Youth Advocate with Lived Experience - Family Navigation Project - Regular Full-Time - 2026-18956

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 42,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

The Family Navigation Project is seeking a Youth Advocate with lived experience to support youth ages 11 to 29 navigating mental health and addiction supports across the GTA.

This peer-support role emphasizes emotional support, validation, hope, and practical insight. Training, mentorship, and ongoing support will be provided to help you share your lived experience responsibly while supporting youth in navigating services and advocating for themselves.

Qualifications

• Lived or living experience with navigating the mental health and/or addiction system.
• Openness to sharing parts of your lived experience in ways that support and empower youth, while keeping healthy boundaries.
• Ability to connect with youth ages 11 to 29 across diverse lived experiences, identities and equity-deserving communities.
• Strong communication, listening, and relationship-building skills with youth and colleagues of all ages.
• Reliability with scheduling, documentation, and follow-through.
• Strong organization and time-management skills in a hybrid work environment.

Responsibilities

• Offer emotional support, encouragement, and lived experience insight.
• Help youth understand services, options, and next steps alongside their Navigator.
• Share your lived experience in a safe and healthy way to give hope and help youth feel understood.
• Support youth in building confidence, trust, and self-advocacy skills.
• Document notes and collaborate with the team to ensure youth receive the support they need.
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with Navigators to connect more youth to peer support.
• Participate in regular case consultations, team meetings, and joint planning with the FNP team.
• Maintain regular communication with Navigators regarding youth you are supporting.
• Track and report on client, outreach, and project activities.
• Support youth-focused workshops, events, and community outreach.
• Bring a youth and lived experienced perspective to team planning and meetings with service providers.

Skills

Lived experience

Communication

Relationship-building

Time management

Hybrid work adaptability

Education

College diploma or university degree in a related field

Job description

About Us:

Family Navigation Project helps youth ages 11 to 29 and their families find and access mental health and addiction supports across the GTA. We combine clinical expertise and lived experience to guide people to services that fit their needs. Our services are free and offered by phone, by email, and virtually.

We are building a team that reflects the diverse young people we support. We strongly encourage applications from youth who identify as Black, Indigenous, and other racialized individuals, 2SLGBTQIA+ persons, persons with disabilities, and others who live at the intersection of equity-deserving communities.

About the Role:

We’re looking for a Youth Advocate with Lived Experience: someone who has personally navigated mental health and/or addiction challenges as a young person and wants to support other youth on their journey.

This is a peer-support role, not a clinical one. Peer support is relationship-based. It draws on lived experience to offer emotional support, validation, hope, and practical insight. We’ll provide training, mentorship, and ongoing support to help you share your lived experience in a way that protects your well-being and supports youth.

You’ll be part of an interdisciplinary team of Navigators, consulting psychiatrists, Intake Coordinators, and colleagues in other lived experience roles, all working together to help youth and families find the right mental health and addiction supports. You’ll use your lived experience in a safe, intentional, and professional way to help youth feel less alone and to support them as they learn to navigate the system and advocate for themselves. You’ll also bring youth voice into program decisions and youth-focused projects.

This position reports to the Program Manager.

Why This Role Matters:

Youth deserve support from people who get it. Your voice, story, and perspective will help young people feel seen and make the mental health and addiction system easier to navigate.

What You Will Do:

Youth Support

• Offer emotional support, encouragement, and lived experience insight.
• Help youth understand services, options, and next steps alongside their Navigator.
• Share your lived experience in a safe and healthy way to give hope and help youth feel understood.
• Support youth in building confidence, trust, and self-advocacy skills.
• Document notes and collaborate with the team to ensure youth receive the support they need.

Team Collaboration & Referrals

• Build strong, collaborative relationships with Navigators so more youth get connected to peer support.
• Participate in regular case consultations, team meetings, and joint planning with the FNP team.
• Maintain regular communication with Navigators regarding youth you are supporting.
• Track and report on client, outreach, and project activities.

Lived Experience Voice & Community Engagement

• Support youth-focused workshops, events, and community outreach.
• Bring a youth and lived experienced perspective to team planning and meetings with service providers, helping shape services that reflect young people's needs.
• Share a lived experience perspective in presentations and conferences.

Youth Advisory Council (YAC)

• Serve as the primary liaison between the YAC and FNP, amplifying youth advisors’ voices and ensuring their perspectives are meaningfully integrated into FNP’s work and decision-making.
• Lead YAC logistics and coordination, including recruiting, onboarding, supporting, and tracking youth advisors’ participation and hours for compensation.
• Support the YAC with planning and organizing monthly meetings and youth-led projects.

What You Bring (Required):

• Lived or living experience with navigating the mental health and/or addiction system
• Openness to sharing parts of your lived experience in ways that support and empower youth, while keeping healthy boundaries
• Ability to connect with youth ages 11 to 29 across diverse lived experiences, identities and equity-deserving communities
• Strong communication, listening, and relationship-building skills with youth and colleagues of all ages
• Reliability with scheduling, documentation, and follow-through
• Strong organization and time-management skills in a hybrid work environment
• Openness to learning, asking questions, receiving feedback, and working as part of a team

Assets (Nice to Have):

• College diploma or university degree in a related field (community services, health, social sciences)
• Experience in community, youth, or advocacy work
• Knowledge of mental health or addiction supports in the GTA
• Peer-support training (or interest in completing training)
• Experience supporting marginalized or under-served youth communities