Quality Assurance Coordinator

DISTRESS CENTRES OF GREATER TORONTO

QUALITY ASSURANCE COORDINATOR

Organizational Overview: Established in 1967, Distress Centres of Greater Toronto is a service agency dedicated to providing timely emotional support, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention to people in distress through free, 24/7 multi-lingual inbound, outbound, and in-person programs.

Position Overview: The Quality Coordinator will design, build, and implement a comprehensive, sustainable and scalable Quality Program for the Distress Center. This role is responsible for establishing organization-wide quality standards, measurement systems, and continuous improvement processes that enhance service excellence, volunteer and staff performance, Service User/client safety, & overall impact.

The coordinator will leverage best practices in Quality Management from the for-profit service sector and adapt them to the unique context of distress and crisis service delivery. This includes replicating and/or modifying proven quality practices such as quality calibration, coaching integration, workload forecasting, resource scheduling and service quality reporting.

The coordinator will support all DCGT service programs, including Outbound, Distress Lines, Priority Crisis Lines, and Survivor Support.

Reports to: Manager, Organizational Development

Key Responsibilities:

1. Quality Program Design & Development:

• Design and implement a comprehensive Quality Management framework, including a phased quality roadmap across all DCGT programs.
• Develop quality policies, procedures, documentation standards, and KPIs aligned with DCGT’s mission, service expectations, and funder requirements.
• Establish clear service quality, behavioural, and skill standards for responders/volunteers.
• Integrate best‑in‑class quality practices, including coaching models and monitoring of volunteer hard and soft skills.

2. Quality Measurement & Performance Tracking:

• Develop and implement a quality measurement system assessing volunteer behaviour and service skills, including rapport building (soft skills) & service model adherence (hard skills).
• Build dashboards and reports to track quality indicators at the organizational, program, team, and individual levels.
• Analyze quality data trends and translate findings into actionable insights with respect to service consistency, productivity and responsiveness.
• Produce regular quality reports for leadership, ensuring metrics align with strategic goals.

3. Continuous Improvement & Process Optimization:

• Lead structured quality improvement efforts, including root cause analysis, solution design, and corrective action planning to address service, compliance, and performance gaps.
• Facilitate quality review meetings with program and team leaders, integrating quality monitoring with volunteer coaching to support objective feedback and improvement plans.
• Monitor corrective actions and evaluate their impact on service quality and performance.

4. Team & Individual Performance Support:

• Partner with program managers and supervisors to embed quality standards into supervision, coaching practices, and real‑time service guidance.
• Develop coaching tools and performance scorecards, track individual performance over time, and communicate trends relative to team and program benchmarks.
• Use quality and performance insights to inform training updates and the development of new skill‑building modules.

5. Service User/Client Safety & Risk Management:

• Establish and manage incident reporting and review processes, ensuring adherence to crisis intervention protocols.
• Support compliance with regulatory, contractual, and accreditation requirements.
• Identify systemic quality/safety risks & recommend mitigation strategies to reduce impact.

6. Culture of Service Quality:

• Promote a culture of accountability, learning, and service excellence.
• Facilitate training sessions to build quality literacy across staff and volunteers.
• Serve as an internal consultant on quality-related initiatives.
• Champion ethical data use and confidentiality.

7. Other Duties:

• Supports DCGT events and activities as needed.
• Participates and supports funding applications as needed.
• Supports DCGT research initiatives as required
• Maintains role relevant knowledge and expertise via professional development
• Maintains Equity, Inclusion & Diversity principles across the organization
• Required to communicate in a positive, open, honest, and respectful manner.
• Other duties may be assigned from time to time.

8. Qualifications & Competencies:

• An undergraduate degree required, or extensive and relevant work experience.
• Two to four years of relevant service support experience, including volunteer management and/or contact center management with a track record of successful results.
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to develop and maintain relationships.
• Cooperative and collaborative with a proven ability to work well within a team environment.
• Capacity to think strategically with good critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication, presentation, and negotiation skills
• Ability to set clear expectations and manage the accountability of others to deliver on commitments
• High attention to detail in all aspects of work
• Strong computer and technology skills (experience with Microsoft Office applications)
• Ability to work independently and make decisions in compliance with organizational protocols and guidelines.

Quality training will be provided to support the role:

Hours of work: 1 Year Contract - F/T, M-F (35 hours), flexing hours for evening or weekend as needed.

• This position will be subject to the DCGT’s Return to Office policy (the “RTO Policy”), as revised by the Organization from time to time. The RTO Policy currently requires Managers and Coordinator level employees to attend the office in-person 1 to 2 days per week, with the balance of working time being performed from a home office.
• In addition, you will be required to attend in-person for other important occasions, such as for training sessions, volunteer events, certain meetings, and other instances that DCGT deems necessary.