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Help make a difference in the lives of those in need

IVOS Coordinator

Reports to: Executive Director | Full-time, 37.5 hrs/week | $55,000 – $65,000 per year, commensurate 
with qualifications and experience

About OIM

Ottawa Innercity Ministries (OIM) is an interdenominational, non-profit, Christian charitable
organization committed to building partnerships, and training and mobilizing volunteers, to help those
who are experiencing poverty and homelessness in downtown Ottawa. Every role at OIM, including this
one, is shaped by our foundational statements.

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Mission: To come alongside and support individuals in Ottawa’s inner-city experiencing poverty 
or homelessness, by compassionately demonstrating the message of Christ in action 
and word


Vision: Flourishing communities where people are valued, shown dignity and respect, and given the opportunity for an improved quality of life.


Values: Dependence on God · Respect and dignity for all people · Belief in people’s potential.


Value Proposition:

  • OIM offers consistent, persistent, compassionate, psycho-social, and spiritual support through the delivery of practical goods, food, clothing, bedding, and essentials, in addition to referrals and advocacy, every day in our community.

  • OIM offers the Ottawa Christian community avenues of ministry to the inner-city community that enables them to fulfill the calling of Matthew 25.

  • OIM is the only outreach agency that is daily ministering the gospel on the streets of Ottawa.


Theory of Change: If OIM sustains a daily, Christ-centred, trauma-informed presence in Ottawa’s innercity
— meeting practical needs, offering voluntary spiritual and psycho-social support, and mobilizing the Ottawa Christian community into Matthew 25 partnership — then people experiencing poverty and homelessness will be known, treated with dignity, grow into their God-given potential, and move toward flourishing; and the wider church will be equipped to live out its calling alongside them. OIM works toward four co-equal long-term outcomes: (A) Dignity & Stability, (B) Potential & Agency, (C) Spiritual
Growth & Dependence on God, and (D) a Mobilized Church.

About the IVOS Program

The Innercity Veterans Outreach and Support (IVOS) program was established in 2019 after OIM
volunteers began encountering a growing number of Veterans on the street and in need. Veterans are a
unique and distinct part of the community OIM serves. Many carry the effects of military service,
operational stress injuries, and the difficult transition to civilian life, and many have experienced
institutional systems as impersonal or harmful. To be known and helped well, Veterans need to be met
in a way that honours their service and their story.


IVOS is OIM’s Veterans-specific pathway of trust. It brings OIM’s daily, relational, Christ-centred
presence to Veterans through three core components — Street Outreach, Door Outreach, and IVOS
Fellowship — and works hand in hand with Operation Road Home to help Veterans move toward stable
housing.

Position Summary

The IVOS Coordinator is a frontline minister, a builder of trust, and the lead for OIM’s Veterans ministry.
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Coordinator is responsible to develop, plan, promote,
coordinate, and deliver all Veterans-related support and services at OIM. This includes leading Street
Outreach and Door Outreach as they relate to Veterans, leading IVOS Fellowship, supporting and
backing up the Veterans Housing Coordinator in Operation Road Home, and visiting partner institutions
such as the Ottawa Mission and the three Belong Ottawa locations.


The Coordinator comes alongside Veterans as people of dignity and God-given potential — not as
caseloads — meeting practical needs, opening doors to Veteran-specific services, offering spiritual care
freely and by consent, and equipping churches and volunteers to serve Veterans in the spirit of Matthew
25.

Living OIM’s Values in This Role

  • Dependence on God - Grounds the work in prayer and Scripture; offers prayer and spiritual counsel to Veterans who welcome it; models a ministry that is Spirit-sustained rather than self-reliant, especially in crisis and in slow seasons.

  • Respect and dignity for all people - Knows Veterans by name and story; honours their service; practises traumainformed engagement; protects privacy and consent; ensures that support is never conditional on spiritual participation.

  • people's potential - Uses a strength-based approach; sees Veterans as contributors, not only recipients; invites them into peer support, Fellowship leadership, and service to others as they are ready.

