Ground volunteer (F) to support women and children in exile

About the Refugee Women’s Centre

The Refugee Women's Centre (RWC) is a feminist and all-female organisation working to provide close support to displaced women and family units in northern France. The organisation welcomes all female identifying persons over the age of 21 to apply to join our team. We are a team of 10-14 long-term volunteers and two full-time employees: Calais Coordinator, and Grande-Synthe Coordinator.

Our support consists primarily of:

• Material distributions on an individual basis (clothes, bedding, and hygiene products).
• Providing information about, and access to, shelter (both state and private accommodation).
• Activities for women with the aim of creating safe spaces and with a focus on psychosocial support (such as arts and crafts, sports, pampering and language classes).
• Closely monitoring the needs and concerns of the women and families, and responding to their individual needs.
• Advocacy for the rights of displaced women and families in northern France.

Each member of the volunteer team is under the coordination of the 3 paid members of staff on the ground. The minimum stay for this position is 2 months.

Role Description

Maintaining a consistent presence on the ground, keeping an overview of the situation in the informal living sites and being a point of reference and support for the team operating there. As a point of contact for network partners, this role maintains open inter-associative communication channels with other actors. This role is also charged with making decisions in consultation with the team around daily ground operations; including logistics of distribution locations, team safety and activities.

Responsibilities

Coordinating ground logistics on a daily basis alongside the rest of the team:

• Planning ground operations and being a point of reference and support for the team by being present on the ground during our material distributions, activities and maraudes.
• Together with the team, carry out continuous monitoring of the context, the needs of women and our approach.
• Identify changes on the ground (e.g. evictions, new living sites, demographic changes etc.) and create action plans for our operations in accordance (e.g. determining a new distribution point).
• Establish a link of trust with the women we support to better understand their needs and improve the quality of our services. This includes regularly asking women about their opinion around our services and effectuating changes if needed.
• Be a reference point on the ground for other associations in order to facilitate referrals.
• Work in line with our Code of Conduct and Security Protocol to assess risks related to our team and the protection of the community we work with.

Casework:

• With the support of the Coordinators, identify vulnerabilities and needs of support in terms of legal, medical, social and administrative procedures for women and families.
• Coordinate the follow-up of cases as applicable with the support of the Coordinators.

Advocacy - data collection

• Compile family figures
• Fill out the work document with updates about the ground for reporting purposes and to keep an active memory of our work.

Required skills

• Be at least 21 years old.
• Valid manual driver’s license (stick/shift vehicules) and driving experience.
• Working knowledge of English.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and adapt projects quickly.
• Ability to mentally and physically sustain yourself in an intense setting with long days.
• Be good at problem solving and finding solutions on the spot.
• Being able to work in a team with care and motivation.
• Being confident in interacting professionally with other associations.
• Have an interest in and awareness of issues facing refugees and migrants in Europe.

Preferred skills

• Experience in working sustainably with vulnerable people, including vulnerability/safeguarding identification and building empathetic and professional relationships.
• Working knowledge of English and French

Working and living conditions

This is a full time and immersive role, as you will be working in a team of 10-14 people, with whom you will be sharing a living space as well (including bedrooms). Our working languages are English and French.

Accommodation is provided by the organisation, and lunch meals are covered. We ask for you to contribute with an amount of at least 100€, preferred amount 125€ per month (40% coverage of monthly cost of housing per person - 250€).

Some costs (basic food items, cleaning and hygiene products) are covered, and there is a monthly “well being budget” to spend on get togethers and special occasions.

Volunteers are in close contact with the salaried Coordinators, who coordinate and support the team. Welfare support includes mandatory time off (two days a week, holidays at least every two months if staying longer), individual and group check-ins and access to psycho-social professional support.

Recruitment procedure

Here's the link in case you want to move forward with joining us: https://forms.gle/a2Zfn8LnaP9T1Jux8

Please fill in the Application Form and we can schedule a meeting to know each other better, share with you all about the project and answer any questions you may have :)