive contact with program participants required
• Encountering participants at program sites under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, and/or experiencing symptoms of mental illness to be expected

This role is being posted to fill a new role in the organization.

House of Friendship is open and inviting to qualified candidates with lived experience.

House of Friendship supports justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our workplace. We strive to be a workplace free of harassment and discrimination and we are committed to removing barriers and being an inclusive, work environment. House of Friendship is a place where each person can bring their true selves and feel that they belong. We aspire to be an organization that is anti-racist and anti-oppressive so that our team, and therefore our community, can truly belong and thrive.

We invite applications from all qualified candidates and actively encourage applications from members of groups with historical and/or current barriers to accessing employment including, but not limited to Indigenous Peoples, members of racialized groups, persons with disabilities, women, and members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

If you require accommodations to be able to participate fully at any stage in the recruitment process, including applying for this position, please let us know so that we can discuss accommodation options. Accommodations will be provided upon request.

If you are as passionate as we are about serving the community, let’s talk.

By end of day October 29, 2026 .

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not being used in the screening of applications.