How Success Is Measured

  • A. Dignity & Stability - Consistent outreach, warm referrals, help with VAC/CRA systems, and Operation Road Home support.

    • Example Indicators -  Veterans contacted; referrals accepted; Veterans housed or housing-stable at 6 and 12 months.​

  • B. Potential & Agency - Strength-based support; peer and leadership roles within Fellowship.

    • Example Indicators -  Veterans in peer-support, volunteer, or advisory roles; Veterans naming at least one trusted OIM relationship​

  • C. Spiritual Growth & Dependence on God - Prayer, pastoral care, and Christian fellowship offered freely and by consent.

    • Example Indicators -  Spiritual care offered vs. accepted; Veterans reporting no pressure felt; sustained voluntary engagement.​

  • D. Mobilized Church - Training IVOS volunteers; creating avenues for churches to serve Veterans.

    • Example Indicators - New and retained IVOS volunteers; churches in recurring partnership with IVOS.

How Success Is Measured

In the first year, the IVOS Coordinator will work with the Executive Director to establish baselines and
will be assessed on:

  • Consistency of IVOS presence in outreach, drop-ins, and Fellowship, with no unplanned gaps in
    scheduled coverage.

  • ​Timely response to the IVOS Help Line, phone, email, and text messages.

  • ​Referral follow-through, including the number and percentage of referrals accepted.

  • Fellowship participation and the number of Veterans with sustained engagement over time.

  • ​Spiritual care that Veterans experience as freely offered (OIM target: at least 90% report no
    pressure felt).

  • Volunteer recruitment, training, and retention for IVOS.

  • Complete and accurate records, including the Data Collection Tool and DonorSnap entries.

Primary Duties

Street and Door Outreach to Veterans

  • ​Provide advice to Outreach ministries concerning the identification and referral of Veterans.

  • Visit Ottawa drop-in centres at appropriate intervals, and shelters as the need arises, to connect
    with Veterans and build trust over time.

  • Offer prayer, spiritual conversation, and pastoral care to Veterans who welcome it, always as an
    invitation and never as a condition of receiving help.

IVOS Help Line, Referral and Advocacy

  • Manage calls to the IVOS Help Line from Street Outreach teams and leaders, clients, and agencies;
    receive and respond to incoming phone, email, and text messages.

  • Monitor the IVOS telephone and email address and follow up with appropriate, timely action.

  • Make warm referrals (not just information) to Veteran-specific and community services, and follow
    up to confirm whether the referral was accepted and what the outcome was.

  • Help Veterans navigate systems that can feel overwhelming, including setting up accounts with
    Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and others, and assisting with
    paperwork that may be too complicated for the Veteran to complete alone.

IVOS Fellowship and Community

  • Set up, plan, promote, and deliver the IVOS Fellowship program on Wednesdays from 10:30 to
    12:30, as a safe, welcoming community where Veterans are known and belong.

  • ​Plan, promote, coordinate, and supervise monthly IVOS evening events and excursions.

  • Follow up with and support Veterans who attend Fellowship; complete and process required forms.

  • ​Create opportunities for Veterans to contribute their gifts and experience — for example, peer
    support, helping to lead Fellowship activities, or offering input on IVOS programming.

  • Offer voluntary opportunities for prayer, Scripture, and Christian fellowship for Veterans who wish
    to grow spiritually, at a pace and depth of their own choosing.

Operation Road Home

  • Provide supervisory and financial oversight of Operation Road Home.

  • ​Provide ongoing daily support to the Veterans Housing Coordinator as needed.

  • Serve as backup for the Veterans Housing Coordinator when they are away; meet with and assist
    clients accordingly.

  • Review the Data Collection Tool (DCT) regularly to ensure all fields are completed properly.

  • Sign as second signature when gift cards are provided to Veteran clients, in keeping with OIM’s
    financial controls.

IVOS Volunteers and Church Mobilization

  • Coordinate IVOS volunteer activities.

  • Train and manage IVOS volunteers, forming them in trauma-informed, dignity-based, and potentialfirst practice and in OIM’s Christ-centred approach to Veterans.

