Child Protection Assistant 375 views0 applications

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Child Protection Assistant

Requisition ID: req9503
Location: Mubi, Adamawa
Sector: Child Protection
Employment Category: Fixed Term
Employment Type: Full Time
Open to Expatriates: No

Background

• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.
• IRC has been present in Nigeria since 2012 when the organization responded to flooding in Kogi State. In response to the Boko Haram insurgency, in early 2014 IRC opened a field office in Mubi town of Adamawa state followed by offices in Yola (Adamawa state) in November 2014, Maiduguri (Borno state) in October 2015, and Monguno (Borno state) in October 2016. IRC is currently implementing programs in Health, Child Protection, Food Security, PRoL, WASH, Nutrition and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) in three States in northeastern Nigeria.
• The IRC Child Protection team offers Psychosocial Support through Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for children aged six to twelve years and Supporting Adolescents and their Families in Emergencies (SAFE) for nine to nineteen-year-olds grouped into younger and older adolescents using toolkits developed by the IRC to build their resilience, social skills and ability to understand and handle their emotions. The toolkits also contain resource that provides support to caregivers to help them manage their stress and place them in a position to provide the children under their care a safe and supportive environment for their growth and development.

Scope of Work:

• The Child Protection Assistant will provide direct support to children and adolescent girls (younger) and boys (younger), and their caregivers within the PEACE education and child protection teams in all targeted field sites in the project.
• They will also be responsible for the supervision and close monitoring of Safe Healing and Learning Spaces (SHLS) activities through the SEL and SAFE resource packages.

Key Responsibilities

• Child Protection Assistant will work within a Child Protection response team providing psychosocial support services to children and adolescents and their caregivers.
• Work as part of a Child Protection team in a safe space to provide support to children as part of broader response services.
• Participate in identifying facilitators and an initial SEL/SAFE approach training and engage in ongoing skills building using SEL/SAFE materials.
• With support from supervisors, mentor and coach facilitators responsible for co-facilitating sessions with adolescent girls (younger) or boys (younger and older).
• Conduct initial assessments to identify the risks and needs of Children/adolescent girls and boys.
• Work closely with other project staff to identify Children/adolescent girls (younger), adolescent boys, and female and male caregivers to participate in SEL/SAFE learning activities.
• Act as lead facilitator to deliver sessions for Children/adolescent girls or boys together with trained facilitators.
• Facilitate sessions for female or male caregivers enrolled for parenting sessions.
• Provide Psychological First Aid and support to adolescent girls(younger) or boys who disclose experiences of violence and support referral to access required services
• Facilitate feedback meetings with adolescent girl(younger)s and boys, female and male community stakeholders and caregivers and share feedback with supervisor
• Complete weekly reports on project activities, including documenting feedback from participants of SAFE sessions and proactively sharing back lessons learned whilst facilitating the curricula
• Participate in weekly team meetings.
• Work with Child Protection Community led Structures, community leaders, caregivers/parents, learning facilitators, SHLS facilitators to promote child protection in homes, learning centers and in the community
• Ensure regular communication with the CP Officer and manager for updates on achievements and challenges
• Provide support for children and adolescents and their families and link them to specialized services where needed.

Grant Monitoring and Reporting:

• Ensure proper delivery of SEL/SAFE sessions.
• Provide input for weekly and staff activity reports.

Coordination & Representation:

• Effectively communicate with caseworkers, government social workers, other CP partners and service providers as part of providing individual support to adolescents/children and their families.
• Regularly attend all CP related meetings at field level.

Program Development:

• Contribute to the development of proposal activities in relation to Psychosocial Support.
• Identify Child Protection trends that need to be addressed through child Protection programming.
• Coordinate with other the IRC Education team and sectors staff (e.g. WPE, Protection, Health and Livelihoods) at field level and ensure child protection mainstreaming.

Other:

• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of SHLS sites; promptly reporting concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaising with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment for IRC programs.
• Ensure all CP facilitators work together to supervise children and adolescents during sessions.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs

Qualifications
Candidates are desired who have:

• A bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Education, Economic, Another Human Development related field or the equivalent of experience preferred
• At least two years’ experience working to support children, adolescent girl and boys, women  or parents and caregivers
• Experience with facilitation of group work with relevant populations
• A high level of motivation to assist adolescent girls and boys affected by humanitarian crisis
• A commitment to child protection and gender equality
• A learning attitude and willingness to increase skills and knowledge in the protection of adolescent girls and boys
• Experience as an active participate of social groups, with an understanding of group dynamics and processes.
• Capacity building, facilitation or training experience
• The ability to adapt and work under pressure and strong interpersonal skills
• Fluency in English and Hausa
• Basic competency in computer skills

Standards of Professional Conduct:

• The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality:

• IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

Working Environment:

• IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.