Yemen: Guidance on community centers (July 2018)

“In situations of forced displacement, the ties which hold a community together are often severely weakened or broken. Open and regular interaction between individuals and groups, their shared values and interests, and their means of minimizing disparities and avoiding marginalization, may need to be supported to regenerate during displacement… Community centers are safe and public places where women, men, boys and girls of diverse backgrounds can meet for social events, recreation, education and livelihood programmes, information exchange, and other purposes. They are established with the main objective of empowering [displaced, conflict-affected] and host communities and providing them with a forum to promote their participation in decisions that affect their lives.”

Community centers form a critical part of the Protection Cluster Strategy for Yemen, to ensure that communities remain at the center of service provision and community-based activities, including for IDPs, conflict-affected and host communities, children, youth and women.

Community Center: Basic Components of a “One Stop Shop”

In principle, community centers can include all safe and public places where protection response activities occur for the benefit of conflict-affected and host populations. Community centers ideally should be a “One Stop Shop” and provide access to a wide variety of services and programmes that cater to people of different ages, genders and diversity profiles in the same location. This is particularly convenient for displaced and conflict-affected persons, whose mobility may be hampered by distance, transportation costs or security concerns. As part of the first and second line responses of the Protection Cluster Strategy in Yemen, these services should include, as a minimum:

Rapid protection assessments

The community center should have a focal point or team which ensures:

• the ongoing identification of persons with specific needs (e.g. women and children at risk, survivors or at-risk of gender-based violence, older persons, persons living with disabilities, etc.) in the community,
• conducts or continually updates information and mapping of available services in order to conduct safe referrals; and
• works, together with the community, to identify community-level protection risks.

Protection cash assistance

The community center should have in place a programme of protection cash assistance, with, as a minimum, assistance for recent victims of protection incidents or those facing urgent protection risks.

Case Management

The community center should have qualified case management staff or social workers (equipped with updated service mappings and referral pathways) able to provide individualized follow-up and safe referrals for, as a minimum:

• Child protection (including family tracing and unification, alternative care for unaccompanied minors and child victim assistance),
• Survivors or at-risk of gender-based violence
• Other persons with specific needs (e.g. older persons, persons with disabilities)
• Persons lacking civil status documentation (and potentially other legal matters)

Community and family resiliency support

The community center should have a focal point, staff and necessary space (in conjunction with activities in the community) to conduct activities for men, women and children through age and gender appropriate activities that address immediate effects of conflict and build resiliency.

Community-based protection networks

The community center should have a focal point managing community-based protection networks, or groups representing age, gender and diversity groups of displaced and conflict-affected communities to enhance their selfprotection.

Mine risk education

Through communities and on agreed modalities, the community center should support raising the awareness of communities on the risks of mines and UXOs.

Women’s kits

Through agreed distribution modalities, the community center will be a location to assist in the distribution of women’s kits to help families with basic respect and dignity.

Other community mobilization and outreach

Depending on, and guided by the community, other community mobilization and outreach activities may include:

• Awareness raising and information sharing
• Mobile outreach activities
• Social cohesion
• Skills development
• Recreation
• Feedback and complaints mechanism (mandatory)