Probation and Parole Officer

Northwest Employment Works; Northwestern Ontario; On-site; CAD 30,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A government agency in Ontario is seeking a Probation and Parole Officer responsible for providing vital services to adult offenders and enhancing community safety. This role requires a degree in social work or related fields, experience in counselling, and an understanding of the unique needs of Indigenous communities. Candidates should expect opportunities for professional growth in a supportive environment.

Benefits

Flexible learning and development opportunities

Comprehensive compensation and benefits package

Northern Attraction Incentive Program

Qualifications

• Degree from an authorized institution in relevant disciplines or equivalent experience.
• Ability to travel regularly to remote locations.
• Demonstrated insight into the impacts on offenders and communities.

Responsibilities

• Provide probation and parole services to adult offenders.
• Investigate and gather information for Court reports.
• Enhance community safety through monitoring.

Skills

Counselling

Motivational interviewing

Relationship building

Data gathering

Critical analysis

Decision making

Education

Degree in social work, psychology, sociology, or criminology

Job description

Probation and Parole Officer

Job ID: 235820 • Posting status: Open • Organization: Ministry of the Solicitor General • Division: Probation & Parole • City: Kenora • Position(s) language: English • Job term: 2 Temporary (up to 12 months, with possibility of extension) • Job code: 10172 – Probation Officer 2 • Salary: $1,506.53 – $1,861.87 Per week*
*Indicates the salary listed as per the OPSEU Collective Agreement.

If you have not completed the Ministry’s Probation and Parole Officer basic training program and the experience requirement, you will be hired in the Probation Officer (PO1) salary range ($1182.40 – $1541.00) per week.

As public servants working in the Ministry of the Solicitor General, you will lead with integrity, demonstrate professionalism, champion inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility and human rights, and strive for excellence. Probation and Parole Officers are entrusted by our fellow citizens to play a pivotal role in the justice sector, promoting community and victim safety through the assessment and effective case management of offenders on community supervision.

While supporting public safety, ensuring offender accountability, and enforcing compliance, Probation and Parole Officers are tasked with assisting vulnerable offenders who face significant barriers and require guidance navigating the challenges of living with issues such as mental health, addictions, historical and ongoing systemic discrimination (e.g., racism) and related barriers such as poverty, transiency and historical/intergenerational trauma. They are committed to evidence-based practice in response to the changing needs of diverse communities.

Probation and Parole Officers are honest, accountable, caring, ethical, respectful, inclusive, and are passionate about reducing recidivism to support victim and community safety.

This is an exciting and intrinsically rewarding career within the Ontario Public Service where you can assist the offender population in making significant changes in their lives.

These positions are located approximately 1,800 km away from Toronto. For more information on the location, please visit the City of Kenora website.

About the job

• Provide probation, parole and conditional sentence services to adult offenders
• Investigate and gather information to prepare reports ordered by the Courts and the Ontario Parole Board to support sentencing and parole decisions
• Enhance community safety by monitoring and enforcing conditions of court orders
• Assess criminogenic and other risk and needs and develop and implement offender case management plans to address those needs
• Help offenders to make positive changes by guiding and supporting their efforts through meaningful interventions, skills building, cognitive‑behavioural counselling, referrals, programming and motivational interviewing
• Liaise with victims and build relationships with diverse criminal justice system partners and stakeholders such as police, courts and community agencies (including Indigenous communities and organizations)

Experience working with Indigenous offenders

• Demonstrated insight into the impacts on offenders, victims, and communities who have experienced the effects of systemic barriers and intergenerational trauma
• Demonstrated understanding of Indigenous peoples’ histories, the impacts of colonization, systemic discrimination and barriers, and intergenerational trauma, and of the unique needs of Indigenous offenders, victims and communities
• Demonstrated ability to integrate culturally appropriate, relevant and meaningful services and methods of intervention for offenders in their healing journey, and to support reconciliation
• Creativity, flexibility and respect for Indigenous perspectives and traditional approaches to achieving and maintaining change

What you bring to the team

Mandatory requirements

• Degree (from an institution authorized by the province to grant degrees) in one of the following disciplines: social work, psychology, sociology, and criminology OR a degree (from an institution authorized by the province to grant degrees) and experience greater than five years in total, in a social services or correctional organization, in a role(s) that involves the formal assessment of human behaviour and the application of structured interventions aimed at supporting the changing of human behaviour.
• The ability to travel regularly (e.g., 3-4 times per month) to remote locations by air and the ability to stay overnight in the remote location.

Applied social work expertise

• Demonstrated counselling and motivational interviewing experience
• Relationship building skills to counsel, provide offenders with guidance and support
• Demonstrated ability to develop, implement, monitor, update and evaluate offender‑focused case management
• Experience in the delivery of structured individual and group interventions
• Demonstrated ability to effectively gather data to support the completion of a comprehensive assessment
• Demonstrated ability to interpret and analyze assessment information gathered through identification of offender risk, need and responsivity

Strong decision‑making expertise

• Demonstrated use of professional discretion to make timely and appropriate decisions that are aligned with offender supervision strategies, individual needs, critical analysis, policy and legislation
• Demonstrated ability to set clear and consistent expectations for accountability or to initiate corrective action to address risk mitigation and offender rehabilitation

Communication and interpersonal skills

• Demonstrated interpersonal skills to contribute to a respectful workplace that values human rights, diversity, inclusion and equity
• Skills and ability to ensure completion of the administrative components of case management (including documentation, data entry, meeting deadlines and managing multiple priorities)
• Verbal communication skills to work effectively with colleagues, offenders, victims, stakeholders and justice partners with diverse needs and perspectives
• Demonstrated ability to gather and present information verbally and in writing in a clear, accurate, concise and professional manner

Northern Attraction Incentive Program

This position qualifies for the Northern Attraction Incentive Program (NAIP). NAIP is a pilot recruitment program which offers financial incentives to new hires in specific positions in designated institutions and probation and parole offices in Northern Ontario, including external candidates to the Ontario Public Service and qualifying existing employees who agree to work for a term of three years.

All applicants will be provided with more information on the program, once the job advertisement closes. If you would like more information prior to applying, you may contact [e-mail]

Don’t meet every qualification?

We are building an inclusive workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We encourage everyone interested in working with us to apply, including people with disabilities, Indigenous, Black and racialized individuals, as well as people from all ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.

Our hiring process is accessible, consistent with Ontario’s Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. We are working to prevent and remove barriers in our hiring processes and can offer accommodation to address specific needs related to Code‑protected grounds such as disability, family status and religion. For more information about accommodation during the hiring process please contact us.

Learn more about the work the OPS is doing to create an inclusive, anti‑racist, accessible and diverse workplace:
diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
accessibility
Anti‑Racism Policy

What we offer

• a career that can grow across ministries and job functions
• flexible learning and developmental opportunities, including education and mentorship programs
• a comprehensive compensation and benefits package
• base salary that aligns to market trends with performance‑based pay and scheduled salary progression
• tailored work arrangements, including opportunities like flex hours, self‑funded leave and more
• a modern, friendly and accessible physical work environment