Psychosocial Support Officer at Centre for Family Health Initiative (CFHI)

Centre for Family Health Initiative (CFHI) is a non-political, non-religious, not-for-profit organization committed to the promotion of health and protection of the well-being of families in Africa. Driven by a vision of Healthy Families; Healthy Societies, CFHI’s mission is to develop a safe and accommodating society for all, through community driven and family centered health interventions, socio-economic empowerment, research, and policy development.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Psychosocial Support Officer

Location: Owerri, Imo
Employment Type: Full-time

Key Responsibilities
Psychosocial Support:

Play a key role in Quality Improvement from the baseline status to all enrolled OVC
Provide technical support to other program areas
Coordinate the Community Improvement Team
Coordinate the Caregivers’ forum
Coordinate Psychosocial Support activities
Coordinate the volunteer training and mentoring
Coordinate the child friendly centre set-up and usage
Coordinate the kiddies club activities
Develop comprehensive work plans and budgets for the implementation of quality OVC activities
Conduct field visits to support OVC activities and use the learning to continuously modify programming
Continuously document new developments in OVC programming and align them to proposed activities.
Oversee achievement of OVC performance targets in line with technical standards and best practices
Monitoring and reporting of programmes activities
Strengthen reporting on OVC activities through National OVC Management Information System.

Protection:

Ensure that all the children in the enrolled households have birth registration certificate.
Set up child protection committee within the communities the OVC project is being carried out.
Conduct sensitization forum during the caregivers meeting on the need to report cases of abuse, neglect & shelter stressing the primary and secondary reasons why cases should be reported as early as possible.
Ensure that all enrolled children are protected from abuse.
Initiate and follow through with lasting solutions to issues that revolve around shelter and care
Attend child protection network meeting (CPN)
Formulate and Coordinate conduct of quality research and policy analysis on children and women, addressing the determinants of the social exclusion, disparities, inequalities as well as implications of the economic, financial trends, and national public policies
Lead in facilitating the development of safeguarding and child protection policies, training and procedures and guidance for CFHI OVC children
Receive and coordinate referrals, arranging action and reviewing services for children and families.
Maintain accurate, confidential and up to date documentation on all cases of safeguarding and child protection.
Ensure that CFHI is always represented positively within and beyond the organisation.
Ensure that children who are victims of abuse are supported appropriately and sensitively.
Coordinate the Educational aspect of the project.

Gender:

Ensure mainstreaming of gender, including systematic age and gender analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting, on specific gender issues.
Encourage implementation of targeted actions aiming to achieve gender outcomes.
Support detailed gender analysis during the project implementation.
Participate in gender norms assessment and analysis and inform programming.
Take lead in providing technical support to community volunteers in developing effective gender focused project strategies.
Support relevant training and learning opportunities for community volunteers to advance knowledge and skills in gender.
Contribute to gender knowledge networks through identification of best practices and lessons learnt.
Support the development of gender related advocacy messages.
Represent CFHI in meetings and other events as requested, to support forging relations with the relevant State Ministries, stakeholders and the community.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree with 2 – 3 years work experience
Excellent communication skills, written and oral and ability to relate sensitively to diverse groups.
Strong technical and programmatic skills and experience across a range of adolescent issues and topics.
Training and knowledge in community HIV/AIDS prevention and working with adolescents
In-depth understanding of donor expectations for program results, outcomes, impact and reporting
Experience in the development of strategic and tactical plans with stakeholders who may represent a wide a range of needs and interest
Good interpersonal and team working skills
Demonstrated experience in training, capacity building of partners and team members.
Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required
Highly developed computer skills with strong familiarity with Microsoft Office are mandatory.