The Social Rehabilitation sector covers a wide range of programme activities and approaches. One could say that social rehabilitation is both a strategic issue as well as a range of activities aimed at re-establishing and strengthening community structures.

The shock of having to leave home and the circumstances of life as a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP), particularly in the early stage of an emergency, create major emotional and social problems and exacerbate problems in the community. Without help in adjusting to the new environment, the sense of loss and isolation can deepen, even in circumstances of relative material well being.

Objectives
The objectives of social rehabilitation activities are:

• The creation of a bearable daily day and a greater sense of security.
  
  
• Reduction of stress in the time of displacement/the immediate emergency phase following the displacement.
  
  
• Fostering a sense of community among the target group, which is important for the longer term development of a well-functioning civil society.
  
  
• Revitalizing and rehabilitating damaged social structures, institutions and capacities or even establishing new social structures, which are important to strengthen prior to and during the actual integration/reintegration process.
  
  
• Instrumental in ensuring peaceful integration between e.g. returnees and remainees or different ethnic groups, who are to live together in the same community/geographical area.

Principles

Community-Based Participatory Approach
An important principle for social rehabilitation activities is to involve the target group in the provision of assistance by identifying and mobilizing the existing resources in a community and allow the community to share the responsibility of caring for itself and its vulnerable members. Thereby social rehabilitation activities aim at enhancing and strengthening existing and positive coping mechanisms in the community thus minimizing the dependency and encouraging self-reliance.

Social rehabilitation activities are best implemented applying a community-based participatory approach. This implies ensuring community participation, both in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Assessment
Before implementing any activities, it is important to carry out a careful initial assessment to determine the most pressing social problems in the community. The assessment should cover the whole community with particular attention to identifying groups with special needs and to identify gaps in the general assistance programme. The assessment should serve to identify the vulnerabilities and needs of the target group as well as the capacities and local resources. It is essential that such assessment be undertaken with the active involvement and participation of the target group.

Build Upon Existing Social Structures
An important principle in social rehabilitation activities is also to support, revive and strengthen existing social structures and capacities of the target community. This implies among other things that one should avoid establishing parallel structures and organizations, when such structures already exist and what is needed is strengthening or revival of these.

This being said, it is, however, also important to consider possible inherent inequity or even conflict inflicting elements in the existing social and organizational structures of a target community.