Title: Homelessness Intervention Advisor
Employee Working Location: In person (Montreal, QC)
Employment Status: Casual
The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) – an inspirational not for profit organization, helps people and communities in Canada and around the world in times of need and supports them in strengthening their resilience. As a
Canada’s Best Employers 2026, we are committed to having an accessible, diverse, inclusive, and barrier-free work environment.
The Canadian Red Cross is seeking a Homelessness Intervention Advisor to help plan, coordinate and deliver frontline support for people experiencing homelessness at warming centres in Montreal. The role also includes on-call shifts to support colleagues on the ground.
In this role, you will:
- Act as a subject matter expert on frontline work with people experiencing homelessness, including protection and inclusion, in order to support the Operations team by sharing expertise, best practices and current evidence, and by mentoring colleagues.
- Help team members assess complex situations and coach them as they build their intervention skills.
- Advise coordinators on best practices, monitor quality of interventions and recommend ways to improve approaches and processes.
- Keep intervention protocols current and adapted to the context of an overnight warming centre.
- Respond to crises and conflicts, using intervention, de-escalation and conflict management techniques, stepping in alongside front-line workers or providing them with technical support as needed.
- Help maintain a safe, welcoming and healthy environment, including light cleaning of common areas.
- Support well-being and maintain a steady, reassuring presence in common areas to prevent conflict and foster a respectful atmosphere.
- Actively help onboard new team members.
- Practice active listening and support people's immediate needs, including providing referrals to appropriate resources.
- Maintain strong working relationships with community partners to ensure a coordinated response.
- Help develop, update and share a directory of resources and services for warming centre guests.
- Apply protocols for poisoning (including naloxone administration), intoxication and psychosocial crises.
- Identify signs of distress or increased vulnerability and escalate to the appropriate resources, including emergency services when required.
- Participate in team meetings, training sessions, and group reflection on intervention practices.
- Help promote and uphold the warming centre's code of conduct.
- Review incident and intervention reports to identify recurring issues, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
- Prepare daily reports.
What we are looking for:
- Bachelor's degree in social work, delinquency intervention, criminology, special care counselling, psychology or any other related field.
- At least 5 years of experience working with people experiencing homelessness or living in situations of extreme vulnerability.
- Excellent knowledge of current evidence and best practices in homelessness, mental health, protection, inclusion, addictions and social exclusion.
- Ability to stay calm and use sound judgment in a fast-paced, stressful, and sometimes unpredictable environment.
- Psychological first aid, CPR and first aid training are assets.
- Excellent spoken and written French; fluency in English or other languages is considered an asset.
- Initiative, autonomy, team spirit and strong adaptability.
- Ability to work independently during night shifts while staying alert and exercising sound judgment.
- Availability to work nights, some weekends and on-call shifts.
Working Conditions:
- As we work with and support people (managers, colleagues, beneficiaries/customers, volunteers, donors and external partners) and communities in Canada and around the world, applicants whose first language is not English may be required to perform the responsibilities of the role in English.
- Eligibility to work in Canada: At this time, we welcome applications from candidates eligible to work in Canada. If you are not a citizen or permanent resident of Canada, we encourage you to carefully review your visa to find out whether you are eligible to work in the job you are considering applying for. Refer to our FAQ for more information.
- If you are selected for this role, you will be required to complete a successful pre-employment screening process which includes a satisfactory Enhanced Police Information Check (E-PIC).
