Needle Exchange and Safer Inhalation… at Somerset West… · Ottawa

Career Opportunity

Position Title: Needle Exchange and Safer Inhalation (NESI) Harm
Reduction Outreach Worker

Classification: Counsellor Level 2

Job Type: Permanent, 1 FTE.

Department: Family and Community Services

Location: 30 Rosemount

Reporting to: Manager, Community Engagement

Compensation: $28.49/hr - $34.39/hr plus a comprehensive compensation package that includes time-off entitlements, health benefits, life insurance, and participation in the HOOPP pension plan.

Deadline to apply: August 12, 2026 by 5:00pm

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About us

We are Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC), a non-profit, community-governed organization that serves over 18,000 clients annually. Established in 1978, SWCHC provides a wide range of health care services such as primary health care, health promotion, community development, mental health, and harm reduction. We are deeply connected to the communities we serve and committed to removing barriers to accessing services for people who experience vulnerabilities because of their age, income, ability, sexual orientation or gender identity, and language or culture.

SWCHC strives to ensure that our team reflects the communities we serve. We work within an anti-racist, anti-oppressive framework that acknowledges the existence and impacts of systemic racism and seeks to ensure that systems are fair and equitable for everyone.

What the Program Entails

The NESI program’s goals are to work with people who use drugs to reduce the risk of HIV and Hepatitis B and C transmission, and to support overall health and wellness goals of the client through care coordination and system navigation services. This may include client crisis response and support, appointment accompaniment, client advocacy and coordinated follow-ups with clients and partnering agencies, as well as informal client counselling from a harm reduction and trauma informed lens. The NESI Outreach worker must have comprehensive knowledge of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI’s), superior skills in system navigation and care coordination, and a strong understanding of systemic barriers faced by people who use drugs.

The daytime NESI outreach program operates in the Somerset West catchment, providing proactive and responsive outreach for people who use drugs (PWUD) in public settings, encampments, and client homes. The NESI program workers distribute harm reduction equipment, such as sterile injection and inhalation equipment, safer sex supplies, naloxone, and are responsible for the safer collection and disposal of bio-hazard bins.

The program also provides education and training for clients and community members interested in learning more about safer substance use, harm reduction strategies, and overdose intervention.

The NESI program is the distribution hub for safer inhalation products for the Ottawa area. Through organization partnerships the program supports distribution of equipment supplied by the Ontario Harm Reduction Distribution Program, along with training and education support for partner agencies.

What You’ll Do

Reporting to the Manager of Community Engagement and in collaboration with the NESI Team Lead, the Harm Reduction Outreach Worker position provides health education, harm reduction supplies, and complex system navigation and care coordination services to people who use drugs (PWUD). This position provides services onsite, as well as client homes, rooming houses, and within public spaces, including encampments. This position is typically 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday and is subject to change based on the operational and service delivery needs of the program. This position may require flexibility in hours of work and may involve weekend and evening shifts.

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What We’re Looking For

Life and Work Experience

• Lived experience of substance use, homelessness and/or experience in advocacy for people who use drugs (PWUD)
• Three years’ experience and passion for working with high-risk populations and people in active substance use
• Experience working with people who use drugs, mental health comorbidities, and living with homelessness

Your Education Path

• Post-secondary education in a relevant discipline AND three years’ experience working with people who use drugs OR a combination of relevant professional and lived experience with substance use and homelessness

Required Language

• Fluency in English required.
• Working knowledge of French an asset.

What You Bring to the Table

• Superior skills in assertive outreach engagement and strong knowledge in trauma informed care, crisis intervention and support and de-escalation
• Strong skills in opiate overdose identification and response
• Superior knowledge of STBBI and risk reduction strategies and safety practices for injection and inhalation substance use and safer sex
• Clinical knowledge of addition and mental health comorbidities and interventions and systemic barriers faced by people who use drugs
• Superior knowledge of City of Ottawa healthcare, housing, detox and recovery pathways, etc.
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams
• Excellent interpersonal skills and boundaries and conflict management
• Strong knowledge on PHIPPA, and provincial mental health and privacy legislations
• A strong commitment to working within a Health Equity, Person-Centred and Anti- Oppressive framework
• This position requires strong collaboration skills and the ability to make joint decisions with outreach partner in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable situations
• This position will require the outreach worker to be able to assess the safety of unknown locations (sometimes at night) to engage with people who may be in crisis

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Your Day-to-Day at a Glance

As our NESI Harm Reduction Outreach Worker, your responsibilities are:

• Provide responsive and proactive engagement with people who use drugs
• Distribute harm reduction equipment, including injection and inhalation supplies, safer sex supplies, and Naloxone
• Provide trauma-informed system navigation and care coordination services including client advocacy, appointment accompaniment and follow-ups, identification of health and wellness goals, crisis support and de-escalation
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams within the Somerset West CHC organization as well as partnering agencies to support client health and wellness through referrals, system navigation and care coordination for people who use drugs
• Support the planning and delivery of client group programs, including the Women’s Breakfast, Client Pet Food Bank, and client education/training sessions and peer programming
• Document client interactions within EMR
• Consistently enter program data into NEO, and OCHART
• Required to lift and carry items (25-30Ibs)
• Requires ability to drive, including at night with potential passenger distractions

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Somerset West Community Health Centre is an equal opportunity employer who values the diversity of individuals in our programs and services.

This posting is for a currently vacant position that we intend to fill through this recruitment process.

We welcome and encourage applications from members of Indigenous, Black and racialized communities, Two-Spirit, nonbinary, LGBTQ+ people; people with disabilities; and members of other equity seeking groups. Applicants are encouraged to share accessibility needs in the application process, and every attempt will be made to accommodate them.

We sincerely appreciate your interest in working with us. Due to high volume of applicants, we can neither confirm receipt of nor respond to inquiries regarding your application. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.