We are Sanctuary, and we’re looking for a Street Outreach Worker to join our team in June 2025 (or earlier!). This job is perfect for someone with a passion for social justice, deep empathy and ability to build trusting friendships, and a love of people and Jesus.

About Sanctuary

At Sanctuary, we are becoming a healthy, welcoming community where people who are poor or excluded are particularly valued. This community is an expression of the good news embodied in Jesus Christ.

Our faith and relationship with God inform us in identifying the following as some of our core values:

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  Dignity: We believe that each person is created in the image of God and, as such, has the right to be treated with the utmost dignity.

  
  


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  Mutuality: We come to our relationships recognizing that each person has gifts to be shared and gifts to be received.

  
  


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  Inclusivity: We intend that our community at Sanctuary will be as inclusive as Jesus was in his life.

  
  

The Role: Street Outreach Worker

As a member of the Sanctuary Outreach team your role is broken up into three main categories:  Street outreach, accompaniment, and community meal drop ins. Informing all of this work is our outreach philosophy, and a call to both give and receive pastoral care both to and from our core community.

1. 
   

   Street outreach: This occurs several times each week. You along with other members of the outreach team, the larger staff team, and members of the Sanctuary community will go out in groups of two or three on regular routes in the neighbourhood. Teams will seek to build relationships, offer conversation, and sometimes offer supplies to or direct to resources for folks who are panhandling, sleeping outside or marginalized. Sometimes you will build relationships that only exist while you are out on outreach, other times you will be able to point folks whom you meet on outreach back to the larger Sanctuary community. Another focus of walking outreach is to visit community members in the neighbourhood, whether in a tent, a hospital room, or at their home.

   
   


2. 
   

   Accompaniment: A second focus of the outreach team are activities that would fall into the category of  accompaniment. At Sanctuary we describe ourselves as a community, a community of family, friends, neighbours and acquaintances. As you build relationships with members of the Sanctuary community, you will find opportunities to come alongside an individual as they navigate difficult tasks, or tasks that are better to do with a friend. This could include, but is not limited to, going to a medical appointment or court with a community member, helping a community member clean their apartment, or helping a community member move. 

   
   


3. 
   

   Community Drop-in Meals: The final focus for the outreach team is Drop in. Because so many of your working hours are community facing you will have the opportunity to build relationships with many different community members. And so one of the roles of the outreach team at drop in is to facilitate relationships; to welcome folks whom you meet on outreach and to introduce community members to one another and other members of the staff team. Your relational capital and observations from being on outreach and community facing will also allow you to help de-escalate conflicts at the drop in and perhaps identify and address conflicts before they ignite.

   
   

When you are not spending your time on one of these three core areas of outreach, you may seek a secondary focus such as advocacy, connecting and maintaining relationships with other like minded communities and agencies, leading educational groups, or organizing outings for members of our community (e.g. fishing trips).

Specifically, the Outreach worker will…

• Provide pastoral care to members of the sanctuary community on outreach, at drop ins, at one-on-one’s and at our Sunday service;


• Provide compassionate community-centered care consistent with a harm-reduction model;


• Participate in weekly walking outreach, building relationships and observing the streets;


• Be present at drop-ins, helping to foster a sense of community and welcome;


• Be attentive to possible conflict at drop-in and ready to intervene with de-escalation skills;


• Accompany community members to appointments; 


• Accompany and assist community members in bigger life task such as moving, cleaning their apartment, helping with pest control;


• Visit members of the community in encampments, at their home, in hospital and in jail;


• Help in the reversal of overdoses using skills in CPR and BLS;


• Collaborate with other like minded communities and agencies to provide support to members of the Sanctuary community;


• Engage in reflective practice seeking out educational opportunities and debriefing with colleagues;


• Advocate for social policies that include just care for marginalized people;


• Partner with the Sanctuary Health Clinic and members in the community to achieve personalized health-related goals;


• Collaborate with the outreach team in advising on survival supplies needed for the community (e.g. sleeping bags);


• Attend and contribute to outreach team meetings as required.

