About You: A motivated mid-career professional looking to work alongside an inspiring, dynamic team of leading human rights workers. The candidate will have exceptional technical skills and embrace a collaborative, team approach to the work they do. This person has experience living and working in challenging operating environments and is eager to apply that experience working on innovative human rights projects that support survivors of torture and war violence, including children, adolescents, and families.
About Heartland Alliance International: Heartland Alliance International’s (HAI) mission is to secure the rights and well-being of marginalized people and communities. HAI envisions a world in which those whose rights have been violated are safe and empowered to actively engage in their communities and be at the forefront of social change. In Iraq, HAI provides holistic services focusing on mental health and psychosocial support, legal aid, violence prevention, and social cohesion to diverse vulnerable populations.
The Project: Heartland Alliance International (HAI) is implementing a child protection and psychosocial support project called Safer Future: Protection and Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Groups. This project seeks to ensure that children who are associated with armed forces and armed groups (CAAFAG), including those detained/sentenced and those disengaged and at risk of radicalization, benefit from a functional and child-friendly system of justice that protects them and their rights and a comprehensive community-based reintegration program that promotes safe and sustainable reintegration through comprehensive social development and economic strengthening services. Project activities will be implemented in the Telkef detention facility in Ninewa, and communities in the Ninewa and Kirkuk governorates due to the severity of needs in these two governorates and the conditions inside Ninewa detention facilities. The project consists of two interrelated and mutually-reinforcing objectives: (1) Detained adolescents have access to comprehensive protection and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services and have their rights protected; (2) Children and adolescents who are released from detention and children in the community who are disengaged or at risk of radicalization have access to and benefit from community-based reintegration services that are in line with international standards and best practices. HAI is also implementing a protection, legal and PSS project in Kirkuk, Hawija and Tuz Khurmato. The project will ensure that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the target locations can access basic legal rights and protections under Iraqi and international law and have access to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services. HAI will provide direct legal services, including legal consultations and case representations, as well as MHPSS services, child protection (CP) services, and services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Role of the Child MHPSS Specialist
Under the direct management of the Project Manager, with technical supervision by the Iraq MHPSS Director, the Child MHPSS Specialist will provide technical oversight and leadership to support HAI’s MHPSS and comprehensive case management services for children, adolescents, and families. He/she will develop guidance and protocols, identify capacity-building needs, develop and deliver tailored trainings, and provide supervision to service providers to ensure high standards of service delivery. The child MHPSS Specialist will be based in Erbil Office and will be expected to travel frequently to Mosul, Kirkuk to support programming and to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah for staff meetings, training and supervision.
- Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Collaborate closely with the Iraq MHPSS Director to ensure that youth and family MHPSS components of the program are delivered with a high standard of quality and in line with relevant international best practices and principles of trauma-informed care.
- Develop guidance, tools, case studies, models, and other materials related to MHPSS programming for youth and families to promote staff capacity-building and service quality.
- Provide high quality training and coaching to the service delivery team, detention center staff, and other partners in identified topics associated with MHPSS, SGBV, and child and family psychosocial support services.
- Provide close technical support and supervision to the MHPSS and case management service delivery team and detention center staff on an ongoing basis, through both remote and in-person modalities.
- Support and coordinate the mapping of resources and referral options useful to respond to MHPSS needs at different levels (community, primary, secondary and tertiary level) and in different communities.
- Regularly monitor psychosocial needs of targeted population youth, children, and families and ensure technical appropriateness of the response.
- Provide recommendations, suggest adjustments, and make improvements to the project with a specific attention to community resilience mechanisms.
- Through strong planning and monitoring, identify potential obstacles to programmatic success in a timely fashion, and implement corrective actions as needed.
- In collaboration with the Iraq MHPSS Director, develop and implement staff support programming to prevent burnout and secondary trauma and support wellbeing among staff.
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Collaborate closely with project team to continuously assess status of MHPSS service implementation against project work plan and implement appropriate steps to ensure project is on track in meeting deliverables.
- Contribute to set-up and implementation of the technical monitoring and evaluation tools for MHPSS components of the project’s activities.
- Ensure monitoring and evaluation activities and reporting meet HAI’s standards, and are completed on schedule.
- Support the technical analysis of the data collected through the project.
- Contribute to finalizing program monthly, quarterly, and annual project reports in English.
- Communication and representation
- Foster effective communication and teamwork among HAI service providers and with partner organization staff.
- Represent HAI in professional and public settings, including to NGO partners, government officials, funding sources, other partners, beneficiaries, and at conferences, meetings and other outreach opportunities
- Other duties: this Job Description is flexible to respond to additional tasks or changes as identified by the direct line manager.
- QUALIFICATIONS:
- Essential Criteria:-
- Master’s degree in psychology, counseling, mental health, , or similar field is preferred; Bachelor’s degree in above field is required.
- 5+ years of experience providing service to children, adolescents, and families as a psychologist, MHPSS service provider, or in similar field.
- 3+ years of experience providing technical oversight to youth and family case management and MHPSS programming in humanitarian settings.
- Demonstrated experience providing training, supervision, and monitoring to MHPSS service providers, including using remote modalities.
- Experience in child protection (CP) is required.
- Experience working with children who are associated with armed forces and armed groups (CAAFAG) is strongly preferred.
- Experience working with youth in detention is strongly preferred.
- Strong commitment to human rights and gender equality.
- Excellent interpersonal skills including ability to gain trust and build relationships; strong diplomatic, negotiation, and persuasion skills; ability to proactively problem-solve.
- Comfort working on a team, as well as independently.
- A demonstrated commitment to high professional ethical standards and humanitarian values.
- Knowledge and understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation concepts.
- Experience with Windows platform, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.
- Proven ability to calmly, professionally, and successfully manage multiple priorities.
- Ability to work in a stressful setting and adapt quickly to changing environments.
-Languages
- Required: Fluent in Arabic.
- Proficiency in English (read, write and communicate)
Personal Competencies: Collaborative spirit and ability to work independently as well as in a team; commitment to knowledge sharing and teamwork; positive attitude and ability to see through challenges to find solutions; and strong interpersonal skills and an ability to clearly communicate, including complex concepts into layperson language.
Resilience: This project will address sensitive issues. Interested applicants should have a strong commitment to addressing the issues with cultural sensitivity, respect, and confidentiality. Candidates should be flexible, have a sense of humor and patience.
Please send cover letter (1 page maximum) explaining your interest and how your experience meets the qualifications required and a CV, to the below link. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you do not hear back from us within 2 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.
