Michelle Johnston Email and Phone Number

I provided case management to women who have experienced intimate partner violence to find and maintain safe, affordable permanent housing based on Housing First principles. Relying on creative and flexible problem-solving skills, I assertively engaged with clients who have experienced trauma to support them with: housing searches, systems navigation (social assistance, social housing, etc.), developing individualized safety plans, and ensuring appropriate referrals to external agencies to provide additional wraparound services. I advocated for clients when confronted with systemic barriers and documented these barriers in order to identify gaps or challenges faced in securing housing. I administered SPDAT/Vi-SPDAT assessments and utilized the Danger Assessment instrument (which assesses the risk of lethality within abusive relationships) to develop client-centred support plans.

I worked in Community Support Services for Women and Children through the Good Shepherd Centres. Primarily, I worked to support the Housing Program Manager in overseeing the administration of a supportive housing program for women and children affected by domestic violence. My responsibilities included collaborating with housing providers to ensure effective property management, the resolution of building maintenance issues and rapid unit turnovers; addressed housing issues raised by clients via phone and in-person meetings, and mediated disputes between clients and housing providers; developed and circulated briefings/summaries on recently published Housing legislation, think-tank publications and related housing reports; and, provided administrative support to the Women’s Housing Planning Collaborative Advisory Committee.

Met with 50 undergraduate students on a weekly basis to facilitate discussion of course material in a group setting, and met with students on a one-on-one basis, as appropriate; marked exams, written and oral assignments; evaluated student participation.DEVS 100: Canada and the 'Third World': May 2015 - August 2015 (online)DEVS 100: Canada and the 'Third World': January 2015 - April 2015 (on-campus)DEVS 230: The Global Political Economy of Development: January 2015 - April 2015 (online)DEVS 100: Canada and the 'Third World': September 2014 - April 2015 (online)DEVS 100: Canada and the 'Third World': September 2013 - April 2014 (on-campus)

Marketed and promoted the Certification and Learning program; provided support to the Program Manager regarding the preparation of materials for the Service Certification Board, including the development of policy reports/updates for the June 2013 meeting; administration of Fall 2013 GTA and MSDO 2013 learning sessions as well as those requested by jurisdictions (e.g. overseeing third party relations, facilitator relations, participant follow-up, CoP management); provided administrative support to the CSM/Basic certification process (LMS activities, Candidate contact, support, exam prep, grading and submission to SCB, designee tracking and CoP management).

Collated, edited and developed a book entitled “Stories of Hope” which features the life experiences of ten former street children who are or have been Wema Centre beneficiaries. Typically, when approaching funding agencies many organizations use case studies of the youngest, the most drug dependent, and the most violent in making their case for financial allocations. Despite good intentions, this book holds the assumption that this only perpetuates existing biases against street children, therefore Stories of Hope features a random selection of stories based on children and young adults voluntarily offering to tell their life experiences, without approaching anyone specifically. The project also incorporates pluralist photography in it's approach to empowering former street children. Storytellers themselves use cameras to capture images which they believe best represents the social, political, ethical, and psychological challenges they face(d), and provide their own explanations used as captions for each image included in the book.Stories of Hope is now available for purchase at CreateSpace and Amazon.ca.

Fundraised and managed a $25,000 budget and a 20 person executive team; recruited over 30 speakers representing nonprofit, private and government sectors and 80 delegates from various Ontario universities; expanded the brand of the conference by developing the logo and website, and by securing two high profile keynote speakers. QIDC is an entirely student-run conference that explores today's development issues through a series of interdisciplinary speaking engagements, panels, and workshops involving a diverse group of experts, scholars, field workers and organizations.

Goods-receipted invoices by creating purchase orders in the SAP accounting system; worked closely with various departments and Purchasing Services to issue request for tenders/proposals/quotations; processed in-person customer payments. (Worked May 2010 - September 2010 as well as May 2011 - September 2011.)