United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Child and Family Specialist
Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America
Closing date: 28 Oct 2013
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.
BACKGROUND:
Research shows that children are most likely to thrive when they grow up in a family-like environment with immediate caregivers who keep them safe and actively nurture their physical, psychological, emotional, social and cognitive wellbeing and development. Because of this, the IRC sees families as the most important and immediate layer of the child protection system. Accordingly, our approach to strengthening child protection systems includes strengthening the capacity of families to provide a caring and conducive home environment for their children’s development, and improving the capacity of CBOs, paraprofessionals, social workers, and other service providers to deliver child and family support services.
In recent years, the IRC has been a leader in developing and generating evidence around family-based interventions focused on strengthening the capacity of caregivers in conflict and disaster affected communities to care for and protect the children in their care. To date, the IRC has implemented and rigorously evaluated family-based interventions in Liberia, Thailand, Burundi and Uganda.
Over the next five years, the IRC will further advance this work, with the aim of reaching over 100,000 children and families with quality Healing Families interventions. As part of this initiative, the IRC will focus on strengthening the capacity of social workers and paraprofessionals to provide Healing Families support to children and families.
The IRC seeks a qualified Child and Family Specialist to lead the development of a comprehensive, evidence-based Healing Families Toolkit. The toolkit will be piloted in Tanzania with social workers and paraprofessionals. This pilot will generate evidence about effective approaches to strengthening the capacity of the social workforce to support caregivers with parenting skills and early childhood development knowledge.
SCOPE OF WORK:
The Child and Family Specialist will advance the IRC’s Healing Families and social workforce strengthening priorities by leading the IRC’s development of the Healing Families toolkit. The Child and Family Specialist will report to the Senior Child Protection Technical Advisor and will work in close collaboration with the IRC’s child protection team members, in both HQ and the field.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Reviewing and compiling evidence related to behavior change, parenting programs and early childhood development to identify:Key development, protection and wellbeing outcomes for children and accompanying measures; Core competencies that caregivers need to achieve these outcomes;Program content and delivery methods that are effective in achieving these outcomes; andCore competencies required of facilitators/trainers and accompanying measures.Developing a theory of change based on the findings of the review.Adapting existing IRC/developing new caregiver training sessions.Drafting a Healing Families ToT and mentoring guide for facilitators, social workers, and paraprofessionals.Drawing on lessons learned from other IRC family-interventions to develop a Healing Families implementation guide for coordinators and project managers.Coordinating the adaptation of the Healing Families toolkit for piloting in Tanzania. This will require at least one field visit to Tanzania.REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS POSITION
MA in social work, child development, or other related field.Minimum of five years experience in managing or implementing children or family support programs, preferably in humanitarian or development settings.Demonstrated experience developing training curriculum for families and/or paraprofessionals/ social workers, preferably in humanitarian or development contexts.Demonstrated experience conducting literature reviews.Demonstrated ability to integrate evidence into program design.Demonstrated understanding of theories of change.Excellent oral and written communication.Highly organized and self-motivated, able to work efficiently on his/her own.Excellent technical computer skills.Demonstrated understanding of child protection systems, preferably with social workforce strengthening experience in humanitarian or development contexts.Ability to travel to Tanzania 1-2 times for an estimated period of 15 days.
How to apply:
Please apply online:http://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH02/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&r...
