Jr. Holistic Child & Youth Development Officer

Who we are

SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia is an International Non-governmental organization and a member of SOS Children’s Villages International Federation. We started our humanitarian work in Ethiopia with the opening of our first Village in Mekelle, Northern part of Ethiopia in 1974. Since then, we have expanded our programs to different regions where there are significant needs for intervention and where we believe we can work in partnership with all relevant actors to bring sustainable positive outcomes for children’s and young people.

Today, we have grown significantly to meet the persistent challenges that confront Ethiopian children who have lost parental care and those that are at risk of losing their parental care. Working in close collaboration with international donors, local government and community based organizations across seven program locations; we aspire that every child grows up with love, respect and security.

Why we need you?

We are looking for a…

What we provide?

An amazing work environment that promotes personal growth through providing professional space to grow and advance your career!

Your role?

As a Junior Holistic Child and Youth Development Officer you will be in charge of the following, you will be in charge of the following:

Admission and Care Placement Coordination:

• Actively participate in the identification, assessment, and admission of children and young people into care, ensuring decisions are based on the best interests of the child.
• Support facilitates care placement decisions (including changes, transitions, or reintegration) in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and based on holistic needs assessments.
• Maintain accurate documentation related to admissions, placements, and transitions.
• Ensure that every child admitted receives a comprehensive orientation and a timely individual development plan.

Child and Youth Development Planning

• Support Holistic Child and Youth development officer in the assessments, development, implementation, and regular review of Individual Development Plans (IDPs) in collaboration with children, young people, caregivers, and care professionals.
• Ensure IDPs reflect age-appropriate goals across health (physical and mental), education, social, psychological, spiritual, education, etc.

Service Facilitation and Case Management

• Facilitate the delivery of integrated services including education, healthcare, MHPSS, and vocational training.
• Create access for participation and engagement of children and youth in different platforms including children parliament, children counsel, youth forum, extracurricular and other talent development activities.
• Support the organizational changes and de-institutionalization at his/her respective programme location.

Family Reintegration and Aftercare Support

• Facilitate the safe reintegration of children and young people into their biological families or extended kin, the community, where appropriate.
• Provide Support to Holistic child and youth development officer in follow-up and aftercare support to ensure sustainable reintegration or alternative care arrangements.

Budget and Resource Management

• Participate in the preparation of annual work plans and budgets for child and youth development activities and education.

Education Support:

• Lead the initial assessment of families of potential child participants,
• Facilitate the preparation of a family’s first family development plan (FDP),
• Implement all project activities according to the objectives and indicators set out in the project document and time frame,
• Prepare progress report with the required quality and time.
• Assess and identify the needs and gaps of the respective target schools,
• Facilitate and/or provide training to volunteers, teachers and school community on project related activities,
• Provide technical support to project implementing partners and schools,
• Work closely with WEO and other government offices and project implementing partner,
• Ensure the delivery of purchased materials to target beneficiaries and its proper usage,
• Follow up of club’s activities accomplishment according to the project objective,
• Facilitate and participate in data collection related to different assessments, baseline and end line survey for the project,
• Using appropriate M&E framework and tools, periodically monitor the status and progress of achievement of the project’s activities in target schools,
• Follow up of cascading of different training at schools and community level,
• Produce case stories and share to the line supervisor every quarter,
• Build complementarity of SOS CVE partner actions, build consensus of locally appropriate, interventions between agencies: avoiding duplication and gaps,
• Contribute to Program database that consolidate and analyse information that is critical to decision making.

Your role? (CHILD, YOUNG PEOPLE, ADULT AND ASSET)

• Always Uphold and enforce the SOS Children's Villages Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy, Regulation and the Code of Conduct.
• Report promptly to safeguarding concerns, ensuring proper documentation and referral in line with established procedures.
• Ensuring a safe and conducive working environment is created for caregivers and all programme participants where they feel free to speak and raise concerns without fear of retaliation
• Contribute to the creation of operational environment where Safeguarding policies and Regulations: - Child and Youth Safeguarding, Code of Conduct, Sexual Misconduct Regulation, and Anti-Corruption Regulation are effectively implemented.
• Fulfill the minimum standard and additional responsibilities in achieving compliance with SOS Children’s Villages Safeguarding Policies and Regulations
• Ensuring the best interest of the children and young people is applied and considered in projects, decision making or any other work that is performed.
• Uphold SOS Children’s Villages Values and the Code of Conduct when interacting with partners, children, young people, families and other stakeholders within or outside the organization.
• Ensure that all equipment or materials provided by the organization are properly managed in a transparent and appropriate manner with the established procedure.
• Ensure that contracts and partnership agreements or Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) have articles referring to safeguarding policies and regulations (Child and Youth Safeguarding Regulation, Sexual Misconduct Regulation, Anti-Corruption and other related policies and regulations) and the Code of Conduct with partners, contractors, vendors/suppliers, consultants or any other stakeholders working with SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia.
• Ensure partners or co-workers working on behalf of the SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia have been vetted for any safeguarding risks prior to signing any contracts.

Job Requirements

Must Criteria

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in educational planning, social work, Psychology, Child Development, or related field (master's degree is an asset).
• Experience: Minimum of three years of relevant experience in holistic development, alternative care, education, child protection, family and community-based care, or youth development.
• Strong understanding of national and international child rights frameworks and safeguarding principles.
• Demonstrated experience in case management, assessment, and family reintegration.
• Experience in working with the target group, i.e. vulnerable children, families and community
• Computer literacy in MS Office applications including MS projects and use of cloud-based applications
• Experience in Training need Assessment, Planning and Facilitation
• Demonstrated understanding of the Ethiopian education policy
• Proven experience in facilitation and community mobilization skills
• Technical and report writing skills
• Fluency in written and spoken English and local language of the work area.

Competencies – Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Understanding the organization and commitment to its vision and mission: able to clearly communicate SOS Children’s Villages Who We Are (Vision, Mission & Values), “Living our Values” policies and strategies in all areas.
• Child and Young people rights: Working knowledge in all areas of child rights, child protection, child development, family & community development and rights-based programming in a developing country.
• Case Management Proficiency in identifying needs, planning interventions, monitoring progress, and closing cases responsibly.
• Capacity Building: Ability to mentor, coach, and provide technical support to frontline care givers, children and youth co-workers.
• Leadership: Role modeling and ability to build effective teams, motivate high performance, and generate commitment to organizational goals.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Building and maintaining partnerships with service providers, government agencies, and community groups.
• Communication: Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with diverse stakeholders including caregivers, community members, and service providers.
• Confidentiality: Competence in maintaining confidential records and documentation.
• Interpersonal Relationships: Knowledge of and the ability to effectively interact within and across Divisions, Departments/Regional Offices in a constructive and collaborative manner.
• Collaboration: driven to work with others, able to build partnerships and teamwork internally and externally.
• People development: driven to improve others; proven track record in coaching & mentoring staff, giving feedback, and identifying development opportunities for co-workers.
• Integrity: able to state views openly and act in line with beliefs, maintain the organization’s values, maintain deadlines and commitments; have ethical standards, ability to gain the trust of co-workers, and desire to be of service.
• Software: Experience in report writing, data management, and using databases (e.g., PDB2 or similar).

Skills Required:

• Education / Teaching / Training
• Health / Medical
• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development