Golda

I was visiting a school recently in the south of Israel, where we're running a "Better Together" program.

Better Together is one of my favorite programs. It improves services for children and youth in disadvantaged communities. Places like development towns in Israel's periphery. And it works in poor inner-city neighborhoods to create partnerships. Improving the connections, the services, creating programs. Especially the programs that help kids at risk and their families.

There were wise words from various sources.

But I particularly liked this comment, written on the blackboard of the library. It's from Golda Meir, Israel's fourth Prime Minister ...

“It isn't really important to decide when you are very young just exactly what you want to become when you grow up. It's much more important to decide on the way you want to live. If you are going to be honest with yourself and honest with your friends, if you are going to get involved in causes ('struggles') which are good for others, not only for yourselves, then it seems to me that that is sufficient, and maybe 'what you will be' is less important.”

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Teens

I love meeting with teen groups. You can spend time with a Jewish federation teen philanthropy group and come out feeling optimistic about the future of Jewish community leadership.

Yesterday I presented some programs to the “Jteam” teen philanthropy initiative at the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County in NJ. 

Programs like “Better Together” in Ashkelon, working to empower the weakest and most vulnerable populations. At-risk children, weaker immigrants, difficult socioeconomic backgrounds. Programs like the Elderly Food Program for Jews in the former Soviet Union, saving tens of thousands of lives every day.

But … here’s the catch. Would we continue these programs without the teens’ funding? Absolutely. So why are we asking?

For two reasons.

First … because every dollar makes an impact. A one thousand dollar donation, on average, can save one elderly Jew in the former Soviet Union. Enough extra food, medicine and homecare to give life for a year. So the lesson that saving one life is like saving the entire world really has meaning.

But second – and just as important – because conversations with teen philanthropy groups aren't just about the vulnerable, the poor, the weak at all. They’re about us.

They’re about the future of our Jewish communities, how we think about philanthropy and continuity.

They’re about the kind of leadership we want to see in twenty years time … and how we prepare them today.

Better Together - Kiryat Gat

A Farash Foundation site visit to see their incredible support for the Better Together program ....

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Better Together - Be'ersheva

A Farash Foundation site-visit to the Gvahim School in Be'ersheva, supported by their  Better Together Program ....

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Better Together

I love "Better Together" .... I think it's one of the most innovative and impactful programs in Israel today.

It improves the lives of at-risk youth, and builds up the capabilites of communities and professionals around them. When you go see this program, you see the incredible changes that we can make in a neighborhood using partnerships between residents and service-providers.

We have some amazing partners who have helped make Better Together a success in over 30 locations around Israel. Because of their commitment, and our shared values, there are tens of thousands of Israelis whose lives are made better every day.

Walking on the grass (when it wasn't there)

The thing she remembers most, Rachel says, is walking on the ‘grass’ in the center of the neighborhood, and her feet sinking into the sewer and open sewage. This shouldn’t be happening in modern Israel.

We’re walking in the Herzl neighborhood of Kiryat Malachi, perhaps one of the most difficult neighborhoods in the South of Israel, certainly it has the most challenging socioeconomics in the region. The neighborhood has a total of 21 large apartment buildings, with almost 3,000 households.

I’m walking with a colleague of mine, Rachel, who is the Better Together coordinator. Better Together is a platform, on which we can build stronger communities for youth at risk, especially Ethiopian-Israelis. And Kiryat Malachi was the pilot, some eight years ago, when Rachel came and did her first walking tour of the neighborhood.

Rachel went with spirit and determination from house to house and persuaded residents to join residential housing committees (ועדי בית), she brought them to meetings, introduced them to each other … because in a neighborhood filled with crime, despair and neglect, no one was talking to each other, there was hostility, vandalism, drugs and more. Kids were hanging out at night with nothing to do, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, in holes in the neighborhood [at first we thought she meant holes metaphorically, but then she explained – real holes, dug into buildings] smoking.

We’re walking in this lovely neighborhood now … where local activists, set up and empowered through Better Together, have beautified the gardens, worked together to lobby the municipality for services, and run programs and services that bring together immigrants, the poor, the different sectors of the community. Lots of enrichment programs, community building services, early-childhood projects.

From the apartment buildings, people used to throw their trash out from the windows. The main road sides of the building had trash reaching the second floor.

