Program Specialist - Harm Reduction

Req ID: 186969
Location: Central Zone, Public Health Services - Burnside
Department: PH HP Communicable Disease Prevention CZ
Type of Employment: Temporary Hourly FT long-assignment (100%) x 1
Admin Professionals Position
Posting Closing Date: Open Until Filled

Nova Scotia Health is the largest provider of health services in Nova Scotia, with some specialized services also offered to clients throughout Atlantic Canada. We’re on a mission to achieve excellence in health, healing, and learning through working together, which is reflected in the hospitals, health centres, and community-based programs we operate across the province. Our passionate team of professionals provides a variety of high-quality inpatient and outpatient services including academic, tertiary, and quaternary care, as well as continuing care, primary health care, public health, and mental health and addictions. Join a diverse team of innovators, collaborators, and creative thinkers today.

Nova Scotia Health employs professionals in all corners of our beautiful province. We believe there's a place here for everyone to call home, from vibrant cities with exuberant nightlife to quaint towns with picturesque trails. The work-life balance that comes with a Nova Scotia Health role means you'll have the time to explore, discover, and participate in that coveted Atlantic lifestyle. Visit us today and check out www.novascotia.com to see why more people from across the globe are moving here.

About the Opportunity

The Program Specialist, Harm Reduction works with internal and external partners to coordinate initiatives to take action and advocate for policy and system change for the creation of supportive social, economic, and physical environments that prevent harm, reduce stigma, and protect and promote health. The Program Specialist synthesizes data and evidence and uses knowledge translation and mobilization techniques and tools to support the application of comprehensive, evidence-informed programs, services, policies, and strategies.

The Program Specialist provides leadership and advanced knowledge in health promotion, health protection, harm reduction, and community development theory and practice to promote and support the development of policies, programs, services, and physical, social, and built environments to reduce health inequities and address the determinants of health. The Program Specialist uses health promotion and harm reduction approaches which support empowerment, participation, partnerships, and equity to perform their work in healthy public policy, community health assessments, community development, and mobilization.

The position is responsible for:

• Providing expert-level advice, evidence, and best practice on advancing the understanding of harm reduction, stigma reduction, and trauma-informed work.
• Coordinating projects, initiatives, and teams working on specific content issues with internal and external partners.
• Contributing to knowledge translation by retrieving, assessing, and synthesizing complex research findings.
• Contributing to the development of policies and programs aimed at empowering marginalized populations and reducing stigma, in collaboration with key stakeholders.
• Collaboratively developing tools, indicators, and measures to enable an understanding of health protection and healthy communities work and how it translates related to specific issues.

About You

We would love to hear from you if you have the following:

• Bachelor’s in health promotion, sociology, or other relevant field with 5 years of relevant experience.
• Master’s degree in public health, health promotion, or other relevant field with 3 years of relevant experience.
• Knowledge of and experience in working with stigmatized populations, and individuals who have experienced trauma.
• Strong skills and experience in facilitation.
• Philosophy and core principles of harm reduction.
• Media advocacy and communication.
• Oppression and stigma as a social determinant of health, awareness, and study of one’s own power and privilege and appropriate public health approaches to reduce health inequities.
• Evidence-informed decision-making tools and practices, conducting rapid evidence reviews, and producing evidence briefs.
• Innovative systems thinking with an understanding of working with communities and community-based organizations.
• The realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, gender-based discrimination, and other social inequalities that affect both people’s vulnerability and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm.
• Interacting with municipal units, communities, and community leadership within zones.
• Working in coalitions and building strategic partnerships.
• Community development and mobilization.
• Project management techniques and processes.

Please ensure your resume is up to date and includes all relevant education, experience, training, and certifications.

Hours

• Temporary Full Time Long Assignment/ 100% FTE/ 70 Hours Bi-weekly
• Starting as soon as possible/ End Dates Feb. 2026

*please note dates are approximate and subject to change

Compensation and Benefits

$39.23 - $45.79 hourly

Successful candidates may be eligible for our benefits package which includes health, dental, travel, long-term disability, and life insurance coverage as well as a defined benefit pension plan.

Once You've Applied

Thank you for your interest in this position. Only those applicants selected for an interview will be contacted.

This is an Admin Professionals bargaining unit position. Preference is given to bargaining unit employees for unionized positions. Employees are encouraged to view their seniority hours and dates in their SuccessFactors online profile. Successful applicants changing unions, bargaining units, or employment status, are advised to seek clarification regarding their seniority, benefits, and vacation entitlement and/or usage, prior to accepting the position.

Nova Scotia Health is committed to being a workforce that is free of discrimination, values diversity, and is representative, at all job levels, of the people we serve. We encourage all qualified applicants who self-identify as Indigenous, Black/African Nova Scotian, Persons of Colour, Foreign Nationals/Newcomers, Persons with Disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ to apply and self-identify.