Community Based Protection Mobilizer

Background/Context:

The IRC has operated in Syria since 2012, providing protection, health, economic recovery, and early childhood development programs in Idleb, Aleppo, Ar-Raqqa, Hassakeh, and Deir ez-Zor, with new programs expanding into Hama, rural Damascus, and Homs. With a team of over 700 members, the IRC has established trust and strong community relationships, ensuring access and effective service delivery. It plays a significant role in Syria’s NGO, donor, and coordination forums, holding key positions and adapting to the evolving context.

With the new realities under the new government, as of December 2024, the IRC has deployed a team to Damascus to set up operations and engage in coordination structures for newly accessible areas across Syria—including parts of NES, NWS, and other previously unreachable locations in South and Central Syria, adjusting operations to maximize coverage and efficiency.

Protection

The IRC has been delivering protection programs in the northwest since 2013 and in the northeast of Syria since 2014, focusing on Protection/Rule of Law (PRoL), Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE), and Child Protection (CP). These efforts include specialized case management, PSS, protection monitoring, service mapping, and advocacy. Collaborating with partners, IRC improves access to protection services, raises community awareness, and strengthens referral pathways. Protection capacity building, community outreach, and rapid response through mobile protection teams have also been provided since 2017.

Job overview: Job Overview/Summary:The Community-based Protection Mobilizer plays a vital role in safeguarding vulnerable populations within communities while also promoting peace and social cohesion. He/she will be leading all information provision, outreach, risk mitigation and community mobilization efforts. Core activities include dissemination of information, assessment of risks faced by the targeted communities and development of response strategies, capacity building of community members. She/He will facilitate and contribute to forming Community-based Committees to enhance community self-protection. In addition, the CBP Mobilizer will take on any additional social cohesion and conflict resolution activities as required by the Protection Officer to meet the project objective. This position involves identifying risks and threats to safety, advocating for individual rights, and facilitating access to essential services. By building strong relationships and trust within the community, the officer raises awareness of protection issues and fosters resilience among those affected. Collaborating with other IRC sectors and local organizations, they provide support and resources, ensuring that community voices are included in decision-making processes.

Responsibilities:

• Identifying the barriers that hinder vulnerable individuals from accessing available services and proposing effective measures to mitigate or eliminate them.
• Facilitating the establishment of community groups such as peace committees to enhance their capacities in conflict resolution and promote social cohesion, thereby contributing to increased interaction and collective participation.
• Conducting regular visits to supervise the performance of peace committees, ensuring effectiveness in meeting community needs and advancing their activities.
• Providing ongoing guidance, motivation, and encouragement to committee members, while recognizing their efforts as volunteers and supporting them in maintaining their active participation in conflict resolution and community coexistence efforts.
• Organizing training programs to enhance leadership and problem-solving among committee members, ensuring sustainable impacts in the community through capacity building.
• Holding community meetings as needed to disseminate information and integrate issues of conflict resolution and peaceful coexistence, emphasizing the importance of community unity among internally displaced persons and host populations.
• Conducting community awareness sessions on violence prevention and response mechanisms, focusing on addressing the contributing factors to conflicts and risks associated with the local context.
• Organize community meetings as needed, for information dissemination or other purposes.
• Organizing discussions that challenge harmful social norms and promote equality among individuals through a culturally sensitive approach.
• Mentor and provide capacity-building support to local partner staff to ensure they can independently implement social cohesion activities, and community outreach activities.
• Working closely with community leaders and local authorities to identify and address areas of tension accordingly.
• Conduct community awareness sessions on ProL prevention, response, and protection mechanisms with a focus on addressing the drivers of conflict and risks specific to the local context.
• Work with the PRoL team to conduct Protection monitoring assessments.
• Perform other duties, as needed or requested by the supervisor.