We brought all the departments together to one table, Rachel says. All the activists, everyone. In the past no one worked together. Now we sit together and listen to the needs of the community. The mayor is very interested and involved. It’s never happened before. They were surprised at first that the municipality got so involved – at first they said, why, there aren’t elections due right now. It’s established credibility for the municipality among the residents. Greater change; greater involvement.

Last week Rachel pulled ten building-residents together for cleaning and beautification of the neighborhood..

Rachel organized a clean-up campaign. Everyone helped, cleaned, painted, did gardening, planted seeds. They used to throw their trash out of the window into the road. Now there's neighborhood pride, organization, advocacy with the municipality.

There's a nice open grassy area between the buildings now, (in the photo at right). People picnic there.

Before Better Together started, it was a mound of trash. It took three massive dump trucks to clear out all the trash.

Farash Foundation JDC Strategic Partnership Mission to Israel April-May 2013

Etrog-sprays at the Machane Yehuda culinary tour

 Visit to Israel Air Force Base to see the JDC "Blue Dawn" program for Haredi (Orthodox) enlistment
Below: Independence Hall, Tel Aviv

Above: Arab Druze hospitality in Usifiyah
Left: overlooking Jerusalem
Below: explaining Jerusalem's history

 Above: at the Supreme Court, Jerusalem
Left: embarking on a culinary tour of Machane Yehuda
Below left: cheese tasting

Above and left and below: Better Together kindergarten, Kiryat Gat

 Left: preparing a dedication sign for Better Together Kiryat Gat
Below: with the mayor of Kiryat Gat, Aviram Dahari, ribbon cutting

 Above: Kiryat Gat Mayor Dahari fixes the mezuza to the new Better Together Center
Right: networks and webs of connections in Better Together BeerSheva

Above: JDC-Ashalim Nutrition program for Ethiopian-Israeli mothers in Beersheva, Yud-Aleph neighborhood
Right: Israel Air Force/JDC "Blue Dawn" program

We’re Better Together

Our main day of site visits was spent in Kiryat Gat and BeerSheva, visiting the two “Better Together” programs supported with the generosity of the Farash Foundation. 

Better Together isn’t really a ‘program.’ It’s more of a platform, bringing together all the different elements in a community – the municipality, the teachers, parents, activists and all those who care about strengthening the community. And in these neighborhoods (Nevi’im in Kiryat Gat, Yud-Aleph in BeerSheva) there's a huge need. Parents are scared to let their kids out at night, there aren’t any cultural or enrichment programs for youth.  

In Yud-Aleph there are over 50% immigrants in the neighborhood. That translates to weak civil society, and a lack of municipal services because there aren’t enough activists to lobby for those services.

But we kept coming back to an amazing sense of pride, a sense of change, in both these neighborhoods. In just the last year or two, since Better Together began, we’ve seen real change in the perceptions and orientations of the community.

People are starting to believe in change. They’re starting to understand that the Joint will help, but it’s up to them to lead. And this leadership is growing.

Better Together Afula

Better Together improves services for children and youth in disadvantaged communities such as development towns on Israel's periphery and poor inner city neighborhoods, by maximizing local resources and forging partnerships between residents and service providers.  It improves existing services and creates new programs, accompanying children from birth to 18, morning till night, school to home. The program focuses include early childhood development and academic assistance and enrichment activities, while engaging parents, teachers and community leaders in strengthening communities.

Location: Gvanim School, corner of Negba St. and Wolfson St., Afula

Wolfson neighborhood is the closest to Jenin, but there's no neighborhood identity, they don’t even use the name – most aren’t aware of the fact that it’s called that; they're planning a competition to rename and own the name.

14,000 households with children

1/3 olim from Ethiopia

1/3 FSU olim

1/3 veteran Israelis

PACT was here, very successful, now in phaseout – i.e. we have a strong infrastructure

BT is based on three concepts:  (1) organizational, cooperation with professionals and residents

                                                   (2) professional training

                                                   (3) answering needs

IRIS is the school principal, came to the school two years ago. This is an elementary school. The South East of Afula is in a serious condition, difficult population, violence, drugs, verbal violence, alcoholism, poor socioeconom ics. Therefore the main aim of the program in the school was to ensure that the kids would be ‘free’ to learn and to empower the teachers.

