Case Worker - Tripoli/Beirut

• Conducting outreach in order to reach children who otherwise would not have access to services and who have difficulties in the judicial system;
• Support the child’s resilience and conduct social resource mapping with the child, safety planning, in addition to facilitate access to services for the child and his/her family.
• Demonstrate critical thinking when it comes to assessing approaches to advocate for services to be made available for children in need of judicial protection.
• Demonstrate determination, focus and commitment to seeing through complex and time consuming processes such as trying to facilitate access to a service that may be expensive, located elsewhere or difficult for the child to access for multiple reasons.
• See no barriers for children only solutions and approaches to achieve the desired result.
• Work in and around Tripoli conducting home visits; follow up and monitoring of children cases inside the Judicial courts with coordination with UPEL and Himaya in Tripoli.
• In line with case action plans, the case worker will also be responsible for closely coordinating with relevant external service providers and referrals to national and community based to report cases of children at high risk of harm as per the National SoP’s to ensure the child’s best interests.
• Internally the case worker will be working closely with the Senior Capacity building Officer and the legal counselor to ensure that children are well supported inside the court. Throughout the implementation of the program the case worker will be committed to identify and report challenges preventing children from accessing justice.

The below sections describe the major responsibilities of the service provider while a clear individual annex will describe the specific expected deliverables (monthly and yearly) for the completion of service.

In Lebanon, Syrian and Palestinian refugee and/or stateless children who require judicial protection. Examples include: adolescent boys working on the street who require protection but are classified as cases of children in conflict with the law and children exposed to sexual exploitation.

Whilst state actors and humanitarian agencies aim to ensure basic services for the most vulnerable children and their families, at times relevant actors are not able to protect vulnerable children from harm. Children in contact with the judicial system may experience the following:

• Interrogation by front line investigators as part of an investigation;
• Delayed forensic testing for survivors of abuse and sexual assault;
• Children may lack information and awareness regarding forensic testing procedures- this includes not receiving adequate information regarding the reasons necessary for completing tests, and the emotional, physical and legal implications of the process.
• Cases considered high risk and in need of judicial protection, may in certain circumstances be detained due to conflicting application of the legal framework.
• Children may experience prolonged periods of detention due to complex bureaucratic procedures
• Children are integrated into a judicial process whereby child protection and child centred standards are not consistently implemented.
• Outcome decisions on protection cases, may unintentionally be in conflict with the child’s best interests as a result of the application of the law,

Major Responsibilities:

Case management:

• Identify cases in need of child protection and in conflict with the law or that have challenges in accessing judicial services.
• Provide case management services in line with the Case Management National Standard Operating Procedures & Global Child Protection Case Management Guidelines, reaching at least 30 children by the end of October 2019.
• Conduct outreach activities to identify and provide support to children through home visits, in close coordination with the street and working children program.
• The case worker will be responsible of ensuring preparing cases action plans and handling and updating all related forms ensuring accountability.
• The case worker will commit to maintain excellent documentation of case management files in line with the National Sop’s, BID and other relevant processes
• The case worker will assume full responsibility to assess the level of risk that a child is exposed to, and immediately report any cases that could evolve into high risk cases to the Senior Capacity building Officer, or CP system strengthen & capacity building manager if needed.
• Regularly conduct service mapping to update existing services in the area, and strive to facilitate access to services for the child and his/her family even if the process requires thinking outside of the box, advocating to upper management, working groups, national entities or relevant authorities to facilitate.
• Communication with other agencies for referrals and service provision
• Participate actively in weekly case management team meetings
• Maintain pro-active communication with all relevant internal units
• Responsible and accountable for drafting and updating reports which include case management reports, juvenile reports
• Responsible of handling referrals through IRC hotline number, respond to emergency cases and facilitate access to information and services whenever possible
• Be proactive in identifying opportunities to better support children through facilitating processes
• Set a daily meeting with supervisor in order to discuss cases and challenges and review case files

Information sessions & PSS activities:

• Deliver awareness sessions to specific group of children on relevant child protection key messages, as and when needed;
•  Lead on the delivery of 4 cycles of focused PSS sessions (1 session/cycle/week) reaching 50 children at high risk (12 to 15 children/session) till the end of October 2019. Keep records of the urgent CP needs identified and the actions taken following the sessions.
• Monitor parenting skills sessions delivered by volunteers, and make sure 6 cycles are implemented per week (1 session/week/cycle), reaching at least 15 caregivers/cycle. Keep records of the urgent CP/GBV needs identified and the actions taken following the sessions.

Reporting:

• Ensure relevant documentation is updated on each and every case as per monitoring and evaluation requirements on a weekly basis and submitted for reporting
• Update and closely coordinate with the legal counselors on a weekly basis regarding the cases
• Provide case management report according to set templates to CP systems strengthening and capacity building manager on a weekly basis
• Identify bottlenecks and challenges for children to access justice and social accountability on a weekly basis and, provide concrete solutions and recommendations to influence change for children to the CP systems strengthening and capacity building manager in line with the project objectives.
• Report on the numbers of beneficiaries reached and updates related to activities implementation, by submitting a weekly sitrep and monthly report to the CP systems strengthening and capacity building manager and raise any concern or challenge related to data to the T4P and M&E teams

Representation & Advocacy:

• Represent the Access to Justice and Social Accountability project at relevant coordination working groups (Child protection, Gender based violence, Protection) etc;
• Represent IRC at various external meetings with key stakeholders in the judicial system.
• Work to strengthen IRC’s relationship with refugees, refugee/host community leaders and municipal actors in order to maintain good access to POCs;
• Support the Child protection & Legal counsellors to conduct advocacy on behalf of the community.

Team management:

• Supervise and coach 2 volunteers and make sure they deliver quality services to children and caregivers (outreach, parenting skills sessions, and support on FPSS sessions’ delivery...)
• Prepare monthly payments for volunteers and coordinate with finance department on the status of the payment
• Monitor the data entered by the volunteers, on a daily basis, and raise any concern or challenge to the T4P and M&E teams
• Provide constructive feedback and counsel on appropriate career paths and professional development.

Upon requests the case worker can be asked to conduct other duties by supervisor according to changes in context.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:CP systems strengthening and capacity building manager
Position directly supervises:2 volunteers

Indirect Reporting: street and working children case management senior officer.

Desirable not essential

• Experience working the judicial system.
• Experience working with Syrian, Dom and Turkmen communities