Job Description

The Women’s Legal & Community Center is a space run by Yaşamak Sosyal Alan ve Dayanışma Derneği. It aims at supporting marginalized individuals and communities (particularly refugee and migrant women) to start a new life in Izmir and to foster solidarity among the Turkish society and migrant communities.

The center offers coordinated legal, psychological, and social support with the aim to tackle barriers to social and economic mobility and to facilitate daily life.

Additional to the above-mentioned services, the following programs aim at fostering integration and the clients’/participants’ autonomy: various workshops and activities including social activities, practical workshops and gender equality sessions, assistance for finding jobs and development and implementation of self-organization concepts.

Above all that, the center is available to participants as a free, open, and participatory space, as well as a place of meeting, exchange, mutual learning, and common activities where everyone has a feeling of belonging, security, and trust. In this frame, language-speaking groups take place. The community space serves to implement projects jointly developed in the pilot phase (09.2020 - 12.2020).

The center includes a separate area for child-care to enable women with children to participate in the center’s program.

The social worker’s role is to assist clients in developing and realizing strategies to build up perspectives of positive, independent, and stabilized lives, increasing the scope of participation / action in their environment / society.

Tasks of the social worker are among other: conducting interviews with individuals and families to assess and review their situation; working in close cooperation with the psychologist and/or the lawyer of the center and undertaking and writing up assessments and reports (in collaboration with the other areas of the center); offering information and support; organizing and managing holistic support strategies, presenting and recommending certain courses of action for an individual / a family; supporting clients in coping with everyday tasks by referring and/or accompanying to institutions and other service providers in the fields of health, education, social assistance and work; assisting with bureaucratic tasks; developing, organizing (and carrying out) trainings and activities aiming at overcoming barriers and gaps identified; maintaining accurate records.

In times where the psychologist is absent from the center, the social-protection manager will replace the psychologist and be the competent authority to ensure the implementation and enforcement of the centers’ protection plan and thereby also be the first contact person for any social concerns within the center and its community.

Additionally, the social worker will be present in the center as contact-person for any further social issues that might arise.

The center’s psychologist, social worker, lawyer and translators work together in close coordination, aiming at finding individual solutions for the challenges, clients face.

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Receive clients in the office and/or visit if required
• Conduct interviews with individuals and families to assess and review their situation and to follow up
• Conduct field visits on-site with clients and communities for the identification of protection-related needs and vulnerabilities at the household and community level
• Stay informed about upcoming opportunities relevant for social work and new laws
• Conduct service map activities to identify the available services and assist for the purpose of programming by providing support in organizing and conducting service map activities with local authorities
• Connect with other stakeholders and conduct regular visits and meetings with community representatives, local authorities, households, and project participants
• In close collaboration with the psychologist and the lawyer, evaluates, guides and accompanies clients and undertakes and writes up assessments with individuals / families
• Organize and manage holistic support strategies, present and recommend certain courses of action for individuals / families
• Record, prepare and develop periodical response activity and monitor plans for clients
• Develop, organize (and carry out) trainings and activities aiming at overcoming barriers identified (following the projects’ aim)
• Assist clients in dealing with everyday issues in the fields of health, education, social assistance, and work (which includes referring and accompanying clients to institutions/service providers and dealing with bureaucratic tasks)
• Prepare and carry out information-sessions on relevant topics
• Ensure proper completion and filing of all documentation (soft and hard copy, as required)
• (Vicarious for psychologist) Oversee implementation of protection guidelines
• Be the contact person in the center and help establishing good, respectful communication with everyone in the center, particularly with participants
• Work in a team alongside the lawyer, the psychologist and the translators
• Attend regular (coordination) meetings

Qualifications Required:

• Degree in Social Work / Social Service / another related field
• Basic knowledge in social and labor law (for international protection seekers)
• Profound knowledge on social services and relevant facilities in Izmir
• Profound knowledge on carrying out assessments on social issues
• Strategic, long-term approach to tackle barriers in individuals’ lives
• Well-established connections to various institutions and organizations
• Experience working with women and with vulnerable groups; preferably experienced with issues on life in exile
• Fluent in Turkish (speaking); preferably Arabic and/or English as additional language
• Excellent communication skills

Please send a CV and motivation-letter to yasamak@protonmail.com