Job Title: Health Care Researcher & Social Science Researcher
Tasks and Responsibilities:
In addition to Sport and Competition, Special Olympics Ontario has a well developed program for fostering athlete self advocacy, leadership and skill development for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Our Health and Research programs focus on providing access, resources and developing supporting research for our athletes and health care professionals with the goal of promoting a healthy lifestyle and improving access to health services for people with ID.
This research focused position will support a growing number of health, fitness, social inclusion and wellness initiatives and research programs with our academic partners across Ontario. This includes working with teams of clinical directors and health care volunteers to provide screening at events and major games; the development of the Healthy Communities initiative to connect local health professionals with both professional development opportunities and matching athletes with health care providers in localities throughout the province.
In addition these positions will support the activities of our research coordinators who work directly with major health and academic institutions such as the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the University of Toronto, York University, Holland Bloorview Children’s Rehabilitation Centre, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Queens University and Western University.
In order to assist with the roll out of these programs this position will be responsible for:
•Providing insight and assistance in helping with our Healthy Athlete program including attending events
•Engagement with local public health agencies to provide support for competitions
•This will include the support of the Healthy Athletes program, a free healthcare screening program for people with ID.
•Support the planned roll out of technology and online systems relating to the Healthy Communities Network.
•Providing support for families seeking access to Special Olympics Health programming
•Working collaboratively with SOO Research team to provide administrative, logistical and research support to existing research projects.
•Coordinate and develop research projects and proposals in conjunction with academic research partners to foster the building of the body of knowledge on research into people with intellectual disabilities and to collaborate on the mobilization of this knowledge for applied purposes.