Family Strengthening and Early Childhood Development Advisor at Catholic Relief

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international non-governmental organization supporting relief and development work in over 99 countries around the world. CRS programs assist persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality and works through local church and non-church partners to implement its programs. CRS has been helping po... Family Strengthening and Early Childhood Development Advisor Job Summary: The staff acts as the subject matter expert, providing technical advice, guidance, and support to provide family strengthening through a protective factors framework, while supporting alternative family-based care and the transition of residential care.

The staff will also use the Nurturing Care Framework to design, layer, and sequence activities that support young children’s health, nutrition, responsive caregiving, early learning, safety and security, and caregiver well-being, while strengthening practical linkages to services that help families provide nurturing care. The staff will also contribute to improving policies, practices, service quality, and sustainable system change through collaboration with government, civil society, faith-based, and community stakeholders.

Roles and Key Responsibilities Provide technical guidance on family-based case management, family strengthening, prevention of child-family separation, reintegration, alternative care, and family-based care pathways. Apply a protective factors model that strengthens parental resilience, social connections, concrete supports in times of need, caregiver knowledge of parenting and child development, children’s social and emotional competence, and nurturing caregiver-child relationships.

Ensure approaches reflect safeguarding principles, disability inclusion, trauma-informed practice, country context, and relevant transitioning residential care guidance. Support strong assessment, case planning, referral, follow-up, documentation, and case closure practices for families at risk of separation, reintegrating families, kinship care families, foster care families, and other alternative care arrangements.

Help teams understand the minimum family strengthening packages and specialized pathways that connect households to practical supports before risks escalate as per SDCS FS SOP. Provide technical guidance on iECD approaches grounded in the Nurturing Care Framework, including health, nutrition, responsive caregiving, early learning, safety and security, and caregiver well-being. Provide expertise on iECD systems, policies, standards, service packages, curricula, implementation guidance, and quality assurance mechanisms, as relevant to the country’s proposed work plan.

Provide expertise on childcare facilities and ECDE centers quality improvement, including safe and stimulating environments, child-centered learning, caregiver capacity, safeguarding, supervision, and continuous quality improvement. And on community-based ECD and caregiver support approaches that strengthen responsive caregiving, early learning, child protection, violence prevention, and family capacity to provide nurturing care.

Provide expertise on early identification and referral for children with developmental delays, disabilities, nutrition concerns, protection risks, caregiver stress, or other vulnerabilities, based on relevant country platforms and referral networks. Coordinate with the global technical counterpart and relevant technical advisors, and liaise with resource partners and consultants as appropriate, to ensure ECD activities draw on specialized expertise in areas such as positive parenting, nutrition, policy development, daycare/childcare quality, MHPSS-informed ECD, or disability inclusion.

Build capacity to apply residential care transition guidance, alternative care standards, reintegration practice, and family-based care pathways in day-to-day implementation. Align family strengthening with child protection, alternative care, ECD, health, nutrition,