Consultant Trainer: Community-Led Protection, Risk Identification, and Case Screening

Sustainable Peace Foundation (SPF) is an Iraqi feminist Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) striving to build and sustain peace through vertical and horizontal approaches and participatory methods; addressing root causes of tensions and conflicts challenging positive peace in Iraq. SPF strives to achieve this by working on the grassroots level to reinstate and strengthen the lost trust between Iraq’s diverse ethno-religious communities; increase community resilience, empower and building the capacities of the very effected communities so they can mitigate and transform conflicts through dialogue and non-violent means.

SPF strives to achieve these objectives by working with vulnerable groups such as, youth, women and girls, people with special needs and IDPs through developing their capacities to take leadership roles and to actively participate in the peace and reconciliation processes; economically empower communities by offering them vocational trainings and providing them with livelihood means to ensure stability and a dignified living standard.

SPF also strives to engage local authority and security actors with the local communities through advocacy, round table dialogue sessions and developing local peace mechanisms and structures capable to acts as soundboards conveying their communities’ needs and challenges. Another pillar of SPF’s efforts is to support and capacitate Iraq’s civil society for example, SPF provide the technical coordination and the secretariat of Nineveh Peace Forum, which it is a founder.  

SPF also provides consultations for local and international NGOs on peacebuilding and social cohesion programming, such as: context analysis, needs assessments, actor and service mapping etc.

SPF’s focuses on minority protection, but through its Do-no-Harm approach, which ensures that SPF programming and implementation creates cohesion instead of doing harm.

Project Aims

The project aims to strengthen community-led protection systems within trauma-affected Christian communities in Hamdaniyya / Qaraqosh, Nineveh Governorate, by establishing safe, locally rooted, and sustainable protection mechanisms. It seeks to equip community actors to identify, prevent, and respond to protection risks through survivor-centred referral pathways, basic psychosocial support, and strengthened community trust in help-seeking and protection services.   

 More specifically, the project aims to:

• operationalise a sustainable community-led protection mechanism in Baghdeda (also known as Hamdaniyya);
• strengthen the capacity of selected community members to act as Community Protection Focal Points;
• improve early identification of protection concerns and safe disclosure mechanisms;
• support safe and ethical referral of at-risk individuals to relevant specialised services; and
• contribute to improved safety, wellbeing, resilience, and social cohesion among trauma-affected Christian populations.

Project Assignment

SPF seeks to engage a qualified trainer to design and deliver a 3-day specialised training for selected community members, including women leaders, youth mentors, and faith-linked actors, who will serve as Community Protection Focal Points. The training will focus on Community-Led Protection principles, protection risk identification, basic case screening, confidentiality, safeguarding, do-no-harm, and safe referral procedures. 

The assignment includes preparation of a context-appropriate training package and tools, delivery of the 3-day training, and provision of practical guidance that enables participants to later receive, screen, manage, and refer cases under SPF’s technical backstopping and expert supervision. The trainer is also expected to ensure that the training is participatory, practical, culturally sensitive, and aligned with community-based protection approaches relevant to Baghdeda’s (also known as Hamdaniyya) context.  

Terms of Refrence

The trainer will be responsible for planning, preparing, and facilitating a structured 3-day capacity-building programme for prospective Community Protection Focal Points. The ToR covers the development of training content, methodologies, handouts, exercises, and practical tools tailored to the project’s community-led protection model.

The trainer shall:

• design a training agenda and full training package in line with the activity objectives;
• deliver a 3-day in-person training using participatory adult-learning methods;
• cover the thematic areas specified in the project activity;
• integrate practical exercises on case screening, ethical communication, confidentiality, and referral decision-making;
• ensure the training reflects survivor-centred, trauma-informed, faith-sensitive, and community-based principles;
• administer pre- and post-training assessments as requested by SPF;
• submit a short completion report summarising delivery, participant engagement, achievements, and recommendations.