Additional expectations for all staff members:

• Involvement in fundraising (either personal or collective team efforts)


• Engagement in regular self-care practices and trauma-informed therapy


• Provision of both personal and pastoral/spiritual support for community members, including prayer and Bible study where appropriate


• Participation in weekly all-staff meetings and two annual staff retreats (typically offsite)


• Participating in training on anti-racism, anti-oppressive practices, and non-violent de-escalation required


• Participation in training for overdose prevention and response and first aid and BLS required (not a prerequisite for the role)

You’ll succeed in this role if you have these characteristics:

1. 
   

   Your Christian faith informs, motivates and inspires all facets of your life.

   
   


2. 
   

   You are comfortable with tension and ambiguity. This community includes a wide range of people. We don’t always agree, but we always care for one another. Sanctuary tends towards being a harm-reduction community, and the tension of wanting the best for people while supporting them where they’re at is part of our reality.

   
   


3. 
   

   You have experience/training as a social worker or community worker. You have done frontline work with marginalized groups. Your skill set includes critical thinking, active listening, empathy and cultural awareness. 

   
   


4. 
   

   You are a strong communicator. You listen more than you talk, and you want to understand other people’s viewpoints. You are able to convey empathy and conviction.

   
   


5. 
   

   You are resourceful. When something goes wrong, you know how to bring together resources on hand to make it right, whether the challenge is logistical or interpersonal.

   
   


6. 
   

   You are flexible.  Schedules around here are written in pencil, and you’ll probably be asked to do things you’ve never done before.  You can change plans when the need arises.

   
   


7. 
   

   You engage intentionally with self-care. This is a community that puts you at risk for trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, and compound grief. It’s essential that you are someone who regularly accesses a personal support network and strives to maintain health through activities and resources that ground and inspire you.

   
   

Hours and Compensation

• Full-time, permanent


• Flexible hours, with 2-4 evenings/wk and 1 weekend/month


• Salary $58,000, plus you may be eligible for additional financial dependant benefits


• Benefits package, including LTD (both financial and other benefits)


• 4 weeks of paid vacation per year

How to Apply

Online application

Applicants interested in applying, please provide a Cover Letter and a Resume highlighting their suitability for this role along with a resume by Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 5pm.  Note: This will be a rolling application, so early applications are highly encouraged. Promising candidates may be interviewed in advance of the final closing date, which may lead to the posting being taken down. 

We value diversity and inclusion and encourage all qualified people to apply. Candidates who identify as Indigenous or Black, or of mixed Indigenous and Black Ancestry are encouraged to apply, as these identities would be considered an asset.  If we can make this easier through accommodation in the recruitment process, please contact us with the “Help” button in the application.

Interview Process

After the initial online application process, the interview process at Sanctuary involves several steps. While we acknowledge that the process is fairly lengthy and involved, we believe it is an important process.

1. 
   

   Those candidates for whom an interview is desired will be contacted by Monday,  May 12, 2025, so that an interview time can be set within the following week 

   
   


2. 
   

   Interviews will be conducted with a hiring team the week of May 19-23.

   
   


3. 
   

   After the interview, short-listed candidates will be asked to attend at least one Sanctuary worship service (Sunday afternoons between 5:00 and approximately 7:15), and a Sanctuary drop-in for a minimum of one hour. The drop-in times are Tuesday between 10:30 am – 3:00 pm and Thursday between 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm. Prior to attending the drop-in, the candidate should contact the team to ensure arrangements can be made to provide an orientation to the drop-in setting at Sanctuary. No such arrangements need to be made for the worship service. 

   
   


4. 
   

   After the interview and visits are completed, a successful candidate will be selected and your references will be contacted. 

   
   


5. 
   

   Subject to the mutual agreement of yourself and the team, you will be asked to join us.  The target start date is mid/late June 2025.