Manager, Justice Centre

Manager, Justice Centre

Why BWSS?

At BWSS – Battered Women’s Support Services, we believe safety changes everything. Since 1979, we’ve been on the frontlines with survivors of gender-based violence—providing crisis support, building systemic change, and insisting that survivors’ voices shape the future. Our team is fierce, collaborative, and grounded in intersectional feminist, decolonial, and anti-oppression practice.

This is not just a job it’s an opportunity to stand alongside survivors, challenge structural injustice that limit survivors right to be free from violence, and push for the world we know is possible.Position Overview

The Justice Centre at Battered Women’s Support Services is a legal advocacy community clinic that supports women and gender-diverse survivors of gender-based violence navigating family, immigration, criminal, and child welfare legal systems. The work draws on an intersectional feminist legal advocacy to support individual survivors while contributing to broader efforts to improve legal and public safety systems.

The Role

The Manager, Justice Centre leads a high-volume, frontline legal advocacy clinic and is responsible for ensuring effective, trauma- and violence-informed service delivery while contributing to program development and broader efforts to improve legal and public safety systems.

This role brings together direct legal advocacy, program leadership, and systems-focused work grounded in BWSS’s decolonizing, intersectional feminist, and racial justice analysis.

The Manager is responsible for:

• Leading the delivery of legal advocacy services to survivors of gender-based violence
• Managing and supporting a complex, high-demand legal advocacy program
• Supervising staff and supporting consistent, high-quality practice
• Identifying patterns and barriers emerging from frontline legal work
• Leading and developing strategic legal and justice initiatives aimed at advancing system change for survivors of gender-based violence across provincial, national and international systems
• Contributing to law reform, public legal education, and systemic advocacy initiatives

Key Areas of Responsibility

1. Legal Advocacy & Clinic Operations

The Manager ensures the Justice Centre operates as an effective and accessible legal advocacy community clinic.

Responsibilities include:

• Overseeing day-to-day clinic operations and service delivery
• Supporting legal advocates working with survivors across:
  • family law
  • immigration law
  • child welfare
  • criminal and civil systems
• Providing case consultation and support on complex and high-risk files
• Ensuring services are delivered using a trauma- and violence-informed approach
• Supporting safety planning within legal contexts
• Maintaining accessible, multilingual, and culturally responsive services
• Coordinating and supporting legal clinics, outreach, and service partnerships
• Providing direct legal advocacy support where required

2. Program Leadership & Management

The Manager is responsible for the leadership, stability, and ongoing development of the Justice Centre.

Responsibilities include:

• Supervising staff, paralegals, law students, interns, and volunteers, including:
  • recruitment
  • onboarding and training
  • performance management and support
• Supporting a committed collaborative, accountable, and sustainable team environment
• Leading program development planning, implementation, and evaluation
• Developing and monitoring program budgets in collaboration with leadership
• Preparing funder reports, proposals, statistics and required documentation
• Ensuring compliance with organizational policies and funder requirements
• Participates in weekly rotation as on-site manager, overseeing direct service operations and providing support to staff and volunteers as needed
• Supporting the development and delivery of:
  • legal training programs
  • public legal education initiatives
  • paralegal programs
• Working with BWSS communications and development teams to support:
  • funding applications
  • program visibility
  • organizational initiatives
  • statistics

3. Systems Analysis, Law Reform & Racial Justice

The Manager ensures that the work of the Justice Centre contributes to broader efforts to improve legal and public safety systems.

Responsibilities include:

• Identifying patterns, institutional and systemic barriers, and service gaps emerging from frontline legal advocacy work
• Supporting and contributing to law reform and systemic advocacy initiatives
• Participating in engagement with:
  • government
  • legal institutions
  • community-based organizations
• Contributing to public legal education, training, and sector development
• Integrating a racial justice lens, including attention to how legal systems impact Indigenous, Black, and racialized survivors
• Supporting alignment with BWSS initiatives related to:
  • public safety
  • community-based research
  • systems change advocacy

4. Leadership & Organizational Contribution

• Participates as a member of the BWSS Leadership Team
• Works in collaboration with the Executive Director and leadership staff
• Contributes to cross-organizational planning and coordination
• Represents BWSS in external forums, committees, and partnerships as required

Scope of Role

This role combines:

• Leadership of a frontline legal advocacy clinic
• Management of a complex, high-demand program
• Contribution to systems change, law reform, and public legal education

The Manager must be able to operate across these areas simultaneously.

Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in legal advocacy, with at least 3 years related to gender-based violence
• Demonstrated knowledge of legal systems impacting survivors, including:
  • family law
  • immigration law
  • child welfare
  • criminal law
  • emerging civil legal issues
• Experience supervising unionized staff in a frontline or legal service environment
• Strong understanding of trauma- and violence-informed practice
• Demonstrated ability to support complex and high-risk cases
• Understanding of the legal and social context of violence against women, including the impacts on Indigenous, immigrant, and racialized women
• Experience contributing to program development, training, or community-based initiatives
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across:
  • Victims-survivors
  • legal professionals including lawyers, legal advocates, victim service workers
  • community partners in all related sectors

Working Context

The Justice Centre operates within a high-demand environment supporting survivors navigating multiple legal systems. The role requires the ability to manage competing priorities, support staff working with complex cases, and maintain a consistent focus on survivor safety and access to justice.

The hours are 32 - 40 weekly negotiable. Monday to friday 9 - 5 with occasional evenings and weekends

What we offer

• A team of unapologetic intersectional feminists who live their values daily.
• Wage is a range $83,200 - $114,400 depending on weekly hours and experience.
• Extended health, paid stat holidays, sick leave, and other generous provisions.
• Ongoing training and professional development.
• A workplace that values your critical thinking, your independence, and your voice.

Apply

Send your cover letter and resume (PDF only) to endingviolence@bwss.org with “Manager, Justice Centre” in the subject line.

No phone calls or social media messages, please.

BWSS is committed to equity in hiring. We strongly encourage applicants from Indigienous women, Black women, racialized women, women who are disabled, transfeminine people and femmes.

All our work takes place on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the xʷməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.