The training content should support the wider project model in which community focal points contribute to identifying concerns, managing and referring cases, engaging in supervised sessions with survivors, and contributing to awareness materials and outreach. 

Key Responsibilities

• Review the project documents and understand the protection context, objectives, and expected role of Community Protection Focal Points.
• Develop a detailed 3-day training agenda and session plans.
• Prepare high-quality training materials, presentations, participant handouts, exercises, and simple practical tools.
• Deliver training on:
  • Community-Led Protection principles;
  • protection risk identification;
  • basic case screening;
  • survivor-centred and trauma-informed approaches;
  • confidentiality, safeguarding, and do-no-harm principles;
  • safe and ethical referral activation procedures.
• Facilitate interactive learning through case studies, role plays, scenarios, and group work.
• Ensure participants understand the limits of their role and the importance of safe referral, confidentiality, and non-maleficence.
• Coordinate closely with SPF’s programme and technical team before, during, and after the training.
• Adapt the training language and facilitation style to the local context and participant profiles.
• Provide a final training report with recommendations for follow-up coaching and capacity strengthening.

Deliverables

1. Inception / briefing meeting with SPF team.
2. Detailed 3-day training agenda and methodology.
3. Complete training package, including:
   • facilitator guide;
   • PowerPoint presentations;
   • participant handouts;
   • practical exercises / case studies / role plays;
   • pre- and post-test tools, as required.
4. Delivery of 3 full training days for selected community participants.
5. Attendance sheet and training documentation support.
6. Final training report summarising:
   • sessions delivered;
   • participant profile and attendance;
   • key learning outcomes;
   • challenges encountered;
   • recommendations for on-the-job coaching and future support.

Required Qualifications

• University degree in psychology, social work, counselling, protection, human rights, sociology, law, public health, or another relevant field.
• Proven experience delivering training on protection, community-based protection, safeguarding, GBV / VAWG risk-sensitive approaches, case screening, referral, or closely related themes.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Community-Led Protection principles and survivor-centred, trauma-informed practice.
• Strong understanding of confidentiality, do-no-harm, ethical engagement, and referral pathways.
• Experience working with vulnerable and trauma-affected communities in Iraq, preferably in Nineveh or similar post-conflict settings.
• Proven ability to design practical and user-friendly training materials for mixed groups of community actors.
• Fluency in Arabic required; Assyrian (also known as Syriac and Chaldean) and/or strong familiarity with Christian community contexts in Baghdeda (also known as Hamdaniyya/Qaraqosh) would be an asset.

These qualifications are consistent with the project’s intention to build the capacities of community actors who will identify concerns, conduct basic screening, support referrals, and operate within a structured and sensitive community-based protection model.  

Preferred Skills

• Strong facilitation and adult-learning skills.
• Ability to translate technical protection concepts into practical and accessible language.
• Experience working with women leaders, youth mentors, and faith-linked actors.
• Ability to design scenario-based and applied training exercises.
• Strong interpersonal skills and sensitivity when working in conservative or trauma-affected settings.
• Excellent reporting and documentation skills.
• Familiarity with faith-sensitive and culturally grounded protection approaches.
• Ability to work collaboratively with programme, protection, and MEAL teams.
• Previous experience supporting community focal points, women protection committees, or similar grassroots protection structures.

A useful additional note for the vacancy ad would be that the trainer should be able to work within a model that strengthens locally rooted protection knowledge, referral systems, and response capacities so they remain sustainable beyond the training itself.  

Interested candidates should submit their CV and a cover letter outlining their relevant experience and motivation for the role to hr@sustainablepeacefoundation.org. Please include "Trainer Protection – Baghdeda" in the subject line of your email. Please note applications without cover letters will not be considered and female candidates are highly encouraged to apply. Furthermore, please note this position is subject to signing the contract with the donor.

For more information about the Sustainable Peace Foundation visit our website at www.sustainablepeacefoundation.org.