Gender and Youth Community Facilitators - Maralal at Mercy Corps

The Position

The Community Facilitator will be responsible for supporting the USAID Nawiri Gender and Youth technical approaches targeting adolescents and young people (10-24yrs). Girls Improving Resilience through Livelihood and Health (GIRL-H) targets adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) (10-24yrs) and Transforming Masculinity targets young men (15-24yrs). The approaches aim to work with young people to improve their: Assets- Youth have the necessary resources and skills to achieve desired outcomes, Agency- the ability to employ their assets and aspirations to make their own decisions about their lives and set their own goals, and act on those decisions in order to achieve desired outcomes without fear of violence or retribution, Contribution-  encourages, recognized, and enables young people to be involved in and lead through various channels as a source of change for their own and their communities’ positive development through safe space model.

S/he will focus on community engagement of adolescents and young people, including the identification, recruitment, retention and training of adolescents and young people; support mentors for the AGYW and Young Men, the establishment of partnerships with key community members (elders, religious leaders, government officials); and ensuring that common strategies and approaches are applied consistently in all communities.

Essential Responsibilities

• Community engagement and training of adolescents and young people
• Contribute to teamwork plans and successful implementation of approaches for adolescents and youths (GIRL-H & Transforming Masculinity).
• In collaboration with USAID Nawiri Gender and Social Change Officer, identify and recruit adolescents and youths from the community as program beneficiaries.
• Manage girls’ and boys’ group’s safe space groups in collaboration with mentors.
• Provide mentorship and support to mentors for girls and boys
• Support the USAID Nawiri Gender and Social Change Officer with conducting training for the mentors on technical curricula for adolescents and young people.
• Support and guide the mentors to deliver training to adolescents and young people.
• Support safe space activities including safe space mapping and social asset building.
• In coordination with the Gender and Social Officer, monitor the implementation of activities through regular field visits and assessments to ensure program quality and impact and document successes and lessons learned. 

Monitoring and Reporting

• Monitor adolescent and youths (Girl/Boy) groups daily and upload all data collected data in ONA platform on a weekly basis.
• Prepare accurate and timely monitoring and field reports on a weekly basis and other project documentation as required.
• In collaboration with USAID Nawiri Gender and Social Officer, report on the attendance, capture Adolescents and Young Mothers data in the tracking tool, businesses, and savings groups’ performances via the USAID Nawiri group monitoring tool and to the County Project Coordinator.

 Organizational Learning 

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Knowledge and Experience

• Minimum 1-year experience working with NGOs/CBOs in adolescent and youth interventions, including livelihood interventions
• Diploma in Community Development, Social Work, Gender Studies, or any other related field.
• Basic computer skills and knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel.
• Commitment to working with adolescents and youth, girls, and boys in need, regardless of, religion or gender.
• Experience in data collection and data entry is an added advantage.
• Experience with the mentorship of girls.
• Experience facilitating training.
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Local language skills are required. Strong written and spoken English and Kiswahili.