System Planner

Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF)

Calgary Homeless Foundation guides the fight against homelessness. Fueled by this purpose, we envision the day when homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring—perhaps an episode in someone's life, but never a condition that defines it. Working in alignment with governments and collaboratively with service providers and community partners, we help translate complex system needs into coordinated, efficient ground-level action that maximizes the impact of every resource and creates lasting pathways out of homelessness.

We are uniquely positioned to observe the many challenges facing our city and strengthen the entire sector through strategic leadership, forward-thinking capacity development, and hands-on, day-to-day support.

Our comprehensive data warehouse reveals the full picture of homelessness in our community, enabling us to anticipate challenges and identify effective solutions. And we unite diverse stakeholders around shared goals and help address complex situations that no single agency can solve alone.

Our collective approach and focus on learning and evaluation equip us to address homelessness across our city while keeping the people experiencing it at the heart of our work. When the system works better together, more people find their way home.

We are looking for passionate, entrepreneurial, and talented people to join our action-oriented, high-impact team.

The Position

As a member of the System Planning team, the System Planner plays a key role in the implementation of CHF’s strategic direction and system coordination priorities, focusing on program investments and liaising with partner agencies.

The System Planner will provide effective stewardship of funds through program reporting, monitoring, and oversight of an assigned portfolio of projects delivered by community agencies under contract with the Foundation. The key functions of system planning are program support, system coordination, and collective learning. In support of these functions, this role develops and nurtures collaborative relationships with assigned agencies and other internal and external community partners.

Our Staff

CHF staff are action-oriented individuals who are catalytic leaders, courageous collaborators, evidence-inspired, and vision-dedicated. They choose to bring their professional expertise and personal talents to the non-profit sector, to add value to the full community. They work cooperatively with others in a strong team environment; demonstrate flexibility in organizing and undertaking work; show a high degree of initiative, discernment and resourcefulness; exhibit excellent communication and relational skills; demonstrate thoughtfulness and intelligence in decision making; and are focused on creating positive outcomes for persons experiencing homelessness.

How We Work Here

At CHF our approach is grounded in purpose, collaboration, and accountability. We believe that how we work together matters as much as what we achieve.

Here’s what you can expect from us—and what we expect from you:

• Ownership Under Pressure: We take responsibility for outcomes, even when challenges arise.

• Constructive Feedback: We give and receive feedback openly, with the goal of learning and improving.

• Pace with Purpose: We move quickly when needed, without sacrificing quality or integrity.

• Healthy Disagreement: We challenge ideas respectfully and invite discussion to make decisions stronger.

• Shared Understanding: Expertise means building clarity for others, not being “right by default.”

Our culture values transparency, inclusion, and resilience. We name real pressures—external and internal— and navigate them together. Interviews and development conversations focus on real examples of how we act when it’s hard, because that’s when our values matter most.

Accountability and Deliverables

• Act as a trusted representative and brand ambassador of CHF while interacting with key community partners and government representatives.
• Foster collaboration, cooperation, and teamwork with colleagues, community partners, and funded organizations, ensuring role clarity and working toward collective success.
• Utilize critical thinking skills to enhance the System of Care and participant outcomes, including enhancing cross sector collaboration and integration. Using evidence, data, and critical reflection, identify gaps and opportunities in service provision and provide developmental recommendations for system improvement.
• Act as a key liaison between programs on assigned portfolio and CHF to reinforce and/or provide information and support regarding CHF direction, requirements, processes, and systems with system of care partners.
• Support funded agencies with schedule preparation and contract execution using grant management software.
• Develop knowledge of CHF contract terms and eligible cost guidelines to monitor agency contract compliance.
• Promote and enhance CHF’s community training offerings to meet the needs of agencies and develop sector staff capacity and performance.
• Support the CAA team to monitor and support program referrals, provide up-to-date program information eligibility, and facilitate case conferences as needed.
• Support program accountability, innovation, and strategic learning by:
  • Working with the Data and Evaluation teams, along with funded agencies, to assess qualitative and quantitative indicators of impact,
  • Working with the HMIS, Data, and Evaluation teams and programs to understand leading practices, identify sector trends, facilitate opportunities for collective community learning, and implement findings from evaluation processes to improve outcomes at a program and sector level,
  • Conducting ongoing, quarterly, and annual reviews of programs,
  • Undertaking analysis of program/funding submissions including monthly, quarterly and annual reports, budgets, financial statements, and year-end audited reports to ensure agencies in assigned portfolio are operating in a fiscally and programmatically responsible manner,
  • Monitor funded programs to ensure they are in compliance with Canadian Accreditation Council Case Management Standards and renewal requirements
• Support CHF’s annual funding cycle, business planning, and Request for Proposal (RFP) processes including:
  • Contribution to development of funding requirements, and System and Program effectiveness indicators.
  • Input into the design of programs and processes, particularly program type, targets, eligibility criteria, referral processes, and performance measures in support of a coordinated system of care.
  • Participation in and promotion of learning-focused evaluation efforts to ensure best and promising practices guide program design and continuous improvement.
• Assist the Director of Programs and Evaluation to improve the Foundation’s ability to understand, interpret and act on emerging trends, needs and opportunities in the sector to support the continuous improvement of program development and system co-ordination.

Education and Experience

The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:

• The ideal candidate will possess a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in a business, leadership/management, social services, planning or related field.
• 5 or more years of related experience.
• Familiarity with Systems Thinking, Evaluative Thinking, and Strategic Execution disciplines is an asset.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including preparing reports and briefing notes for presentation at senior leadership and board levels.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

General Competency Requirements

The ideal candidate will be expected to demonstrate and grow the following competencies:

Taking Accountability for Guiding the Fight Against Homelessness by:

• Regularly sharing our Purpose and Ambition and making decisions that move us toward
• Following through on my commitments to earn the trust of my colleagues and community partners
• Identifying obstacles, admitting my mistakes, and taking ownership of solutions

Fostering a Growth Mindset by:

• Regularly seeking new information and leveraging data to inform my solutions and decisions
• Treating mistakes as learning opportunities and focusing myself & others on improving future results
• Considering how I may have contributed to problems and regularly seeking feedback to discover how I can improve
• Accepting ambiguity and taking action to move us in the direction of our goals without waiting for perfect information

Empowering Others to Succeed by:

• Articulating and agreeing upon clear expectations and desired results
• Meeting regularly with my key internal and external stakeholders to ensure they have what they need from me to succeed
• Eliminating organizational constraints that hold people back

Collaborating for Greater Impact by:

• Proactively collaborating with others and incorporating their input into solutions
• Respecting the unique strengths and agency of others by encouraging them to propose solutions and make decisions
• Having the courage to share difficult perspectives directly, respectfully, and in a timely manner, and encouraging others to do the same
• Being willing to change my perspective when presented with new information