Case Worker - Access To Justice - Bekaa

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 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.

Contextual Background

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, the IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work in more than 40 countries and 22 cities in the United States, the IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions of vulnerable individuals uprooted by conflict or disaster. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

In Lebanon, the IRC implements programs in education, protection, women’s empowerment and protection, economic recovery and development, and child protection sectors. In child protection, one of the IRC’s main objectives is to strengthen the national child protection system to provide a quality response to children and families facing protection issues both during and outside of emergencies. To reach this objective, the IRC partners with local child protection actors to build their capacities.

The ‘Access to Justice project is a consortium consisting of three partners, led by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The project aims to promote a child justice system that is accessible, child-centered and safeguards children’s rights while minimizing harm during legal proceedings

Job Overview/Summary: The CP caseworker will be responsible for providing social services in line with key child protection principles including best interests of the child, confidentiality, do not harm, and child participation. The caseworker will work closely with children in need of Judicial Protection or conflict with the law and needs support in the judicial system, and children at risk of harm providing case management services in line with Lebanon’s Standard Operating procedures, and Global minimum standards of child protection case management. She/He will be an advocate for children with close coordination with the legal service provider to ensure that the child has access to Justice. He/ she will work to ensure that the children’s needs are at the core of service provision with children’s participation solicited at every stage of the process. This will include conducting outreach to reach children who otherwise would not have access to services and who have difficulties in the judicial system. The caseworker will be well equipped to support the child’s resilience and conduct social resource mapping with the child, and safety planning, in addition to facilitating access to services for the child and his/her family. The caseworker will be able to demonstrate critical thinking when it comes to assessing approaches to advocate for services to be made available for children in need of judicial protection. The caseworker will 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. The caseworker will see no barriers for children, only solutions and approaches to achieve the desired result. The caseworker will work in and around Bekaa conducting home visits, following up, and monitoring children’s cases inside the Judicial courts in coordination with UPEL and Himaya in Bekaa.  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 SoPs 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 identifying and reporting challenges preventing children from accessing justice.

Major Responsibilities:

• Identify cases in need of child protection in contact or 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.
• Conduct outreach activities to identify and provide support to children through home visits,
• The caseworker will be responsible for the preparation of case action plans and handling and updating all related forms ensuring accountability.
• The caseworker will commit to maintaining excellent documentation of case management files in line with the National Sop’s, CPIMS, and other relevant processes
• The caseworker 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 Child Protection Officer, Access to Justice 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 for 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 proactive communication with all relevant internal units
• Responsible and accountable for drafting and updating reports which include case management reports, juvenile reports
• Responsible for handling referrals through the IRC hotline number, responding to emergency cases, and facilitating access to information and services whenever possible
• Be proactive in identifying opportunities to better support children through facilitating processes
• Responsible for filling M&E tools for all program activities and reporting troubleshooting to the relevant focal points within the M&E team.
• Responsible for filling monthly reports for activities he/she was leading on.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to Child Protection Officer
  Position directly supervises:  N/A
• Indirect Reporting: Child Protection – Access to Justice Manager

Job Requirements:

• Degree in social work, psychology human rights, or related degree preferred
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in case management in humanitarian or development settings
• Demonstrated understanding of working with children particularly vulnerable children
• Team player, flexible, network-builder, able to handle pressure well and work in cross-cultural settings.
• Remaining open to feedback and self-reflection.
• Strive to cultivate self-care, recognizing one’s own needs, limits, and signs of burnout
• Demonstrate qualities including honesty, kindness, professionalism, non-discrimination, and a commitment to working well in a team whilst staying true to oneself
• Commitment to serving children, doing no harm, and best interests of the child
• Strong believer in children being agents of change in their communities
• Fluency in written and spoken Arabic, English speaking is a plus 

Desirable not essential

• Experience working with the judicial system.