Meeting the Winterization Needs of Vulnerable Households in Northern Jordan Building on three ongoing, successful programs currently being implemented in Jordan and on lessons learnt from its extensive winterization experience, ICMC proposes a 4-month project to meet the immediate winterization needs of Syrian refugees and extremely vulnerable host community households in Mafraq and Irbid. Specifically, ICMC will identify extremely vulnerable families who are living outside of camps in urban areas that are unable to meet their basic household needs, including managing the upcoming harsh winter weather conditions. 650 vulnerable households will receive unconditional cash assistance. ICMC assistance will fully comply with the winterization standards, as defined by the Interagency Winterization Taskforce for 2016-2017 in Jordan, as well as the UNHCR cash assistance SOPs. Monetized assistance will be based on an inkind package equivalent, as per the costs estimated by the Winterization Task force, and on a two-tier system (tier 1: Households not previously served with winter assistance and tier 2: Families who received winterization assistance the previous year but are still in need). ICMC's use of unconditional cash assistance is based on beneficiary feedback collected during its 2015-2016 winter intervention and to enable beneficiaries to spend the money on what they perceive as their most urgent needs this winter. Through community outreach, ICMC will interview and assess 750 households, use its continuously updated outreach database, and draw on its established relationships with community based organizations (CBOs) operating in Mafraq and Irbid, as well as by coordinating with the Ministry of Social Development, in order to identify potential beneficiaries based on established eligibility criteria. Within the framework of the Regional Refugee amp Resilience Plan 2016-2017 (3RP), and specifically the Jordan Response Plan (JRP), this project seeks to complement ongoing efforts to meet the basic needs of vulnerable families. Through its community outreach modality for identifying beneficiaries, ICMC is able to accommodate and meet the varying needs of women, girls, men, and boys, and other groups with special needs. By visiting individuals in their homes, ICMC is able to reach households with limited mobility or with special concerns who may have been otherwise unable to approach an organization to request assistance. Community outreach and home visits are conducted by teams of one man and one woman, allowing both men and women to feel comfortable with their interviewer. All potential beneficiaries for winterization must undergo a special assessment and must meet ICMC’s vulnerability criteria, which are modeled after the Vulnerability Assessment Framework (VAF), which prioritize particular vulnerable beneficiaries including but not limited to the elderly, persons with disabilities, serious medical conditions or chronic illnesses, male or females headed households with high debt levels. The VAF is gender sensitive and includes protection mainstreaming measures particularly targeting vulnerable women such as female headed households, single females with no social/family support or income, or pregnant or lactating women with no social/family support or income, or families with children not attending school or being forced to work.650 households will be selected to receive cash assistance through the use of a contracted money lender, so the families can buy the items they require. This will allow ICMC to target very vulnerable households while still providing beneficiaries with a greater sense of agency. The families that are found not to meet the specific criteria for this project may be referred to ICMC’s other winterization projects or other services, or to another organization. Through this and other complementary projects ICMC will help to alleviate the immediate critical winterization needs of men, women, boys and girls in Irbid and Mafraq, contributing to the overall Jordan Response Plan.