Manager, Sexual Assault Centre

Competition 2213

This position is excluded from the bargaining unit.

In accordance with the Handbook of Employment for Management and Professional Staff (Excluded), this position has a comprehensive benefits package and an annual salary which will be commensurate with qualifications.

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person. Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton.

Working at the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

The University of Alberta is a community of knowledge seekers, change makers and world shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We are home to over 14,000 faculty and staff, more than 40,000 students and a growing community of 300,000 alumni worldwide.

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross-section of people — from our students and community members, to our renowned researchers and innovators, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger and more just. Learn more.

Working for the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre (UASAC)

The University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre (UASAC) provides various types of support to survivors of sexual violence and their supporters, as well as comprehensive education workshops for the campus community. We actively work towards creating a campus community free of sexual violence and operated from a feminist, anti oppressive, intersectional, trauma-informed, and person-centered framework. We believe all survivors and the experiences of all individuals who have faced sexual or gender-based violence.  All services are free of change and available to people of all genders, sexualities and backgrounds.

Position

Reporting to the Assistant Dean, Community Wellness Supports, the Manager, Sexual Assault Center (SAC) is accountable for the management of all aspects of the Sexual Assault Centre (SAC), including its programs, personnel, and operations. The position has primary responsibility for ensuring the UASAC fulfills its mandate through leadership, implementation, measurement, reporting, and continuous improvement.

The position has multiple major areas of responsibility, including management of personnel, strategic planning and decision making at both the unit and department levels, developing and monitoring the annual budget and SAC strategic priorities, stakeholder partnership and engagement, overall service management, and contributing to special projects, where needed. Additionally, the Manager engages in crisis intervention support and the delivery of anti-sexual and gender based violence education in support of the SAC Education Coordinator position.

Duties

Personnel Management:

• Exercises supervisory responsibility over a multidisciplinary team of both APO and NASA staff, including  Registered Psychologists, Registered Social Worker, Drop In Counselor, Education Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator and student volunteers.              
• Accountable for ensuring that SAC staff and student volunteers are compliant with relevant provincial legislation, professional association guidelines, and institutional policies and procedures.
• Accountable for associated HR duties for all direct reports, including recruitment,  performance reviews, performance management including recommendations for discipline and discharge, oversight of sick leave, granting overtime and vacation requests, professional development management, leave management, providing permanent and temporary workplace accommodations; administering the Work from Home program; and client complaint management as required.

Clinical Supervision

• Accountable for ensuring that all staff within the SAC Psychological Support Program (PSP) adhere to clinical best practices and current clinical professional standards.

Service Management

• Leads the development and approval of new policies, procedures, and practices as required by the unit.
• Ensures appropriate initiatives are resourced, prioritized, and executed to deliver sexual and gender-based violence support and education to students and staff.  
• Plans, coordinates, and implements relevant staff training and in-services that support professional growth and development and have relevance to working with those who have been impacted by sexual violence in the campus community.
• Completes general service data and reporting on service operations, including annual and interim reporting for those clinicians funded through granting bodies, as required.
• Continually monitor and analyze data to identify issues and trends that will inform the proactive development of services and resources to enhance the safety of staff and students.  
• Support staff with emergency situations, including but not limited to clients at risk of harm to themselves or others, clients behaving inappropriately while accessing our service, hospital accompaniment, and requirements for urgent support.  
• Liaises with Central Communications to execute promotional initiatives, implement website changes and manage social media activities.
• Monitors service utilization and resourcing, advocating for additional and sustainable resources where necessary.
• Serves as the SAC Privacy Officer on behalf of the Assistant Dean, Community Wellness Support ensuring that program policies, practices, and procedures are consistent with relevant legislation (e.g. FOIP, HIA, etc.).
• Oversees requests for access to confidential information and ensures that information is released in accordance with legal and ethical guidelines without violation of client confidentiality and without causing undue harm to the client.

Develop and Monitor Annual Operating Budget

• Collaborates with the Assistant Dean, Community Wellness Supports and the Dean of Students Finance Partner to develop and maintain the SAC annual operating budget. Identifies financial priorities of the unit to ensure the effective and sustainable execution of the core programming areas and the fair compensation of staff.
• Creates a pragmatic long-term financial plan that accounts for anticipated changes to the post-secondary environment over a period of 3-5 years.
• Regularly liaises with external grant funders to communicate successes, challenges, opportunities, and threats to the organization and ensure ongoing, adequate funding.
• Accountable for securing, managing, and reporting on grant funds and opportunities for revenue generation that are utilized to augment the SAC’s annual operating budget.

Stakeholder Partnership and Engagement

• Works closely with the U of A’s Sexual Violence Response Coordinator to ensure an effective and coordinated institutional response to instances of sexual violence experienced by individuals across the U of A’s three academic campuses.
• Provides ad hoc guidance, consultation, and more formal education to staff, faculty, and students who are responding to a complex disclosure of sexual violence or working to address an instance of sexual misconduct within their cohort.
• Collaborates on delivering programming and initiatives with various senior leaders from within the Dean of Students portfolio, particularly those providing health and wellness services, as well as students, staff, Faculty, and university stakeholders who are engaging in the work of decolonization, access, community and belonging.
• Ensures effective and consistent collaboration with staff providing anti-sexual and gender based violence education and support on other University of Alberta campuses.
• Works closely to deliver programming with, and alongside, anti-sexual and gender based violence organizations at other post-secondary institutions and within the city more generally.
• Meets regularly, and actively collaborates with, the Senior Leadership Committee of the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services. 

