Life Skills Assistant - Akkar - National Candidates Only

BACKGROUND TO 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.

Since November 2012, the IRC Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) program established five Women and Girls Community Centres and seven mobile teams in North Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley to respond to and prevent Gender Based Violence (GBV).  The WPE Program aims at increasing access of women and girls to psychosocial and case management services and enable communities to identify and mitigate safety and security risks faced by women and girls. All programming is implemented using survivor-centred approaches that prioritize confidentiality, dignity, safety, and respect.

Scope of Work:

Under the supervision of the WPE Senior officer, the Life skills Assistant will work as part of a Women’s Protection and Empowerment Team. She will be in charge of mobilizing and responding to the needs of women and adolescent girls in the communities identified by the teams and the Economic recovery and development teams in Wadi Khaled and Akkar, in order to mitigate their exposure to GBV and strengthen their positive coping skills.

SPECIFIC DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Community Outreach and Mobilization

• Participate in assessment exercises to identify vulnerable women and adolescent girls.
• Participate in and lead safety assessments and community mapping exercises to ensure risks faced by women and adolescent girls are adequately captured.
• Provide regular updates to WPE Senior Officer, WPE Manager and Life Skills Officer on common threats and needs of women and adolescent girls to inform program design and advocacy initiatives.
• Follow up with Outreach Volunteers on disseminating information in communities.

Psychosocial support & life-skills development

• Mobilize women and adolescent girls in target locations to participate life skills curriculums provided by the IRC, including emotional support groups, Arab Women Speak out, Life skills through drama, parenting skills and one off sessions etc.…
• Collaborate and refer to caseworkers and other WPE team members to ensure GBV responses are taking into account specific needs and vulnerabilities of women and adolescent girls and youth-friendly communication techniques are used.
• Use agreed-upon monitoring and evaluation tools to track adolescent girls’ participation in activities and collect their feedback.

Monitoring & Reporting

• Support tracking of all activities’ beneficiaries using agreed M&E tools.
• Participate in weekly reporting and planning meetings to ensure reporting requirements are followed.

Other

• Support and collaborate with local partner staff, including by providing coaching and training on how to work with adolescent girls.
• Draft and contribute to regular weekly, monthly reports and gather with AGO the data course tracker.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

Professional Standards

• All IRC staff are required to adhere to THE IRC Way Standards for Professional Conduct and the IRC country employment policies.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: WPE senior Officer.
• Position directly supervises: None.
• Position works with: WPE senior life skills officer, Case Workers, Community Mobilizers, Adolescent Girls Assistants, Program Manager, Senior Officer and Adolescent Girls Manager.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Minimum 1-2 years professional experience in community-based Protection or GBV programming, preferably in an emergency context.
• Clear understanding of gender, human rights, and issues surrounding violence against women and girls.
• Demonstrated experience working with adolescent girls, including facilitating trainings and/or activities targeting adolescent girls.
• Experience training or coaching other staff within the organization or in a partner organization.
• Fluent in Arabic; working knowledge of English an asset.
• Positive and professional attitude, including ability to work well in a team setting.
• Strong ability to organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under pressure, coordinate multiple tasks and maintain attention to detail.
• Good computer skills including MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.