Self-Development & Personal Resilience Curriculum Consultant

1. Background

CARE is an international humanitarian and development organization without religious, political or government affiliation. CARE is committed to protecting and promoting the rights of vulnerable girls and boys, women and men and improving the lives of refugees and host communities alike.

CARE International in Lebanon (CiL) works at national, municipality and at community levels to develop customized solutions and ensure long-term sustainability as well as respond to basic needs. We design projects that fall into alignment with national priorities and can be owned by communities. Our interventions range across clean water, affordable sanitation and community healthcare and sexual and reproductive health rights programs, economic opportunities, and protection.  Across program areas, CIL’s activities are guided by a rights-based, holistic, gender-sensitive/transformative, and inclusive approach.

CIL has been operational in Lebanon since 2013 and works nationwide.

The Project focuses on building emotional, psychological and psycho-social well-being in order to increase resiliency for youth and women mitigating against key drivers of social and economic instability and violent conflict. By engaging youth and women in activities, it has far-reaching benefits for participants: strengthens beneficiaries’ sense of belonging; social cohesion; sense of hope; improve inter and intra personal skills; increase their readiness to work; build career paths; and encourage social interaction with others. The Project is also designed to help beneficiaries learn new skills to handle boredom, failure, rejection, fear of success and other situations. Secondary activities aim to increase pathways for community and entrepreneurship engagement to boost mental strength and resilience.

The Project consists of three interlinked components, which will collectively contribute to enhancing the economic resilience of marginalized communities and individuals. The Project will address barriers related to individual employability and labour market links, small business development and job creation, community relations and self-organization.

Core components:

1. Engaging communities and enhancing social, psychosocial and economic skills and knowledge. This component will mainly tackle the human capital of the local communities, as well as the theory of change that stipulates the engagement of the local communities.

1. Stakeholder buy-in. Engaging businesses and entrepreneurs in the process of neighbourhood development through the consolidation and empowerment of the local businesses, as well as the provision of a better entrepreneurship environment. This component also tackles the LED dynamics to alleviate poverty and create jobs and incomes.

1. Promoting positive institutional and organizational change. To sustain and consolidate the local communities and revitalize their own potentials and dynamics, CIL will support and help local NGO to increase awareness, participation, advocacy and local social and economic initiatives.

In order to stimulate enhance the livelihood and social conditions of the local communities (Lebanese and Syrians) in Tripoli, through the three main strategic axis CIL and partners engage three main target groups:

• Vulnerable women and youth that do not have qualifications and skills and who do not have access to work or that have low-paying and unstable sources of income;
• Vulnerable youth and women that have some skills or partial qualifications but lack the resources, know-how or completed qualifications to access stable employment that allows them to sustain themselves; and
• Community members with completed education and a certain skills level that are motivated to support other groups through SME start-ups or social enterprises or already own businesses with growth potential

2. Objectives

CiL seeks a consultant to create a self-development & resilience approach and curriculum to be used in its livelihoods and protection programming. The curriculum will be used to target marginalized, vulnerable, and disoriented individuals. It will help them develop skills, habits, and the capacity to enhance their emotional capacity(intelligence), control and manage their thought process, and improve their attitudes towards difficulty, and therefore improving their overall behavior towards life.

CIL currently uses a self-developed PSS & LS framework, and will the consultant to develop the approach used,  tools, and training manuals using neuroscientific, cognitive, behavioral science or other research and leading practice foundations or approaches. The main pillars that the manuals will focus on: psychosocial and emotional health; intra & interpersonal skills; high order thinking skills; employability skills; and communication.

The consultant will review the existing tools developed and used in the current and recent programs to identify gaps and potential areas of development, and eventually strength it with relevant research and supportive content to consolidate the manual and materials into a standard package with the purpose of leading vulnerable youth and women to employability and self-improvement in our centers through our daily interventions through focused & awareness sessions and vocational trainings. The product should be sound, operational, and practical for research evidenced field implementation as well as in line with scientific community standards.

The consultant will meet the following objective by the end of the assignment:

1. Review current PSS and life skill curricula in the training manual being utilized to guide individuals, youth and adolescents psychosocial support programming is consistent with neuroscience evidence research and targeted toward employability.
2. Produce an inception report that includes background reading material on the curricula topics relevant to key components in a format that can be understood and easily utilized by non-specialized providers implementing the project on the field.
3. Produce revised framework or approach to how to target personal development/resiliency.
4. Produce training manual/s providing the project team with practical guidance and steps of applying the framework in centers or in mobile sessions with focus on incorporation of newly added materials as well as minimum programing standards which ensure quality implementation of programming for beneficiaries.
5. Through conducting the training of trainers (TOT) the consultant should make sure that the updated training manual and the neuroscience background learning materials to are being sufficiently mastered by the project team (master trainers).
6. Review and revise current results framework and M&E tools with the purpose of development of customized and scientifically aligned with programmatic objectives and available capacities.
7. Introduce into the training manual the concept of ethical leadership and how to apply key ethical behaviors into business and entrepreneurship development modules.

1. Deliverables

The consultant will work for a period of up to 35 days. The assignment’s detailed work plan will be determined in consultation with the program directors, BMZ Project Manager, M&E specialist and Protection & Gender advisor. 

Other functions may be identified as part of the conceptualization and consultation process.

1. Qualifications

• Essential: MS degree in Neuroscience, Behavioral Science, Psychology or social sciences, etc.. PhD is preferable
• 5+ years in local community development work and design research and manuals;
• Expert community facilitation process, and has experiences working collaboratively with individuals and communities, understands and applies adult education and humanities pedagogy.
• Priority for candidates who published research in the domain of mental health, psychology or sociology;
• Advanced Arabic and English proficiency is necessary.

1.   Behavioral Competencies:

• Planning and delivering results
• Analysis
• Communicating with impact and respect
• Strategic thinking
• Influencing
• Handling insecure environments

1. Timeframe

The total process should take up to 35 days

Interested and eligible individuals should submit their statement of interest, CV (no longer than 3 pages) and 3 references to the CIL – Lebanon Country Office email to recruitment@careliban.org indicating CALL FOR PSS & Life skill CONSULTANT in your email subject line.