Clinical Practice Lead – Safe Relationships & Abuse Prevention – up to 2 year contract
Top Benefits
About the role
Reports To: Director of Projects
Classification: Full time contract (18 – 24 months)
Salary Range: $78,243 to $84,627
Date Posted: Aug 5, 2025
Date Closed: Aug 12, 2025
Please forward your cover letter & resume in one document with your name in the title to careers@willowbridge.ca by 4:30p.m. on or before , August 12, 2025 . Note, applications that are incomplete or are not submitted to the email above will not be considered.
About Willowbridge
Willowbridge Community Services is a not-for-profit organization offering developmental services and counselling across Hamilton, Brantford, Niagara, and Haldimand Norfolk. We believe that everyone deserves relationships, community, and celebration. Our mission is to bring positive change to life in our community through services, supports, and counselling so no one is left behind.
Why Work for Willowbridge?
- – Become part of an innovative 4-day workweek (4DWW) and work 32 work hours a week with no salary reductions.
- – Generous vacation package starting at 4.5 weeks paid (18 days pro-rated for 4DWW), all statutory holidays, and additional paid days for a week-long holiday office closure.
- – Full Benefits package and an RRSP plan with employer matching up to 5%.
- – Accrue 1.4 cumulative sick-days (pro-rated for 4DWW) per month that build into a sick-day accrual bank.
- – Flexible working hours that meet your needs.
- – Hybrid work arrangements that include both remote and in-person service provisions.
- – Funded professional development, training, and certification opportunities as available.
- – A management team that advocates for the wellbeing of staff, clients, and the community. – Opportunity to be a change-maker in a positive, collaborative workplace that values leadership, innovation, and creativity.
About the Opportunity
Willowbridge is seeking a skilled, thoughtful, and values-driven registered social worker or psychotherapist to serve as Clinical Practice Lead for a bold provincial initiative: Safe Relationships and Your Rights (SRAYR). This contract position is a unique opportunity to lead clinical innovation on a co-designed gender-based violence (GBV) prevention project built with and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across Ontario.
SRAYR brings together over 20 partner organizations—including researchers, advocates, clinicians, and people with lived experience—to create accessible tools for education, prevention, and response. These include a plain language guidebook, multi-tiered training programs, video-based learning, and a public awareness campaign.
As Clinical Practice Lead, you’ll help shape therapeutic content, support research and evaluation, and guide responses to GBV disclosures. A key focus will include leading a local pilot to improve Ontario’s required abuse prevention training (QAM), with the goal of creating a trauma-informed model that could be scaled province-wide.
This position is part of a provincially funded project running through 2027. While time-limited, there is potential for future opportunities depending on project outcomes.
This is a chance to lead meaningful change where it’s urgently needed.
How You’ll Contribute
- – Provide clinical oversight across all project materials
Ensure that all content—including guidebooks, training resources, and communications—is trauma-informed, grounded in best practices for GBV prevention, and appropriate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). You will work closely with our Senior Content Developer and Communications Team to ensure alignment and clarity. - – Collaborate with researchers to shape content and evaluation
Partner with research teams from three Ontario universities to co-develop curriculum content, inform research questions, and support the design of pre/post outcome measures. You will be supported in this work by the Director of Projects and academic research leads. - – Co-create three core training curriculums
Collaborate with researchers, project staff, and our advisory group of people with lived experience to develop: (1) a curriculum for GBV counsellors supporting people with IDD; (2) a train-the-trainer model for developmental service providers; and (3) a prevention-focused curriculum for individuals and families with IDD. - – Co-lead design and pilot of updated QAM training
Work with researchers to conduct a local review of Ontario’s Quality Assurance Measures (QAM) abuse prevention training. Co-develop accessible, trauma-informed QAM training for both staff and people with IDD, with the long-term goal of informing more consistent, inclusive practices across the province. - – Develop safety response protocols and training
Design brief, trauma-informed intervention models to support individuals who disclose GBV through project programming, including training for staff who provide single-session safety support.
