Senior Psychosocial Support Advisor

"A psychosocial specialist with exceptional communication skills and an eye for quality"

40 hours p/week

You

You are a psychosocial support specialist. You have proven in experience in (post) conflict countries. You enjoy working in challenging, multicultural settings on different levels. You contribute to improving the quality of War Child Holland's (WCH) Psychosocial programming and thus contribute to the following strategic objectives: 1) Children affected by armed conflict access the psychosocial support they need to strengthen their resilience and develop well socially and emotionally; 2) WCH is recognized as an expert organisation in the field of psychosocial support. You are part of the Quality Accountability and Learning (QAL) department and report to the QAL Manager, who is member of the management team. You manage the Psychosocial Support Advisor and interns, volunteers and consultants when necessary and work in close collaboration with colleagues and management in both Head Office (HO) and the War Child Country Offices.

Your challenge

As a specialist in the area of psychosocial support it is your responsibility to provide guidance and support to the organisation regarding the development, coordination of psychosocial support programming. You bring focus for War Child in the field of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) resulting in the best pathway for the organization to have even more positive impact on the lives of war affected children. You ensure adherence to and integration of internal and international quality standards and keep pulse with international trends. Furthermore, you collect information and evidence to strengthen the quality of programming in the area of psychosocial support which includes organisation wide learning, monitoring and evaluation. You play a key role in the development of core interventions and approaches to improve the results of War Child projects and programmes, ensuring psychosocial support is an integrated part of all interventions. You work closely together with the Child Protection and Education colleagues to ensure relevant integration of programming in order to reach better results for war affected children. In addition, you lead, coordinate and facilitate developments in your area of expertise (MHPSS), including capacity development of staff in the War Child country offices and HO. You also contribute to advances in the sector through coordination, networking and collaboration with other (inter)national organisations and institutions.

Your profile

You have a relevant academic degree or studies, eg. (cross-cultural) Psychology, Child Development, International (Mental) Health, Social Sciences. At least 5 years of experience in psychosocial support, preferably in emergency contexts. You have excellent knowledge and understanding of intercultural psychosocial issues. You have experience of working in a (post) conflict or development setting and a proven track record in developing methods, tools, programs/interventions, as well as developing and delivering training. Strong project management experience combined with good facilitation skills and intercultural sensitivity are a must. You combine excellent cooperation skills with being an independent psychosocial support advocate. Knowledge and experience in monitoring and evaluation is an asset. You have excellent communication skills in English (oral and written) and preferably good working knowledge of French, Spanish or Arabic. You enjoy sharing knowledge and experience, and you are willing to travel extensively (around 30% of your time) to the countries where War Child implements projects.

You are committed to invest at least two years in further developing this position. War Child offers a contract for one year with the intention to prolong.

The organisation

War Child is a young and dynamic organization. We try to keep an informal ambiance within our office, with a lot of room for creativity, inspiration and self-initiative from employees. We practice what we preach: dynamic, innovative, integrity focused and a drive to reach the highest possible results against the lowest possible costs. War Child offers a challenging job in an inspiring workplace in Amsterdam.

How to apply

Interested and qualified candidates are invited to apply before 3 December 2014. Make sure to use the following hyperlink to apply:http://warchild.onlinevacatures.nl/en/Vacancy/Apply/42408

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The safety of children is essential to War Child. War Child does not tolerate or accept any form of abuse. This subject is addressed in our recruitment and selection procedures.