Center Youth Psychologist & Trainer (Bekaa – Baalbeck & Bar Elias)

PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:
Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. The agency pursues its mission through emergency relief services, sustainable community development, civil society and economic development initiatives. Mercy Corps has been present in the Middle East since the 1980s and currently has offices in Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya. Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps promotes economic development and increased opportunity for marginalized communities while responding to emergencies as they have emerged. Until recently Mercy Corps’ focus has focused on bolstering civil society and give voice to under-represented groups through the empowerment of young leaders. Recently, the country office portfolio expanded in response to the massive refugee influx from Syria, to address key needs like non-food items/winterization, water and sanitation, child protection, and capacity building.
 
The conflict that began more than three years ago in Syria has resulted in a steady increase in Syrian refugees to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.  To date, more than one million refugees have fled to Lebanon, and the numbers continue to mount. All refugees who have entered Lebanon are staying with host families or in rented accommodation.  As numbers rapidly increase, humanitarian conditions are deteriorating.  The burden on host communities and the financial and emotional stress on refugees and their hosts is tremendous. Mercy Corps is responding to these needs by addressing urgent basic needs, child protection as well as the psychosocial impact of the conflict and displacement.
 
With the support of the Government of Canada, Mercy Corps will support Syrian and Lebanese adolescent boys and girls, between the ages of 13 – 17 who are not currently enrolled in school or are at high risk of dropping out of school as a means of providing them with life skills, drawing adolescents away from their segregation, and encouraging greater interaction between host communities and refugees. Furthermore, program will reach out to young adults between the ages of 25-35 from among refugee and host communities, seeking their involvement and building their skills to act as coaches to adolescents in the program.
 
GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:
The Center Youth Psychologist & Trainer in the South will work alongside a Center Youth Psychologist and Trainer in the South to do the following:

Develop a training platform on child protection related issues and response mechanisms;
Work with the field teams to build the capacity of local CBOs and youth coaches on how to identify child protection related issues
Support community centers in develop strategies and plans to support vulnerable adolescents and youth that may require additional psychosocial support
Act as a focal person for all referrals in the respective centers and follow up on high-level cases
Work with families of vulnerable youth on helping them face concerns and provide guidance to the CBO teams on developing strategies around how to support vulnerable youth. He/she will also be the liason between Mercy Corps and partner CBOs on all child-protection related issues and support in training partners on national referral pathways.
The candidate will conduct training sessions and work with coordinators to establish and/or enhance our community based protection networks in the areas of the four Adolescent Friendly Community Centers.

 
The Center Youth Psychologist & Trainer will spend several days on field supporting the field teams, as well as several days a week in Beirut developing training material and preparing for trainings.
 
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:Do This
Program Implementation:

Review and evaluation all notes of concerns and support partners and field teams in developing action plans to support vulnerable youth who do not require high levels of intervention;
Provide support to field teams and partners on national referral pathways for vulnerable youth who require a greater level of psychosocial intervention and support;
Provide training under the profound stress/attunement framework on child protection related issues, as well as psychosocial support, and be a part of the training team on this model;
Consults with other agencies and organizations related to referral pathways on child protection support;
Assist field-teams in the establishment/enhancement of Community Based Protection Networks and help facilitate and conduct meetings with key community figures and leaders;
Training coaches on topics such as how to identify youth related issues of concern and how to document a note of concern, psychological first aid (PFA), as well as other trainings;
Complete written reports as requests and youth evaluations as needed;
Tracks all notes of concerns and helps maintain the database to identify trends and points of intervention;
Provide one-on-one meetings with youth or in group sessions on specific topics related to child-protection;
Provide guidance to youth and center teams in developing plans and issues-related campaigns (such as no violence) to support vulnerable youth;
Facilitate outreach efforts to provide services to students, parents/guardians and staff;
Connect students/parents/guardians/staff with specificalized services;

Represent Mercy Corps at national working group meetings;
Other duties as assigned.

 
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: Field Officers, CBO Coordinators & Facilitators, Coaches, Project Coordinators.
 
ACCOUNTABILITY:
REPORTS DIRECTLY TO:  Program Manager  
WORKS DIRECTLY WITH:  Project Coordinators, Field Officers, Center Coordinators & Facilitators, Center Coaches, and Mercy Corps protection team.
 
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE: 

MA/S or equivalent in social work and/or psychology;
Minimum of 5 years of experience performing required tasks in a complex emergency or relief context
Experience working in youth projects with a child protection background;
Understanding of community based protection networks preferred;
Experience in parent/caregiver engagement;
Extensive experience in providing trainings on child protection related issues in a dynamic and active learning style approach;
Strong understanding of national referral pathways;
Child protection-related program experience required;
Strong understanding of refugee issues in the current Lebanon context;
Strong management skills, with good understanding of relevant cross-cultural issues and ability to work with refugee and host community populations;
Demonstrated skills in data collection and database management, organized, and able to handle many responsibilities simultaneously;
Mature, responsible, and diplomatic in their interactions with others;
Good writing skills, including reports, best practices, cases studies, etc;
Ability to work independently with limited supervision, as well as part of a team;
Very strong written and oral communication skills in both English and Arabic, including report development, writing and editing;
Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office applications including Excel and Word
Positive, respectful attitude and collaborative approach to problem solving;
Demonstrated attention to detail; ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently as well as cooperatively with team members;
Significant knowledge and understanding of the current political, economic, cultural and historical context of South Lebanon preferred;

 
SUCCESS FACTORS:

Deep commitment to humanitarian principles and values 
Willingness to learn new skills and methodologies
Ability to work under pressure, independently and with limited supervision
Demonstrated organizational skills
Demonstrated creative problem-solving skills
Security, political and cultural aware
Ability to multi-task while meeting several pressing deadlines
Pays attention to detail and is meticulous, thorough, and results-oriented