What We’re Looking For:
- – Master of Social Work (MSW) or equivalent graduate degree in a related field
- – Registration and good standing with a professional regulatory body (e.g., OCSWSSW, CRPO)
- – Significant clinical experience supporting individuals who have experienced gender-based violence or intimate partner violence
- – Expertise in trauma and attachment theory, with demonstrated application in clinical and/or community-based practice
- – Experience supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including adapting approaches to support diverse needs
- – Strong understanding of abuse prevention best practices, including experience designing or evaluating prevention programs
- – Knowledge of human trafficking prevention frameworks and their intersection with disability and gender-based violence
- – Experience designing or delivering therapeutic group programs or educational sessions
- – Demonstrated ability to lead curriculum development and translate clinical knowledge into accessible educational content
- – Experience contributing to research and developing or implementing outcome measures
- – Teaching, facilitation, or adult education experience is a strong asset
- – Strategic thinking and systems-level understanding of how clinical practice, policy, and prevention intersect
- – Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write clearly, respectfully, and accessibly for diverse audiences
- – Proficiency with Microsoft Office and comfort working in collaborative, shared editing environments – Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust and collaborate effectively across disciplines
Help us shape something powerful, practical, and long overdue—because everyone deserves to learn, be safe, and be seen.
Willowbridge is committed to supporting a culture of diversity and inclusiveness across the organization and particularly encourages people of all ethnicities, genders, sexual/gender identities, cultural backgrounds, abilities, and beliefs to apply. Accommodation in the recruitment process will be provided upon request.
Please forward your cover letter & resume in one document to careers@willowbridge.ca by 4:30 p.m. on August 12, 2025.
About Willowbridge Community Services
Willowbridge Community Services is open to anyone looking to improve their life and take control of their future. Our team is dedicated to providing responsive, creative and compassionate care to men, women, children, couples and families living in our community.
If you live or work in Brantford, Hamilton, Niagara, or the Brant County area and are looking for individual or group therapy, credit counselling or developmental services, we are here to help.
Clinical Practice Lead – Safe Relationships & Abuse Prevention – up to 2 year contract
Top Benefits
About the role
Reports To: Director of Projects
Classification: Full time contract (18 – 24 months)
Salary Range: $78,243 to $84,627
Date Posted: Aug 5, 2025
Date Closed: Aug 12, 2025
Please forward your cover letter & resume in one document with your name in the title to careers@willowbridge.ca by 4:30p.m. on or before , August 12, 2025 . Note, applications that are incomplete or are not submitted to the email above will not be considered.
About Willowbridge
Willowbridge Community Services is a not-for-profit organization offering developmental services and counselling across Hamilton, Brantford, Niagara, and Haldimand Norfolk. We believe that everyone deserves relationships, community, and celebration. Our mission is to bring positive change to life in our community through services, supports, and counselling so no one is left behind.
Why Work for Willowbridge?
- – Become part of an innovative 4-day workweek (4DWW) and work 32 work hours a week with no salary reductions.
- – Generous vacation package starting at 4.5 weeks paid (18 days pro-rated for 4DWW), all statutory holidays, and additional paid days for a week-long holiday office closure.
- – Full Benefits package and an RRSP plan with employer matching up to 5%.
- – Accrue 1.4 cumulative sick-days (pro-rated for 4DWW) per month that build into a sick-day accrual bank.
- – Flexible working hours that meet your needs.
- – Hybrid work arrangements that include both remote and in-person service provisions.
- – Funded professional development, training, and certification opportunities as available.
- – A management team that advocates for the wellbeing of staff, clients, and the community. – Opportunity to be a change-maker in a positive, collaborative workplace that values leadership, innovation, and creativity.
About the Opportunity
Willowbridge is seeking a skilled, thoughtful, and values-driven registered social worker or psychotherapist to serve as Clinical Practice Lead for a bold provincial initiative: Safe Relationships and Your Rights (SRAYR). This contract position is a unique opportunity to lead clinical innovation on a co-designed gender-based violence (GBV) prevention project built with and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across Ontario.
