Youth committees guidelines
Danish Refugee Council
Highlights
As part of its protection strategy for the 2014 response to the Syrian refugee crisis Danish Refugee Council implemented activities based on a community-based approach. This approach aimed at providing communities with an enhanced coping capacity to the crisis. The new approach included establishing and working with more committees, support groups and in general being able to better link DRC activities into communities.
Two youth committees were established and linked to community centers or safe spaces in each office. In order to boost the community based approach, DRC intended to set up 2 youth committees in order to assist adolescents (girls and boys) in rebuilding their future, using their creativity and at the same time organizing group discussions covering protection aspects such as risk of early marriage, child labor, child trafficking, exploitation, abuse, violence. The purpose was to capacitate those youth in building their resilience and at the same time informing them about protection concerns, facilitating their participation in their own protection and protection of other children and adolescents, and eventually identifying protection cases. The committees were composed of boys and girls, 70 % Syrians and 30 % Lebanese. Activities were chosen by each committee, which developed its own plan under the supervision of the Child Protection Officer and child protection staff assigned to follow up on this activity.
