Job Description

JOB POSTING #2024-70-01

INTERNAL/EXTERNAL

Social Prescribing

Seniors Community Connector

Wage: $27.00 per hour

Full Time, 38 hours per week, Monday to Friday  

Temporary – ending March 31, 2025

Connect Seniors to Supportive Services available to them

Join the team at Archway!

Come Help Us Help People

Location:  Abbotsford

On Site

Job Summary:

The Seniors Community Connector oversees the operation and delivery of the Social Prescribing Program. This position plays an integral role in bridging the gap between healthcare and social care.  Clients are referred by Health Care Professionals and community partners. The Seniors Community Connector partners with the various community organizations to provide non-medical support to improve the overall health and wellbeing of older adults in the community.  The Seniors Community Connector reaches out to socially isolated and disengaged seniors at risk of frailty and develops an appropriate wellness plan that connects seniors to community-based seniors support services and programs in Abbotsford.  The Social Prescribing program has 3 main goals: 1) to increase social support, physical activity, and good nutrition for seniors at risk of frailty; 2) to support seniors in staying at home for longer; 3) reduce home health, GP, and emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

The Seniors Community Connector works with older adults to connect them to community support and services through referrals, submitting applications, playing an advocacy role, and introductions.  This role includes a diverse range of responsibilities – from conducting assessments and co-developing personalized care plans, to providing practical support to older adults and their families, to establishing and maintaining relationships with people and organizations in the community which offer supports to older adults.  

The Seniors Community Connector requires experience, training, and interpersonal skills to make meaningful connections and discern the unique needs of the seniors being referred.  Through the interactions of the Seniors Community Connector with the local agencies and professionals, it will bring about a positive impact on the lives of the older adults and the community.

The goal of this position is to assist older adults to age safely in the right place by providing them with the social connections they require and build and maintain partnerships and connections of community-based seniors services in the local area.

Your Role:

Archway’s Seniors Community Connector with the Social Prescribing Program contributes by:

• Using an asset-based community development approach to identify and mobilize individuals, and organizations providing and supporting older adults.
• Engaging and participating in learning opportunities such as in communities of practice (COPs), planning tables, and/or networking events.
• Establishing networks and relationships with local service providers and advisory committees who serve socially isolated, disengaged seniors who are at risk of frailty.
• Connecting, liaising, and establishing partnerships with local health care professionals to create and maintain referral pathways.
• Receiving client intake information from the healthcare professionals and connecting with clients to begin the referral process.  Clients are often socially isolated, disengaged seniors who are at risk of frailty.
• Maintaining an active caseload of seniors with short-term needs.
• Understanding hospital discharge procedures and assisting with and supporting seniors transitioning back home following discharge.
• Visiting seniors in the community, including in their personal residences.
• Completing initial client intake assessment and process to assess strengths, needs, abilities, and risks, using motivational interviewing techniques such as active listening, conflict resolution, and observing behaviour.
• Using various assessment tools to determine challenges, needs and risks related to healthy aging, and develops routines, structures, and resource referrals to reduce risk of frailty.
• Supporting seniors to access appropriate range of activities and suitable community resources by developing individual wellness plans.
• Using a “what matters to you” approach, referring seniors to community-based services, observing and assessing the participants’ engagement with the resources including emotional, psychological, and functional status.
• Picking up and dropping off clients for activities and picking up program supplies as needed.
• Assisting program team with planning, organizing, and delivering program events for clients and volunteers.
• Monitoring client progress at follow-up intervals and ensuring smooth transitions during program discharge.

This position is a great fit for someone has great interpersonal skills, and who wants to make meaningful connections with seniors and community organizations to respond to seniors’ unique needs, and who wants to make a positive impact on the lives of older adults and the community.

Our Offer

• Wage:  $27.00 per hour
• A full-time position at 38 hours per week, availability Mondays to Fridays, from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. 
• Temporary until March 31, 2025.    
• Benefits include: 
  • Three weeks vacation in your first year; four weeks in your second year.
  • A great benefits plan including extended health and dental; you choose your plan.
  • Employee and Family Assistance Program that includes online access to wellness resources.
  • Great in-house training opportunities.
  • Rewarding work in a positive environment.
  • Build your experience working with at-risk seniors.
  • Work/Life balance.
  • Great opportunities to network with other Archway employees.

Getting an Interview – you will be considered if you have:

• A Bachelor’s degree in social services or a related Human Services field, or a combination of relevant education and experience may be considered.
• Strong knowledge of seniors’ issues and challenges related to healthy aging.
• Experience working with seniors and diverse populations from different cultures and socio- economic backgrounds.
• Knowledge of the community resources, programs and services available to seniors.
• Minimum two (2) years recent related experience.
• Experience coordinating volunteers is an asset.

The Job Requires you to have:

• Demonstrated ability to connect with and support seniors.
• Strong verbal, written, and active listening skills, with ability to communicate respectfully and effectively with people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.
• Strong networking and relationship building skills.
• Strong planning, organization, and time management skills; able to prioritize and manage competing tasks.
• Good computer skills; able to use information databases, Microsoft Office365, and virtual meeting tools such as Teams effectively.
• Demonstrated skills in the areas of crisis intervention and conflict resolution.
• Demonstrated ability to recruit and supervise volunteers.
• Strong collaborative skills and proven ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all internal and external contacts. 
• Familiarity with issues faced by seniors, including accessibility, mobility, food security, common health issues, loneliness, and frailty.
• Well-developed problem-solving skills; able to identify client needs and achieve outcomes.
• The ability to interact with difficult people or people in difficult situations.
• A valid class 5 BC Driver’s License, and satisfactory driver’s abstract.
• First Aid Certification or willingness to take the training.
• A satisfactory Criminal Records Check is a condition of employment.

Closing date is March 31, 2024.

TO APPLY

Interested applicants are to reference Posting #2024-70-01 in the subject line.

Please submit your cover letter and resume to:

Email: jobpostings@archway.ca 

        Subject: Job Posting #2024-70-01

No phone calls please. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.

Must be legally entitled to work in Canada.

Your resume may also be forwarded to other Programs for their consideration for their job vacancies.  If you do not wish for your application to be shared with other Programs, please send an e-mail to jobpostings@archway.ca with DO NOT FORWARD TO OTHER PROGRAMS, in the subject line of the e-mail and the job reference number to which you applied, in the body of the e-mail.

Archway's goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels, of the people we serve. Equity and diversity are essential to excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including Indigenous identity, race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or age.  

We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional and unceded territory of the Stō:ló people. Stō:ló territory extends from the mouth of the Fraser River to Boston Bar. Locally, this includes the Matsqui First Nation and Sumas First Nation. We give them thanks for sharing their land and resources with us.

We invest in the mental health and wellbeing of our employees.