HIAS Romania is seeking a Community Engagement and Protection Advisor (CEA) with strong experience in legal protection, Gender Based Violence and protection of people with specific needs, but also a record in engaging and communicating with these target groups, conducting needs assessments and smaller scale and informal consultations with PoC. CEA will be a position of leadership in developing and facilitating relationships between HIAS and community leaders and stakeholders at both the city wide and country level, with the refugee community. The CEA is responsible for ensuring that programming pursued by HIAS is informed by and driven by the community. To facilitate effectiveness and efficiency in this role, the Community Engagement Officer position will be physically embedded in the community through constant communication and consultation. The advisor will work with local actors to improve protection mechanisms, dissemination of information, building robust referral mechanisms and mainstream community approaches to mitigation of protection risks and provision of response services. . The incumbent will also work closely with other technical program staff in the organization to meet the safety, psychosocial, economic, and justice needs of survivors and facilitate their access to appropriate care. It is vital that the incumbent maintains a constant communication stream with the local refugee community and the host community, represents a valuable “source” to understand needs, issues, and host community-refugee community relations. The advisor join a small, yet growing and dynamic team based in Romania This position reports to Program Manager.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

·       Work with the HIAS team to identify and advance issues impacting the overarching goal of assisting refugees and other vulnerable categories.

·       Consult on sustained opportunities that contribute to refugee communities integration and thriving.

·       Serve as leader with respect to program staff around methodologies and best practices in authentic and effective community engagement.

·      Maintain a close contact with authorities, UN agencies and local CSOs to insure that HIAS has an effective outreach program disseminating information in an effective and accessible manner regarding refugee and migrants rights and access to services.

·       Work in partnership with partners of HIAS on supporting GBV Program development in partnership with local NGOs and local authorities across Romania.

·      Develop and maintain strong, authentic relationships with local partners.

·      Identify strategic opportunities and connections between HIAS and the community and prospect for ideas and initiatives.

·      Develop and support community-based protection strengthening mechanism.

·      Create an outreach plan in Romania in line with the HIAS strategic plan.

·      Develop GBV risk mitigation strategies and support for the vulnerable persons with specific needs, LGBTQ+ and Roma including survivors of GBV.

·      Contribute to the design of new ways of engaging community in ending violence against refugee women, men, girls and LGBTQ+ persons

·      Support local partners in the implementation of safeguarding policies

·      Work in close contact with partners to operationalize safe spaces for victims to build peer support networks to enhance their economic and social assets

·      Support qualitative assessments through Focus Groups Discussions, direct consultations to better understand trends in risks to protection.

·      Gather and present to the HIAS team regular and up-to-date information about needs and issues that the refugee community confronts itself with, with regular consultations or focus groups

·      Be present on and use all channels of communication used by the refugee community (Telegram Facebook, WhatsApp etc)

·      Participate and represent HIAS Romania in national and regional coordination meetings.

·      Participate in capacity building initiatives for staff, partners and other stakeholders to create awareness, ensure quality and comprehensive delivery of project activities

·      Ensure that best practices on protection are respected and the international standards are met in responding to protection needs.

·      In partnership with local actors, develop protection risk mitigation programming for refugee women and children with focus on GBV prevention and response, mitigating risks for persons with special needs and minority groups including LGBTQ+ and Roma.

·      Monitor Protection related programming implemented by local partners

·      Contribute in the development of project proposal, concept notes and sector publications

·      Participate in protection and GBV inter-agency coordination working groups

·      Coordinate development and dissemination of legal protection materials for displaced population in Romania

·      Support the development of direct protection and GBV services in the Galati, Constanta and Bucharest areas.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

·      Bachelor’s degree in Refugee Studies, human rights, Gender Studies, Community Development Studies, Social Science and/or other related fields of study

·      Minimum of 5 years previous job experience related to community protection.

·      in-depth knowledge and experience in refugee protection, community protection and GBV, economic inclusion.

·      Demonstrated experience in working in partnership with multiple actors.

·      experience with operationalizing protection (and GBV) principles and knowledge of international humanitarian standards.

·      Knowledge of Accountability to Affected Populations framework

·      Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills required.

·      Responsible, Professional and with Integrity

·      Ability to work with people from different culture settings.

·      Ability to work effectively with teams.

·      Excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.

·      Experience working with vulnerable populations, especially refugees or asylum seekers.

·      Fluency in English (oral and written) and (preferably) Romanian. Added advantage to candidates who speak Ukrainian/Russian

·      Must have the rights to work and live in Romania.

·      Knowledge on Computers; Ms-Office, Email and Internet.

Refugees or minority groups are especially encouraged to apply