Peer Engagement Worker (Csoe Pilot Project)

**Location:
Linkage to Care Program**
**Shift Rotation:
6-10 hours/week**
**No. of positions:
1**
**Reports to:
Program Manager, Linkage to Care Program**
**Fife House** is an innovative, client-focused provider of secure and supportive affordable housing and services for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Greater Toronto Area. With approximately 110 staff working across 6 locations, in 2020-2021 Fife House served more than 850 residents and clients by providing supportive and transitional housing programs as well outreach programs to homeless clients and their families.
**Fife House** understands that historically marginalized groups in our communities often encounter particular barriers to full access and participation. We, therefore, commit to actively dismantling all forms of racism and systemic oppression with GIPA/MEPA at the forefront, including in our organization and across governance structures. As a settler agency, Fife House stands in solidarity with Indigenous and Black Peoples across Turtle Island and recognizes the role we have in the work of reconciliation and healing.
**Fife House** is seeking dedicated people living with HIV/AIDS to support people living with HIV/AIDS who are Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Colour with significant mental health and substance use challenges. The Peer Engagement Worker(s) will work directly with clients of Fife House’s Linkage to Care Program, specifically supporting the one-year Complex Systems Outreach and Engagement (CSOE) Pilot Project. The Peer Engagement Worker(s) will provide community and street outreach to client units, encampments, parks, shelters, and other sites as identified. They will support clients in navigating access to harm reduction supplies and services, HIV care and treatment, and provide informal sexual health counselling in the City of Toronto. The team will focus on making linkages to care and supports in the community, promoting client engagement, and connection to HIV services. Peer Engagement Worker(s) will assist in the ongoing project planning, implementation, and evaluation in tandem with our multi-disciplinary team.
**DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES**:
- Participate in internal peer engagement training and external trainings as identified by the Program Manager
- Conduct community and street outreach to project-identified recruitment sites
- Provide harm reduction supplies, health promotional materials, informal sexual health counselling, and HIV prevention technologies (i.E. condoms, pathways to treatment or PrEP)
- Support Linkage to Care clients in attending health and other service appointments to promote connections and attachment to care-support-attendance, working collaboratively with clients’ circle of care to meet care goals
- Participate in client case conferences, Linkage to Care team meetings, Case Management meetings, and Supervision meetings
- Document client-related activities in the Ontario Community-Based AIDS Service and Evaluation (OCASE) and Case Management system Pirouette in an accurate and timely manner
- Provide consumer-survivor perspective to project development, implementation, and evaluation
- Perform other duties or assigned as directed by the Program Manager or Case Managers.
**QUALIFICATIONS**:
- The Peer Engagement Worker(s) will be a person living with HIV/AIDS. Preference will be given to PLWHA who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or Person of Colour.
- The Peer Engagement Worker(s) will have the ability to build rapport and promote engagement with People Living with HIV
- The Peer Engagement Worker(s) will have the ability to carry out their duties independently and as part of a team.
- The Peer Engagement Worker(s) will have the ability to follow through on commitments and maintain professional boundaries with community members while working in a peer capacity.
**ASSET**:
- Lived experience navigating multiple Toronto-based services agencies.
- Lived experience (current or past) homeless/street involvement.
- Lived experience and/or knowledge of the immigration process and community supports for immigrants/refugees.
- Knowledge of HIV infection in the current context, including the impact of stigma and discrimination;
- Knowledge of community resources for HIV/AIDS, Mental Health, Addiction, and Immigration Services
- First Aid and CPR Training, and Naloxone Training.
- Ability to speak a second language.
- Knowledge of crisis intervention and skill training, and conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
**FIFE HOUSE **is committed to upholding the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion in our living and work environments. We know that diversity underpins excellence and that we all share responsibility for creating an equitable, diverse and inclusive community. In pursuit of our values, we seek members who will work respectfully and constructively with differences and across levels of power.
- Persons living with HIV/AIDS
- First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, and