Provide Crisis Intervention Support, Counselling, Systems Navigation, and Anti-Sexual and Gender Based Violence Education

• Provides specialized crisis intervention support; ongoing emotional stabilization and therapeutic bridging; and sexual assault-specific information and resources to individuals who have been affected by sexual violence, including extensive follow-up sessions, through a variety of mediums (in-person, virtual, phone, email, text, and chat), specifically to clients navigating complex situations.
• Provides crisis intervention services to students and staff struggling with suicide attempts or threats, physical or sexual assaults, or other traumatic life events  
• Assesses clients for potential risk of harm to others, including minors, and reports information appropriately to relevant bodies (e.g. the Vice Provost and Dean of Students, Assistant Dean, Community Wellness Supports, Children and Family Services, the Edmonton Police Service, etc.).
• Consults with SAC staff and members of the SAC Psychological Support Program (PSP) on clients that are especially complex and sensitive, that may need to be escalated to the Dean of Students, or that appear to be an emerging risk (moving towards imminent or urgent) and need to be referred to specialty services or agencies.
• Acts as an advisor and provides direct accompaniment to clients who are seeking medical attention, are involved in a reporting process or legal proceeding, or are navigating a university complaint or accommodation process.
• Advocates on behalf of clients through consultations with university staff and faculty, professionals at off-campus agencies, medical professionals, lawyers, and other reporting bodies to ensure client's academic success, health and wellbeing, procedural fairness, and/or institutional and procedural change.
• Maintains records of client sessions, completing and compiling relevant narrative and statistical documentation, as required.
• Remains current on best and emerging practices with regards to anti-sexual and gender based violence advocacy and crisis intervention support.
• Oversees the design and implementation of various long-form online courses offered by the SAC using institutional course design platforms.
• Facilitates intensive, multi-day anti-sexual and gender based violence education presentations, both online and in-person, to the university community. 

Strategic Planning

• In collaboration with the Assistant Dean, Community Wellness and SAC staff, co-create a strategic plan for the unit that establishes shared values while also setting short- and long-term goals and priorities that serve the needs of our community and align with the strategic priorities of the broader institution.
• Reiterates, and checks new programming and initiatives against, the values, goals, and priorities established by the SAC team consistently throughout the year.
• Regularly evaluate SAC programming to determine if the needs of the community and the unit staff are being met sufficiently, efficiently, and successfully.
• Plans and implement program changes required to better serve the needs of the community and unit staff, when gaps or improvements are identified.
• Provides quarterly and annual reports covering programming information, usage statistics, successes and challenges, as well as client feedback, as needed by the Office of the Dean of Students, project partners, external stakeholders, and grant funders.
• Participates in selected strategic planning efforts led by University of Alberta, the Office of the Dean of Students, and/or the Assistant Dean, Community Wellness Supports
• Participates in strategic planning efforts led by the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services to inform the development of shared values, goals, and priorities that will guide the work of sexual assault services throughout the province; ensure the organizational strategic plan is in alignment with this plan.

Special Projects and Activities

• Accountable for the creation and maintenance of psychoeducational resources for clients to better understand various forms of sexual violence and their impact, and to provide community members with information, skills, and referrals to aid in the effective response to, and prevention of, sexual violence.
• Supports and implements broader communications initiatives regarding anti-sexual violence advocacy and sexual and gender based violence prevention from the SAC.
• Acts as a consultant on central university communications initiatives regarding sexual and gender based violence response and prevention.
• Act as a subject matter expert on behalf of clients in the case of exam deferrals or academic appeals, as needed  Serves on various working groups and committees with the aim of improving the institutional prevention of, and response to, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as those furthering the project of access, community and belonging more generally on campus.

Qualifications

• Graduate level university degree required in a related field (e.g. Psychology, Sociology, Social work, Public Health, Women’s and Gender Studies, etc.).
• Minimum of five years of providing specialized sexual and gender based  violence-specific crisis intervention or clinical support, facilitating anti-sexual and gender based violence educational programming, and demonstrated leadership skills, with progressive supervisory experience, ideally in a post-secondary environment.
• Strong theoretical and practical knowledge of the issues of intimate partner violence, childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual and gender based violence facilitated by technology, sexual harassment, stalking, as well as risk and threat assessment implementation.
• Requires both extensive breadth and depth of training, knowledge, and professional competencies considering the increasing complexity, severity, and chronicity of mental health concerns among post-secondary students, particularly those who have experienced sexual violence.
• Strategic, long term planning and conceptualization skills.
• Experience in the development and coordination of post-secondary institutional responses to sexual and gender based violence.
• Working knowledge of the complexities associated with implementing programming rooted in decolonization, access, community and belonging, and experience providing meaningful services to equity seeking groups.
• Interpersonal and management skills necessary to manage, support, and mentor an interdisciplinary professional team of psychologists, social workers, non-academic programming staff, and student volunteers.
• Experience in managing strategic department planning and financial resources in accordance with financial best-practices.
• Understanding of program and service data collection, evaluation, assessment, and dissemination.
• Knowledge and skills related to crisis management and stabilization.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with a focus on public speaking, report writing, stakeholder engagement, client service, and service documentation.
• A high degree of professionalism, ethics, and confidentiality.
• Exceptional organizational, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
• Excellent emotional regulation skills required.
• Ability to provide information and professional advice to all levels of university staff including senior university administrators, staff, Faculty, physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and administrative team members.
• Knowledge of the academic advisors system of the University of Alberta and specialized services available to students.
• Experience liaising with diverse communities and populations on and off-campus.
• Knowledge of community resources available to individuals who have experienced sexual or gender-based violence, are in crisis, and/or are in need of specialized mental health services as well as the ability to facilitate appropriate client referrals.
• Working knowledge of relevant federal and provincial legislation; governing policies and guidelines pertaining to mental health professionals and their respective professional associations; and applicable university codes, policies, and procedures.
• Excellent information systems skills including scheduling, records management, and budgeting software.