The Games for Emotional and Mental Health (GEMH) Lab is looking for a Knowledge Translation Officer
The GEMH Lab has developed, tested, and iteratively updated a transdisciplinary framework that serves as a set of guidelines, practices, and methodologies for developing technological innovations aimed at promoting human flourishing and mental health for young people. The GEMH Lab aims to establish the scientific foundations for effective mental health games. We empirically validate our games with rigorous research designs, we share our data publicly, and publish our results regardless of outcomes. We are also committed to developing a theoretical framework and new methodologies that stipulate how to use games to experimentally test theories of psychological change. We are now at the stage where we want to take our research and design framework and launch an action-based design toolkit that can be used by academic labs and commercial parties internationally to likewise create technologies for social and emotional thriving, integrating science with art and design principles. We are funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, a non-profit charity that funds innovative projects that push the boundaries of scientific knowledge and help humans flourish. TWCF supports a diverse group of researchers to discover new knowledge, develop new tools, and launch new innovations that make a lasting impact on human flourishing. Our research and design teams are located at McMaster University in Canada (the main hub of the work for the KT Officer) and Twente University in the Netherlands.
This contract is for part-time .25 fte for 4 years in duration (March 1, 2022, to March 1, 2026). Note that this position is part-time (0.25 fte, corresponding to ~1,5 day per week), and that we will be offering an annual salary ranging between $16,520 in Year 1 to $18,253 in Year 4. Important: we are looking for applicants who are based in Ontario, Canada, and the salary is in Canadian Dollars.
The applicant should have professional experience in writing, editing, and curating communications materials, including news releases, blogs, e-blasts, and other engaging content. They should also have experience managing social media channels and reporting on engagement. Experience in media relations and some youth mental health expertise would also be an asset.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Social and mainstream media: developing, implementing, monitoring, and reporting on digital and other media campaigns within both scientific and gaming communities, with guidance from the Senior Lead and support from the Creative Director and Science Team.
- Manage the day-to-day of all GEMH social media profiles.
- Implement digital and mainstream media campaigns and monitor engagement.
- Develop syndication schedule(s) for both digital and mainstream media.
- Monitor and report on social and earned media trends.
- Develop and maintain automated communications and CRM tools
- Develop, coordinate, and maintain (i.e., generate, edit, publish, and share) content for an in-house blog, e-newsletters, social networking sites, and other resources.
- Prepare analytics and reporting to measure success of digital and mainstream media strategies.
- Stay current with digital and mainstream media opportunities and best practices.
- Writing and editing: researching, writing, and editing engaging content for GEMH Lab network of websites, social media assets, newsletters, reports, blogs, and other publications, with guidance from the GEMH Team.
- Write clear and engaging copy for factsheets, impact statements, presentations, blogs and e-newsletter posts, and other creative and communications deliverables.
- Draft news releases, media backgrounders, project briefs, and other documents to support public campaigns.
- Liaise with subject matter experts to ensure accuracy of written products and messaging.
- Improving KTE (Knowledge, Transfer, and Exchange): helping GEMH in developing community-outreach and stakeholder-learning opportunities and providing some direct Communications support to the Creative and Science Team.
- Reaching out and networking with new potential commercial and academic partners for GEMH Lab.
- Support in publicizing and developing materials for KTE events, especially through the GEMH Lab website and Twitter Feed.
- Locate opportunities to share GEMH data with communities who would benefit from it; and support gathering feedback from these communities to feed into GEMH activities.
- Build meaningful connections with stakeholders and community members through sharing content, signal boosting, and calls to action.
- Internal communications and other activities:
- Support internal communications and coordination.
- Provide support for external events (both online and eventually in-person).
EDUCATION:
- Graduate degree with relevance to knowledge mobilization in health or social sciences, or equivalent combination of education, training and experience
- Formal knowledge mobilization training or communication science preferred
SKILLS:
- A minimum of three years’ experience in a position where knowledge mobilization was a key functional role
- Strong theoretical and practical understanding of knowledge mobilization approaches and methods
- Well-developed written and oral communications skills, and ability to produce products for a variety of different audiences
- Superior writing skills, including the ability to prepare plain language documents
- Prior experience with development of diverse knowledge mobilization products and tools (e.g., infographics, arts-based, digital storytelling)
- Flexible and able to work effectively with a diverse group of stakeholders and within a dynamic and geographically dispersed team
- Experience working in a highly autonomous setting; high degree of initiative and sound judgment required
- Ability to manage several large and small work plans involving various combinations of team members
- Knowledge of mental health promotion, especially with a youth focus, preferred
Review of applications will begin on March 9th 2022. Application deadline is March 21st 2022.
Applications should be submitted through the McMaster job posting system.
Please note: The link leads to a list of job ads, please select the job posting titled "Knowledge Translation Specialist - 43685".
