Media, Marketing & Publicity Specialist (GTA Region – North York)
Organization: Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario (SCAGO)
Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week, in-person (4-5 days per week)
Who We Are
The Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario (SCAGO) is a leading charitable patient organization providing evidence-based support to families with children, adolescents, and adults living with sickle cell disease across Ontario. SCAGO supports clinical and psycho-social research, health promotion, patient and caregiver education, community awareness, and the development of best practice guidelines.
The Media, Marketing & Publicity Specialist will support the promotion of SCAGO’s programs, events, initiatives, advocacy priorities, and organizational impact through an integrated approach to media relations, marketing, publicity, and digital communications.
This role requires someone who can bring value across all three areas and understands that increasing organizational visibility goes beyond social media. In addition to creating engaging digital content such as posters, graphics, videos, and short-form reels, the successful candidate will be expected to proactively identify and pursue earned and low-cost media opportunities, including radio and television interviews, news and newspaper coverage, editorials and articles, podcasts, community media, and other relevant publicity opportunities.
The successful candidate should be comfortable proactively reaching out to journalists, editors, producers, reporters, podcast hosts, community publications, and other media contacts, developing compelling story angles and pitches, and building relationships that position SCAGO as a leading and trusted voice on sickle cell disease, health equity, patient advocacy, and related issues.
The role also includes managing and growing the organization’s social media presence, developing campaign and promotional content, supporting newsletters and online communications, strengthening SEO and Google visibility, and identifying creative opportunities to expand SCAGO’s reach. The successful candidate will contribute strong writing and storytelling skills to ensure clear and compelling messaging that increases public awareness and highlights the impact of SCAGO’s work.
A key priority for this role is organically growing SCAGO’s social media platforms and increasing audience engagement and followers across channels. We are specifically seeking someone with demonstrated experience in organic social media growth strategies, audience engagement, and content creation that drives reach, visibility, and community interaction. The ideal candidate should understand current social media trends, know how to create content that performs well across platforms, and have a strong ability to develop creative, impactful, and visually appealing content that resonates with diverse audiences.
Equally important, the successful candidate must demonstrate the ability to think strategically about public relations and earned media, including identifying timely opportunities for SCAGO to contribute expert commentary, patient perspectives, editorials, interviews, articles, and stories to mainstream and community media.
As this is a fast-paced environment with frequent campaigns and events, we are seeking someone who is highly creative in their visual design and content development, able to produce high-quality materials quickly, and comfortable working under pressure while meeting tight deadlines.
Please Note
- This is an independent contractor role. Compensation is based on the number of hours worked. This position does not include employee benefits, paid leave, or other entitlements associated with full-time employment.
- This role does not provide employee benefits and does not support permanent residency (PR) sponsorship.
Benefits
- Performance-based bonus: An additional 10% of total hourly earnings, paid at the end of the yearly contract.
Requirements
- We are specifically seeking candidates who can demonstrate experience across media/public relations, marketing, publicity, and social media communications.
- Candidates should have demonstrated experience securing or pursuing earned media opportunities, such as interviews, news coverage, editorials, articles, podcasts, or community media exposure.
- We are specifically seeking candidates with demonstrated experience in significantly growing organizational social media followers and engagement. Only applicants with proven results and a workplan in this area will be considered.
- Experience managing social media accounts for organizations or brands.
- Strong content creation skills, including graphics, captions, articles, media pitches, and short videos.
- Strong writing and storytelling skills with the ability to adapt messaging for journalists, editors, the general public, community audiences, and digital platforms.
- Organized, proactive, and able to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
- Someone who is creative, committed, resourceful, and passionate about making an impact in the community.
Please note that selected applicants may be asked to complete a brief assignment to showcase their creativity, communications strategy, media outreach approach, and content development skills prior to the interview stage.
Working Environment
The Media, Marketing & Publicity Specialist will work in a fast-paced, high-demand environment involving clients with physical and psycho-social issues of a complex, confidential, and time-urgent nature, media outlets, and partner organizations. He/she will maintain professionalism and efficiency, require limited supervision, exert initiative, good judgment, and excellent communication skills. He/she will be empathetic, compassionate, and understanding when dealing with clients.
# of Hours / Job Type
Contract-based, 40 hours/week @ $25.50 – $27.00 per hour. Services are delivered in-person at the SCAGO office. Must be willing to work occasional weekends.