  • Help create clear, low-barrier ways for churches and individual Christians — including Veterans and
    military families in Ottawa congregations — to serve Veterans through IVOS.

  • Keep up to date the IVOS Veteran Outreach Pamphlet so that it communicates OIM’s mission and
    invites both Veterans and the Christian community to engage.

Partnerships and Liaison

  • Develop and maintain relationships with organizations such as Veterans Affairs Canada, the Royal
    Canadian Legion, Veterans House, the Ottawa Mission, and Belong Ottawa to build awareness of
    IVOS and encourage referrals.

  • Represent IVOS as OIM’s daily, relational, Christ-centred presence with Veterans, complementing
    the structural supports that partner agencies provide.

Records, Stewardship and Reporting

  • Oversee program supplies and maintain statistical and financial records for IVOS and Operation
    Road Home as required by the Executive Director.

  • Record outreach contacts, referrals, Fellowship attendance, and consent-based spiritual care
    encounters accurately and promptly in OIM’s systems (including DonorSnap), protecting participant
    privacy.

  • Contribute data and stories that help OIM report on its Theory of Change indicators to the Executive
    Director, board, donors, and churches.

Other Duties

  • Perform other duties as may be required to support OIM’s mission and Veterans served through
    IVOS.

Qualifications

Education and experience

  • A two-year college diploma (e.g., Social Service Worker or Community and Justice Services) or a
    university degree in social work, psychology, sociology, or a related discipline; OR an acceptable combination of education, training, and experience. Canadian Armed Forces service, frontline
    homelessness experience, and pastoral or ministry training may count toward this equivalency.

  • ​Training in victimology or other relevant disciplines is an asset.

  • Service in, or familiarity with, the Canadian Armed Forces.

  • Experience working with people who are at risk of, or are experiencing, homelessness.

  • Assets: training in trauma-informed care, Mental Health First Aid, crisis intervention, or suicide
    intervention (e.g., ASIST).

Knowledge

  • Veterans’ concerns and issues, including military culture, transition to civilian life, operational stress
    injuries, and Veteran-specific benefits and services.

  • Street culture and issues relevant to those experiencing poverty and homelessness.

  • Working with individuals in conflict with the law.

  • The strength-based perspective and trauma-informed care.

  • OIM’s mission, vision, values, programs, and services.

Skills

  • Ability to relate to and engage at-risk, street-involved, or homeless individuals, and Veterans in
    particular.

  • Capacity to deliver pastoral care, including but not limited to prayer and spiritual counsel, in a way
    that respects each person’s freedom and dignity.

  • Ability to train and supervise volunteers.

  • Administration and attention to detail.

  • Conflict resolution and crisis management.

  • Planning and organization.

  • Computer literacy: MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and database/CRM systems such as DonorSnap.

  • Bilingualism (English/French) is an asset.

Personal Suitability

  • Compassion and respect for the dignity of every person

  • Belief in people’s potential

  • Leadership and initiative

  • Flexibility and innovation

  • Dependability and good judgement

  • Ability to maintain positive interpersonal relationships

Faith Commitment

  • The IVOS Coordinator will be a committed Christian, with values that reflect the standards of the Word of God in theory and practice, according to the organization’s Constitution and Statement of Faith. The Coordinator will demonstrate dependence on God in their own life and ministry, and will share the message of Christ in action and word with humility, compassion, and respect for each person’s freedom of choice.

Working Conditions

  • This position involves outreach on the street and in drop-ins and shelters in all seasons, some evening work for monthly IVOS events, and exposure to people in crisis. The Coordinator will follow OIM safety, safeguarding, and confidentiality practices and will take part in regular debriefing and supervision.

How to apply

If you are a follower of Christ and sense God calling you to serve Veterans in the city of Ottawa who are struggling, then please contact Gerry Potter, Executive Director of Ottawa Innercity Ministries at: Gerry.potter@ottawainnercityministries.ca.

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Please provide:

  • A Cover letter explaining your interest in the position, your sense of calling to this ministry and
    why you see yourself as a good fit for this role;

  • A copy of your resume; and

  • A statement of when, why and how you became a follower of Christ.

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