Community-Based Street Connected Children Training Package Consultant - Beirut - FOR NATIONAL CANDIDATES ONLY

Background & Rationale:

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, the IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 cities in the United States, the IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions of vulnerable individuals who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC Child Protection (CP) team works to improve the protection of children in Lebanon focusing on 2 pillars: the first pillar consist on direct implementation of child protection case management services for Street and working children; the second pillar consist on supporting the capacity development of CP service providers to provide quality case management services and strengthen community-based protection mechanisms for children at risk, and through working directly with children and youth at risk and with their families.

Since 2016, IRC has taken the lead on a coaching project for outreach volunteers (OVs) who provide community-based support for Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) identified as living in low-risk situations. In 2018, the IRC developed a “Community-Based Support for Children with Disabilities and their Caregivers” Training package aiming to support actors and outreach volunteers working with children with disabilities and their caregivers to prevent heightening their risk and to link them to available services and network in their community.

Through this consultancy the IRC will build upon community-based experience and SaWC programs’ experience to developed adapted and contextualized Community-Based Street Connected Children training package to support child protection actors and outreach volunteers working with street connected children. The community based approached has evidence that is a cost effectiveness intervention and consist on the preventive aspect of child protection to prevent heightening CP risks that would require case management services. The IRC will be able to technically support the OVs coaching project staff and participating CM agencies in implementing a  Community-Based Street Connected Children project  and to contribute to the sustainability of the community-based support model for street connected children beyond the duration of the consultant’s work.

Objectives

The purpose of the consultancy is to support the implementation of a community-based street connected children OVs project aiming to:

• Identify specific approaches and sustainable ways for outreach volunteers and case management agencies to provide services for street connected children.
• Draft key advocacy messages regarding the protection of street connected children, and other critical messages to target caregivers, national local authorities, judicial pathway and community where children reside. Advocacy messages to be used in direct interventions by Outreach volunteers and child protection case workers.

• Develop a training package and information, education and communication (IEC) materials which can be used by IRC, other CP actors and OVs to sustainably expand the community-based work with street connected children. 

Scope of Work

The scope of work for the Community-Based Street Connected Children consultant will include 3 implementation phases as follows:

PHASE 1:

• Desk review and assessment
  • Review the UASC and children with disabilities community based project framework and existing training package in order to be able to design and develop the street connected children training package following a similar structure.
  • Review the peer to peer community based protect materials and reports.
  • Review assessments carried out by UNHCR, IRC and other agencies reflecting the situation of street connected children (vulnerability assessment, risks, services, laws and rights, and specific consideration during emergency context such as conflict setting, health emergency, disasters …).
  • Meet with OVs from the IRC UASC community based project and other community based workers to get a clear idea of the community needs.         
• Coordination
  • Coordinate with the IRC Child Protection Coordinator, Child Protection Coaching Manager,  as well as other CP coaching staff members to gain an understanding of the UASC and children with disabilities OVs project frameworks, the 2017 pilot, and build upon IRC’s experience with unaccompanied and separated children’s (UASC) OV project, strengths, challenges and needs.
  • Coordinate with the CP agencies working with street connected children to identify services, needs, challenges to have an overview of the current situation and build upon their experience to develop modules and messaging for OV’s and case workers to use.   

PHASE 2:

• Workshops meeting
  • Carry out one day workshop meeting with CP coaching program and SaWC staff members among other actors to share main results and findings from the desk review, assessment and coordination meetings, to advise on recommendations and key inputs in the curriculum.
• Materials development
  • Develop Community-Based Street Connected Children training package for Street Connected Children OVs and Child protection case management agencies.  The training package should include:
•  Introductory overview section, giving a general overview over the training package, proposed agenda, and key considerations for conducting trainings on topics related to Community-Based Street Connected Children.
• Actual training modules, each including materials such as curriculum, facilitator guide, simulation case studies, small group exercises, learning assignments, handouts and other supporting materials such as PowerPoint presentations as appropriate. All used references should be stated throughout the materials development under related sections.
• List of resources including relevant standards, guidelines, and complementary training resources for further guidance.
  • Develop IEC materials including key messages for caregivers of Street Connected Children, for employer, community and street connected children as appropriate in coordination with the IRC Child Protection Coaching Program and SaWC staff members.
  • Draft recommendations on specific interventions, and approaches for OV’s and case workers to adopt

PHASE 3:

• Workshops & trainings
  • Carry out a ToT for IRC CP coaching staff members and CP actors working on community based OVs project using the developed Street Connected Children training package. The structure of the training should be discussed with the IRC Child Protection Coaching Manager.
• Reporting
  • Provide consultancy final report including:
    • Overview over work conducted for this consultancy, including assessment results, findings from coordination meetings, and detailed recommendations for the further implementation of the project.  
    • TOT and OV training reports.
    • Summary of consultancy findings, conclusions, and clear outline the technical recommendations for implementation of a community-based street connected children project.   

Timeframe

The supporting consultant will be hired for a proposed duration of 4 months. This timeframe can be amended based on the needs of the project, availability of the consultant, and available budget.

Expected Deliverables

The Street Connected Children consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:

1. Community-Based Street Connected Children training package including (curriculum, handouts, exercises and case studies, facilitator guide, pre and posttest questionnaires, ToT training materials and PowerPoint presentation)
2. IEC materials
3. Consultancy final report as described above

All materials developed must be original work. If information from existing resources is integrated into the materials it must be done with the permission of the original source, and clear attribution, reference and credit must be provided to the source.

All curricula and materials designed and produced under this consultancy will be the property of IRC.

Location:

Beirut based with travel to the field sites across Lebanon- however movements during COVID-19 are in line with the government of Lebanon recommendations.

Qualifications and Knowledge:

Education: Higher Education University degree in Social Work, Humanitarian Affairs or another relevant field.

Work Experience:

• At least 5 years professional experience in child protection programming and street connected children experience.
• Experience in training materials development.
• Experience in training, mentoring and coaching staff in child protection approaches and core competencies.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Thorough understanding of international standards and best practices in CPiE response and working with street connected children, with their caregivers, communities, and service providers.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Strong ability to organize work, meet deadlines, prioritize work under pressure.
• Computer literate in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook.

Language Skills: 

Fluency in spoken and written English required, Arabic is a plus.

Other:

The consultant must abide by IRC policies, procedures, code of conduct and child safeguarding policy.