Reporting Relationship
The Media, Marketing & Publicity Specialist will work closely with a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, patient advocates, project collaborators, social workers, and report to the Executive Lead. The incumbent will carry out tasks based on this job description and as may be advised. The Media, Marketing & Publicity Specialist will provide accurate reports of logged hours, activities, media outreach, communications activities, and work outcomes.
Role Expectations
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of and commitment to SCAGO’s mission, vision, core values, and strategic priorities.
- Develop and implement integrated media, marketing, publicity, and communications strategies that increase the visibility of SCAGO’s programs, initiatives, events, advocacy priorities, and organizational impact.
- Proactively identify and pursue earned media opportunities for SCAGO, including radio and television interviews, newspaper and online news coverage, editorials, articles, podcasts, community media, and other relevant platforms.
- Research and identify journalists, editors, reporters, producers, publications, podcasts, and media outlets relevant to SCAGO’s work and develop targeted outreach strategies.
- Develop compelling media pitches, story angles, press releases, media advisories, opinion/editorial submissions, articles, and other materials designed to generate media interest and coverage.
- Build and maintain relationships with journalists, editors, producers, media outlets, community publications, and other communications partners to strengthen SCAGO’s long-term media presence.
- Monitor news cycles, health-sector developments, awareness dates, government announcements, research developments, and trending conversations to proactively identify opportunities for SCAGO to provide expert commentary, patient perspectives, interviews, or educational information.
- Create engaging multimedia content including posters, graphics, videos, and short-form reels that highlight SCAGO’s work and campaigns.
- Manage and grow SCAGO’s presence across social media platforms including Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.
- Write clear, engaging content for social media posts, newsletters, blogs, campaign pages, articles, media communications, and promotional materials.
- Maintain and update website content to ensure information remains accurate, timely, and aligned with organizational messaging.
- Support strategies to strengthen SCAGO’s SEO, Google search visibility, online authority, and discoverability without a budget.
- Develop and manage a monthly social media content calendar that supports campaigns, events, and key organizational priorities.
- Ensure consistent messaging across all communication channels while tagging and engaging partners, collaborators, and community networks.
- Monitor and analyze the performance of communications, media, publicity, and marketing campaigns and provide recommendations to improve reach and engagement.
- Stay informed of media trends, community initiatives, health-sector developments, and relevant news stories to identify opportunities for outreach and promotion.
- Support the promotion and documentation of virtual and in-person events, including webinars, workshops, conferences, and community campaigns.
- Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to ensure communications efforts align with organizational activities and objectives.
- Prepare periodic communications reports summarizing social media growth, media outreach, earned media coverage, public awareness, website visibility, and engagement metrics.
- Ensure all communications materials are reviewed and approved by management prior to publication to maintain accuracy and quality.
- Demonstrate strong time management and organizational skills with the ability to produce high-quality work quickly and perform effectively in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
Qualifications
- Experience working in a high-demand, fast-paced environment.
- A minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree.
- Highly proficient in graphic design tools such as Adobe Photoshop.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling messages.
- Experience with media relations, public relations, journalism, publicity, communications, or earned-media outreach is strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to write professional media pitches, press releases, articles, editorials, and other external communications.
- Ability to confidently reach out to journalists, editors, producers, reporters, and other media professionals and build ongoing relationships.
- Ability to identify strong story angles and translate organizational activities into compelling stories that are relevant to media and public audiences.
- Ability to collaborate effectively within a team and across different departments.
- Ability to manage competing priorities and tight deadlines.
- Proactive and self-motivated, with a willingness to take on new challenges.
- Digital Marketing Knowledge: Familiarity with social media platforms, email marketing tools, SEO, Google visibility, and content marketing strategies.
- 5+ years of relevant experience in social media, communications, marketing, publicity, or public relations, preferably with a patient organization, healthcare organization, nonprofit, or related sector.
- Superior communication, problem-solving, time management, and documentation skills.
- Excellent command of written and verbal English.
- Advanced platform knowledge, including Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $25.50 per hour
Benefits:
Application question(s):
- Are you legally authorized to work in Canada, and will you require sponsorship now or in the future?
- Are you available to start immediately?
- Do you have at least 3 years of working in a fast-paced, high demand environment
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree (preferred)
Experience:
- public relations: 3 years (required)
- Digital marketing: 3 years (required)
- media engagement: 3 years (required)
- effective content creation: 3 years (required)
Work Location: In person
