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About the Role

This is an existing vacancy for a full-time permanent Help Ahead Intake Worker position that receives and reviews inquiries and referrals via multiple input channels for mental health services, conducts initial triage to determine eligibility and need, and then routes appropriate clients to Service Navigators for further screening and matching to 22 partner agencies across the City of Toronto.

Responsibilities

• Respond to inquiries from children, youth, families, core service providers, allied sector partners and other healthcare stakeholders seeking access to child and youth mental health services via phone, email, web-based e-referrals and fax.
• Manage incoming service inquiries through a hybrid approach including live telephone response and timely follow-up to voicemail messages.
• Monitor and process inquiries received through multiple channels (e-referral, email, fax, voicemail, chat and web) ensuring responses within 24 hours.
• Engage callers to identify presenting mental-health needs using information shared and professional judgement.
• Document all inquiries, intake activities, and outcomes in real time within the designated e-referral platform and client information system, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and consistency with Help Ahead standards.
• Record demographic details, presenting concerns, eligibility decisions, risk/safety information, consent status, and referral pathways using approved templates, fields, and workflows in the digital system.
• Ensure secure handling of personal health information (PHI) and compliance with agency privacy policies, PHIPA, and sector standards for electronic record keeping.
• Collaborate with Service Navigators, supervisors, and partner agencies by ensuring documentation is shared through the correct digital pathways and contains the information needed for seamless service coordination.

Requirements

• Completion of a Degree or Diploma in a Human Services–related field (e.g., Social Work, Psychology, Child and Youth Care, Counselling, Social Service Work).
• Three years of experience working with children, youth, and families in mental-health or allied sectors.
• Strong knowledge of child and youth mental-health disorders, symptom presentation, developmental considerations, and functional impacts.
• Trained in crisis intervention, de-escalation techniques, and managing safety or high-risk situations.
• Knowledge of trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and strengths-based service approaches.
• Ability to apply a multi-systemic lens, recognizing how education, child welfare, developmental services, health, and community supports intersect with mental-health needs.
• Strong customer-service orientation with excellent interpersonal skills for engaging children, youth, caregivers, families, and service partners.
• Knowledge of platforms and tools relevant to the role (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Microsoft Office, Cisco IP Phone, Cisco Finesse).
• Ability to work independently with sound judgment and initiative, while also collaborating effectively with service providers, cross-sectoral partners, and interdisciplinary teams to support complex cases.
• Understanding of the child and youth mental-health service sector in Toronto, including pathways, service mandates, sector partners, and community supports.
• Fluency in another language(s), including sign language would be an asset.
• Awareness of the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and within the community being served by the position.
• An understanding of Anti-Black Racism, anti-oppressive/anti-racism perspective in the context of the social determinants of health when working with clients and their families.
• Ability to recognize and identify situations where incidents of and imbalance of power and privilege may occur and can result in possible negative impacts for the client.
• A Vulnerable Sector police check must be completed or obtained before commencement of employment.

Skills

• Crisis intervention
• De-escalation techniques
• Managing safety or high-risk situations
• Trauma-informed care
• Culturally responsive care
• Strengths-based service approaches
• Customer service
• Interpersonal skills
• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom
• Microsoft Office
• Cisco IP Phone
• Cisco Finesse

Location

• Toronto

Work Type

• Full-time
• Permanent
• Hybrid

Experience Level

• Three years of experience working with children, youth, and families in mental-health or allied sectors.

Education Level

• Degree or Diploma in a Human Services–related field (e.g., Social Work, Psychology, Child and Youth Care, Counselling, Social Service Work).

Salary/Compensations

• $51,699.00 to $60,202.00 per annum

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, EAP, premium fully paid by organization
• Life and disability insurance
• Defined Contribution Pension plan with employer matching up to 6% based on length of service
• Generous paid time off (Vacation, Sick and Float days)
• Pregnancy/ Parental leave top-up
• Hybrid work flexibility
• Access to employee perks and discounts
• Opportunities for growth and professional development

About the Company

• Strides Toronto is a multi-service agency supporting infants, children, youth and young adults from birth to age 29, and their families, primarily across east Toronto.
• We offer community-based, residential and treatment programs—including mental health counselling, autism services, early intervention, day treatment, education, outreach and community support—using a client-centered, evidence-informed approach.
• Since 2015, Strides Toronto has served as Toronto’s Lead Agency for Infant, Child and Youth Mental Health, partnering with 21 core service providers to provide system leadership, citywide planning, coordinated service delivery and program alignment.
• Strides Toronto also leads initiatives with broader reach, including Help Ahead, the HOPE Strategy across Toronto and One Stop Talk/Parlons Maintenant and the Provincial Youth Outreach Worker Program across Ontario.

Equal Opportunity

• Strides Toronto is an equal opportunity employer.
• We benefit from diversity of lived experiences in the workplace and encourage applications from qualified candidates who reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
• Strides Toronto is a participant in the Government of Canada’s 50-30 Challenge, a program which challenges organizations to improve access for women and/or non-binary people and other equity-deserving groups, including those identifying as: racialized, Black, and/or people of colour, people with disabilities (including invisible and episodic disabilities), 2SLGBTQ+ and/or gender and sexually diverse individuals, and Aboriginal and/or Indigenous Peoples to increase the representation and inclusion of diverse groups within their workplace.
• In accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and Strides Toronto’s own policies, requests for accommodation will be considered throughout the hiring process.