Child Protection Assistant (Yola) at the International Rescue Committee (IRC)

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

Location: Yola, Adamawa
Employment Type: Full Time

Job Overview/Summary

• Adolescent girls and boys are gravely underserved in humanitarian emergencies, particularly during the acute phase of response.
• They are often inserted into programming designed for younger children or into adult programming, where their age-specific needs are not understood or met.
• The Child Protection Assistants will act as focal points for adolescent girls (younger) and boys (younger and older), their caregivers and within Child Protection programming in all the field sites under the SAFE program.
• They will also be responsible for the supervision and close monitoring of Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Safe Healing and Learning Spaces (SHLS) activities.

Technical Quality:

• Provide support for adolescent girls/ boys and their families and link them to specialized services where needed.
• Provide support for SEL and SHLS activities.
• Work closely with Community Based child protection committee (CBCPCs), community leaders, caregivers/parents to promote child protection in homes and in the community.
• Ensure regular communication with the CP Officer and manager for updates on achievements and challenges

Grant Monitoring and Reporting:

• Ensure proper delivery of social emotional learning (SEL), Supporting adolescent and their caregivers in emergencies (SAFE) and Family makes a difference (FMD) session.
• Provide input for weekly and staff activity reports.
• Conduct pre and post survey to participants.

Coordination & Representation:

• Effectively communicate with other 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 AoR related meetings/ engagement/ celebration at field, state and national level.

Program Development:

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

Other:

• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of field teams; 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 safe spaces and properties on the field are taken care of and report any damage or threat on the property.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs

Major Responsibilities

• Child Protection Assistant will work within a Child Protection response team providing psychosocial support services to adolescent girls and boys and their caregivers in the communities.
• 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 the CP Officer, mentor and coach facilitators responsible for co-facilitating sessions with adolescent girls (younger/older) and boys (younger/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.

Qualifications
Education:

• A Bachelor’s Degree, HND or National Diploma in Social Sciences, Education, Economic, Another Human Development related field or equivalent of experience preferred 

Work Experience:

• 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

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• 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
• Basic competency in computer skills.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.