Protection Cluster Yemen: Guidance on Community Centers

“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.