Identifying Information

Job Title: Program Development and Evaluation Specialist

Employment Group: Bargaining Unit – CUPE Local 1099

Program Area: Support Services / Peer College

Job Level: Team Lead, Practitioner

Reports to: Senior Director, Community Programs and Strategies

Organization Summary

CMHA-Edmonton is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that all people experience good mental health and well-being. We increase awareness and understanding of mental health, mental illness, recovery, and suicide prevention through education. We support the resilience and recovery of people in distress through crisis intervention, housing, peer support, family support, and system navigation services.

Job Summary

The Program Development and Evaluation Specialist plays a central role in strengthening CMHA Edmonton’s community mental health impact by supporting program planning and quality improvement and by leading evaluation, applied research, and knowledge mobilization across the organization. 

Approximately 60% of this role’s work will focus on advancing peer-led evaluation and planning for two key strategic programs – Peer Support Services and Peer College. The remaining 40% of work will be to support the development and implementation of a phased, organization-wide evaluation framework.

Working closely with program leaders, partners, and people with lived experience, this role ensures initiatives are evidence-informed, outcomes-focused, and continuously improving. The role also provides leadership in peer-led research and evaluation, knowledge sharing, and system-wide learning, helping position CMHA Edmonton as a backbone organization within Edmonton’s community mental health system.

This role contributes to grant writing, reporting, and strategic communications to support sustainability, scaling, and sector influence.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

1. Evaluation and Research

• Conduct annual program evaluations across programs.

• Provide coaching and practice leadership on evaluation, data use, and evidence-informed decision-making.

• Support mixed-methods research, including storytelling, participant insights, and community-based evidence generation.

• Establish and maintain partnerships with academic institutions and evaluation consultants. 

• Lead development of technical reports, evaluation products, and contributions to academic publications. 

• Co-create a body of applied research on peer support, recovery, system navigation, and community mental health.

• Ensure ethical, accessible, and community-grounded research practices.

• Represent CMHA Edmonton in evaluation, research, and system planning forums.

1. Program Planning and Development

• Support program managers in designing, refining, and scaling community-based mental health programs.
• Co-develop theories of change, outcomes, and delivery models with staff and people with lived experience.
• Support quality improvement for existing programs and the development of new initiatives, pilots, and system innovations informed by evidence and community need.
• Support alignment of program design with evaluation frameworks, learning priorities, and funder requirements.

1. Knowledge Mobilization

• Design and implement a knowledge sharing framework, including in-person, digital, and community-based formats. 
• Translate evaluation findings into accessible formats (reports, infographics, presentations, webinars). 
• Support presentation of findings to stakeholders including community groups, partners, and funders. 
• Support development of materials for dissemination through reports back to stakeholders, public-facing and media communications, and sector engagement to share program learning widely. 
• Translate findings into plain-language reports, briefs, and presentations.
• Contribute data to grant writing, proposals, and funder reporting.

1. Peer-Led Research and Evaluation 

• Lead the implementation of a peer-led research and evaluation model, engaging people with lived experience in design, data collection, analysis, and storytelling to improve programs and elevate lived experience.
• Engage peer governance group and program participants connected to Peer Support Services and Peer College programs in evaluation oversight and qualitative research. 
• Support program leaders internally and externally in building capacity to use peer-led research and evaluation approaches.

Qualifications

• Masters degree or equivalent experience in evaluation, social sciences, implementation science, public policy, or related fields.

• Experience in program development, evaluation (qualitative and quantitative), and quality improvement in community mental health or related sectors.

• Demonstrated experience in participatory or peer-led evaluation and research approaches.

• Experience with data systems, analytics, and multimodal data collection.

• Experience working with academic and community research partnerships.

• Knowledge of knowledge mobilization, communications, or social marketing is an asset.

• Strong facilitation, writing, and knowledge translation skills.

• Experience in grant writing and reporting is an asset.

• Commitment to recovery-oriented, equity-focused, and lived-experience-led practice.

Required Training for the Position

Within the first 3 months of employment:

• Indigenous Awareness Training
• Discrimination and Harassment Training
• Diversity and Cross-Cultural Training