Communications & Knowledge Mobilization Assistant

Job Category

Job Profile

Job Title

Department

Compensation Range

Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

This is a short-term (up to 9 months) role.

Please submit three (3) samples of your work with your application, including at least one (1) writing sample.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The CHILD-BRIGHT Network is a pan-Canadian patient-oriented research network based at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Created in 2016, it works to create brighter futures for children and youth with brain-based developmental disabilities and their families. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) under Canada's Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) and 15 funding partners across the country, our national network includes 500 researchers, clinicians, decision-makers, youth, and parents.

CHILD-BRIGHT's extensive research program was developed based on research priorities identified by youth, parents, and other knowledge users, such as frontline clinicians, and health care administrators. As part of Phase 1 of its activities, from 2016 to 2022, CHILD-BRIGHT carried out 13 multi-centre projects focusing on three themes: early intervention to promote brain and child development; strategies to support the mental health of children and families; and service delivery redesign to address gaps in service. From 2022 to 2026, CHILD-BRIGHT is moving its patient-oriented research into action through insight and methods grounded in implementation science and knowledge mobilization, and by embedding the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and Indigenization.

Organizational Status

Reporting to the Knowledge Mobilization Program Co-Lead and the Manager of Marketing and Communications, the CHILD-BRIGHT Communications & Knowledge Mobilization Assistant will help produce and update communications and knowledge mobilization products and support other knowledge mobilization activities to promote CHILD-BRIGHT's work, particularly to document the impact of its Phase 1 activities and to disseminate research findings using knowledge mobilization best practices to a range of audiences.

Work Performed

• Working collaboratively with research project teams and KM experts who consult to those project teams, to identify and to frame key messages for action and to select evidence-informed knowledge mobilization strategies to support their uptake
• Collaborating to brainstorm new communication campaigns and materials
• Creating plain language summaries of research outputs (e.g., scientific articles) tailored to various audience groups (e.g., youth, families, health care providers, policy makers, etc.)
• Helping to collect the necessary materials from the project teams to produce these outputs (quotes, testimonials, photos, stats, etc.)
• Producing infographics, stories, blog posts, social media campaign material or other outputs based on your unique skillset and experience and the preferences of the research projects.
• Supporting or coordinating the development of podcast episodes, webinars and/or videos produced or hosted by external vendors/partnered organizations.

The Communications & Knowledge Mobilization Assistant will also contribute to administrative tasks relating to knowledge mobilization and marketing & communications, including:

• Updating content on the network's website and the Knowledge Mobilization Program's KT Library (a repository of knowledge mobilization outputs)
• Monitoring social media channels
• Monitoring campaign and web analytics
• Other data gathering and evaluation tasks as related to the role

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Failure to adhere strictly to protocols approved by Ethics Boards, and to OSOT and UBC policies regarding security of data has the potential to cause harm to study participants, to negatively impact the reputation of the investigator(s), CHILD-BRIGHT, OSOT, and UBC, and to threaten ethics approval, access to future funding, and recruitment of study participants.

Poor decisions could delay timely completion of knowledge mobilization activites, cause financial loss and be damaging to the reputations of the research project PIs and team members, the CHILD-BRIGHT Network, the Department Head, OSOT, the Faculty of Medicine, and UBC. In addition, errors could cause misinterpretation of results in information disseminated to decision-makers, public, and academic audiences. The consequences could lead to inappropriate policy and decision-making related to supporting children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families.

Supervision Received
The research assistant will report to the Knowledge Mobilization Program Co-Lead and the Manager of Marketing and Communications.

Supervision Given
None.

Minimum Qualifications
High school graduation, some additional training in a related field and a minimum two years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one's own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

Candidates should:

• Be enrolled in, or have graduated from, a program in the field of communications, writing, journalism, graphic design, or a health-related field or research program.
• Have demonstrated interest in writing, editing, and proofreading (writing samples must be provided)
• Have very strong grammar and writing skills, in either English or French. Functional working knowledge in the other is an asset. As a bilingual network, you will help update material in both languages but can opt to produce your written content in the language of your choice (French or English).
• Have a working knowledge of graphic design software (Adobe suite of products, Canva)
• Have access to a computer, and a stable wi-fi connection
• Be dedicated to your work, and have a strong desire to learn
• Have the ability to plan and organize your work to meet deadlines successfully
• Be curious and interested in learning to work in new digital platforms (Squarespace, Mailchimp, YouTube, etc.) and social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, X/Twitter).
• Be willing to be cited as the author of your work publicly.
• Be able to work effectively in a team environment, as well as independently
• Work effectively and courteously with a broad range of individuals and groups, including youth, families, researchers, health care providers, research trainees, community partners, people with disabilities, and Indigenous groups.