SRAYR brings together over 20 partner organizations—including researchers, advocates, clinicians, and people with lived experience—to create accessible tools for education, prevention, and response. These include a plain language guidebook, multi-tiered training programs, video-based learning, and a public awareness campaign.
As Clinical Practice Lead, you’ll help shape therapeutic content, support research and evaluation, and guide responses to GBV disclosures. A key focus will include leading a local pilot to improve Ontario’s required abuse prevention training (QAM), with the goal of creating a trauma-informed model that could be scaled province-wide.
This position is part of a provincially funded project running through 2027. While time-limited, there is potential for future opportunities depending on project outcomes.
This is a chance to lead meaningful change where it’s urgently needed.
How You’ll Contribute
- – Provide clinical oversight across all project materials
Ensure that all content—including guidebooks, training resources, and communications—is trauma-informed, grounded in best practices for GBV prevention, and appropriate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). You will work closely with our Senior Content Developer and Communications Team to ensure alignment and clarity. - – Collaborate with researchers to shape content and evaluation
Partner with research teams from three Ontario universities to co-develop curriculum content, inform research questions, and support the design of pre/post outcome measures. You will be supported in this work by the Director of Projects and academic research leads. - – Co-create three core training curriculums
Collaborate with researchers, project staff, and our advisory group of people with lived experience to develop: (1) a curriculum for GBV counsellors supporting people with IDD; (2) a train-the-trainer model for developmental service providers; and (3) a prevention-focused curriculum for individuals and families with IDD. - – Co-lead design and pilot of updated QAM training
Work with researchers to conduct a local review of Ontario’s Quality Assurance Measures (QAM) abuse prevention training. Co-develop accessible, trauma-informed QAM training for both staff and people with IDD, with the long-term goal of informing more consistent, inclusive practices across the province. - – Develop safety response protocols and training
Design brief, trauma-informed intervention models to support individuals who disclose GBV through project programming, including training for staff who provide single-session safety support.
What We’re Looking For:
- – Master of Social Work (MSW) or equivalent graduate degree in a related field
- – Registration and good standing with a professional regulatory body (e.g., OCSWSSW, CRPO)
- – Significant clinical experience supporting individuals who have experienced gender-based violence or intimate partner violence
- – Expertise in trauma and attachment theory, with demonstrated application in clinical and/or community-based practice
- – Experience supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including adapting approaches to support diverse needs
- – Strong understanding of abuse prevention best practices, including experience designing or evaluating prevention programs
- – Knowledge of human trafficking prevention frameworks and their intersection with disability and gender-based violence
- – Experience designing or delivering therapeutic group programs or educational sessions
- – Demonstrated ability to lead curriculum development and translate clinical knowledge into accessible educational content
- – Experience contributing to research and developing or implementing outcome measures
- – Teaching, facilitation, or adult education experience is a strong asset
- – Strategic thinking and systems-level understanding of how clinical practice, policy, and prevention intersect
- – Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write clearly, respectfully, and accessibly for diverse audiences
- – Proficiency with Microsoft Office and comfort working in collaborative, shared editing environments – Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust and collaborate effectively across disciplines
Help us shape something powerful, practical, and long overdue—because everyone deserves to learn, be safe, and be seen.
Willowbridge is committed to supporting a culture of diversity and inclusiveness across the organization and particularly encourages people of all ethnicities, genders, sexual/gender identities, cultural backgrounds, abilities, and beliefs to apply. Accommodation in the recruitment process will be provided upon request.
Please forward your cover letter & resume in one document to careers@willowbridge.ca by 4:30 p.m. on August 12, 2025.
About Willowbridge Community Services
Willowbridge Community Services is open to anyone looking to improve their life and take control of their future. Our team is dedicated to providing responsive, creative and compassionate care to men, women, children, couples and families living in our community.
If you live or work in Brantford, Hamilton, Niagara, or the Brant County area and are looking for individual or group therapy, credit counselling or developmental services, we are here to help.