Program Development and Evaluation Specialist

Program Area

Classification

Category

Union

Compensation Band

Location

In Office

Reports To

Senior Director, Community Programs and Strategies

Direct Reports

N/A

Organization Summary

Canadian Mental Health Association - Edmonton Region (CMHA Edmonton) is a community-based organization dedicated to strengthening mental health and wellbeing for all. Guided by its mission to advance a coordinated and effective system of community mental health and suicide prevention programs and services, CMHA Edmonton delivers a broad range of supports, including crisis response, navigation services, housing services, peer and family programs, and community-based initiatives. The organization is committed to person-centered service delivery, collaboration, lived-experience leadership, and continuous improvement in the support of meaningful and lasting community impact.

Program Area Summary

CMHA Edmonton's Community Programs and Strategies area offers community mental health programs grounded in lived experience. The Community Programs and Strategies team, which includes many peers (people with lived experience), co-designs and co-facilitates community outreach, lived experience engagement, and recovery-oriented education and services that support mental health, housing stability, and social inclusion. The Community Programs and Strategies team also co-develops innovative community-based research, system-change initiatives,



and peer-led evaluation through robust partnerships to improve outcomes for individuals and communities across Edmonton.

Role Summary

The Program Development and Evaluation Specialist plays a central role in strengthening CMHA Edmonton's community mental health impact by supporting program planning and quality improvement and by leading evaluation, applied research, and knowledge mobilization across the organization.

Approximately 60% of this role’s work will focus on advancing peer-led evaluation and planning for two key strategic programs – Peer Support Services and Peer College. The remaining 40% of work will be to support the development and implementation of a phased, organization-wide evaluation framework.

Working closely with program leaders, partners, and people with lived experience, this role ensures initiatives are evidence-informed, outcomes-focused, and continuously improving. The role also provides leadership in peer-led research and evaluation, knowledge sharing, and system-wide learning, helping position CMHA Edmonton as a backbone organization within Edmonton’s community mental health system.

This role contributes to grant writing, reporting, and strategic communications to support sustainability, scaling, and sector influence.

Key Responsibilities





- Conduct annual program evaluations across programs.
- Provide coaching and practice leadership on evaluation, data use, and evidence-informed decision-making.
- Support mixed-methods research, including storytelling, participant insights, and community-based evidence generation.
- Establish and maintain partnerships with academic institutions and evaluation consultants.
- Lead development of technical reports, evaluation products, and contributions to academic publications.
- Co-create a body of applied research on peer support, recovery, system navigation, and community mental health.
- Ensure ethical, accessible, and community-grounded research practices.
- Represent CMHA Edmonton in evaluation, research, and system planning forums.

2. Program Planning and Development

- Support program managers in designing, refining, and scaling community-based mental health programs.
- Co-develop theories of change, outcomes, and delivery models with staff and people with lived experience.
- Support quality improvement for existing programs and the development of new initiatives, pilots, and system innovations informed by evidence and community need.
- Support alignment of program design with evaluation frameworks, learning priorities, and funder requirements.
- Design and implement a knowledge sharing framework, including in-person, digital, and community-based formats.
- Translate evaluation findings into accessible formats (reports, infographi

📌 Program Development and Evaluation Specialist (Edmonton)
🏢 CMHA Edmonton (Canadian Mental Health Association - Edmonton)
📍 Edmonton