Senior Child Protection Officer

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee 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, 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 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The Ukraine crisis could become the worst humanitarian crisis Europe has seen in decades. More than 5.3 million people have fled across borders to seek safety in the 1st month since the escalation of conflict in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and over 6.5 million people are reported to be displaced. Reports indicate almost all arrivals in Poland are women and children, including those that are unaccompanied and separated, as well as older persons.

Between February 7-23, 2022, an IRC team undertook a scoping mission covering Poland and Ukraine to better understand the context, humanitarian and civil society landscape, and anticipated service gaps in the event of an escalation of conflict in Ukraine and consequent displacement into neighboring Poland. As of February 24th, the IRC has pivoted to emergency response, and has identified partner agencies in Ukraine and Poland to facilitate immediate assistance that can be used where it is most needed. Simultaneously, the IRC has established operations across Ukraine and Poland offering a robust humanitarian response to complement partner response services either in breadth or scale.

Job Overview/Summary:

Following the conflict in Ukraine, the IRC has launched a response plan in Poland. As a part of this response, a Child Protection program is being run in collaboration with implementing partners across multiple Municipality-run shelters in Warsaw. In these shelters, through the creation of Safe Healing and Learning Spaces (SHLS), psychosocial support activities, including social and emotional learning and parenting skills sessions, are conducted. Thus, a safe space for children where, through playing and interacting with their peers, they are able to develop much-needed life skills, is created. From the beginning of 2023, Supporting Adolescents and their Families in Emergencies (SAFE), an additional

programme around psychosocial support and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) targeting adolescents, will be launched in collective shelters. Complementary, the relevant child safeguarding and child protection mechanisms required in this context are in place so that the safety and security of children is guaranteed. The Senior Child Protection Officer, in close collaboration with the Senior Child Protection Manager, will be responsible for the establishment of SHLS and SAFE in new shelters, the technical monitoring of implementing partners working in SHLS, the capacity building of partners and other stakeholders –not only around SHLS and SAFE but around other CP interventions-, and the recording and processing of relevant data.

Technical Quality

• Provide daily guidance on SHLS and SAFE activities to the SHLS and SAFE staff in Warsaw in accordance with the standard tools and procedures.

• Conduct support and monitoring visits around shelters for the structured observation of SHLS and SAFE activities.

• Deliver trainings and ongoing workshops to SHLS and SAFE staff.

• Support safe identification and referral of child protection concerns, supporting SHLS and SAFE staff to make safe referrals, and updating local service mappings.

• Mainstream child safeguarding mechanisms and encourage their use.

• Ensure there is regular interaction with community members so that the relevance of programming is maintained.

• Ensure that attendance of children/youth and Facilitators are accurately recorded and reported.

• Support in the conduction of risk assessments for each SHLS and SAFE spaces, ensuring safety, security, and adequacy for children of all ages.

• Monitor, assess, and report safety and security incidents to IRC management and external relevant parties.

• Capture learning and examples of contextualization of SHLS and SAFE approaches.

• Ensure regular communication with the Senior CP Manager for updates on achievements and challenges.

• Support M&E activities as requested to support quality programming.

• Carry out other duties as assigned by the Senior CP Manager to enable and develop IRC programmes.

Qualifications

• Technical diploma or degree in psychology, social work, education, or related degree desired.

• Experience working with children and particularly vulnerable children.

• At least 2 years of experience in implementing child protection programmes, preferably around psychology, social work, or education in humanitarian or development settings.

• Previous experience supervising and coordinating a team in a cross-cultural setting a distinct asset.

• Previous experience in emergency preparedness and response a distinct asset.

• Previous experience in capacity building and mentoring of staff a distinct asset.

• Personal qualities: team player, flexible, network-builder, able to handle pressure well.

• Fluency in English required. Polish and/or Ukrainian a distinct asset.

This position will be based in Warsaw.

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Qualifications