"I found a school ripped apart, parents and teachers would fight each other – literally. There were petitions left and right against each other, it was awful here. I wa s in shock. Parents would come in to the school in the morning, open a classroom door and scream at a teacher, I was threatened. It was a violent and difficult culture. The BT was an SOS for us, first to improve the teachers’ communications and functioning, working together for the students. Now it’s been two years. I met Yehuda, we thought together what tools do we need here, courses, workshops. We wanted to start with the teachers so they could start modeling the right behavior, with parents, working together. There was a lot of opposition at first,  significant change – some of the courses and extras are on the teachers’ free time, they know how important this is."

"After six months we understood that there has to be a social response as well. The long school day finishes at 2:30pm, so kids go home and then they have all kinds of problems. We have to provide an alternative, but we didn’t have funds. There's no Matnas here, there are no social activities. So the school became a center, including alight dinner – because there are kids here who otherwise wouldn’t eat anything in the evenings. We also got recognition as a healthy eating school."

DARI is the community coordinator. The place is vibrant and full of kids and parents this evening. This used to be a violent and unpleasant place. Now most evenings there are activities. Twice a week run by BT, twice by others.

50% of the families in this neighborhood are classed as ‘non-normativ e’ (charig), without proper functioning family structure.

 

MORAN is the artists’ group coordinator. BT emphasizes the voice of the residents.

Yehuda: we did a survey of 150 families – saw the need for community leaders course.

Moran’s group: 30 artists aged 24-27, based on a Nahal garin, integrating into the community as artists in education, community, arts, neigh borhood projects. But we’re residents here. There wasn’t even a Va’ad Bayit when we came to our building, no one cleaned the front garden and stairs. Everything was dirty and messy. Today it’s much better.

The model is tightly restricted to the Wolfson-Kinamon-Jerusalem streets, with all the population: community events, presentations, kabalat Shabbat, event s, cleaning up. We set up a community shelter with cultural events, open moadon, social games, Hebrew for adults

There are 180 kids in the classes. 300 in the school (from first to sixth grade)

 

We walk around the school and visit the activities:

(1)   “Penguins” – toddlers, 20 kids, run by Meital and Sapir. Sport, singing, dancing, two hours, every 30 minutes something new. Right now having a snack. Then singing.

(2)   “MasterChef” for 1^st to 3^rd graders, right now having soup, which they learned about as part of the activity. Einav is the madricha, English major at Oranim.

(3)   There's a busload of older kids and their parents going to the Festigal in Haifa. Each person pays 5 NIS for the subsidized ticket; we provided snacks and the bus. Local businessman subsidized the ti ckets. I said hello, they were thrilled to chat (but thrilled to leave on time, too)

(4)   Theater group with Adi and Ortal from the artists’ garin. 5 girls, they see Moran all the time in the neighborhood, all grew up here. Naomi: what do we do here: relaxation exercises, drama, presentations, movement. Rivka: we learn so much here, we did a show for the younger kids, but we also get the chance to talk here about other things, about politics, life, culture. There's such a warm feeling for us here, they care about us and what we feel and think. It helps me in school as well. My horizons have opened wider here. Adi and Ortal aren’t just teachers, they’ve done so much in the community, everyone loves them, they’ve put on a show for the community, “Servant of Two Masters” (by Goldoni). Tzviah (in pink) – we’re talking today about our relations with Arabs and the price tag concept, we’re trying to understand what we feel and why  [amazing openness to discussion and grappling with difficult concepts], we’re discussing it through the concept of the stranger and the other, someone different from me, we’re preparing a show about it. [this was really impressive – I was expectin g a political discussion but they're doing this through theater and moral concepts]. Adi explains that the girls are increasingly volunteering, getting involved in the community, helping in other roles.

(5)   Sujud is leading a Zumba class. She's from Yafiya (near Natzrat)

Better Together Ashkelon

Better Together improves services for children and youth in disadvantaged communities such as development towns on Israel's periphery and poor inner city neighborhoods, by maximizing local resources and forging partnerships between residents and service providers.  It improves existing services and creates new programs, ac companying children from birth to 18, morning till night, school to home. The program focuses include early childhood development and academic assistance and enrichment activities, while engaging parents, teachers and community leaders in strengthening communities.

Location: Matnas Shapira, Neve Alonim, Ashkelon

BT is in s even locations in the South today. Sivan is the brand-new (this week) BT Ashkelon coordinator. We do a tour of the neighborhood. Shapira is a large neighborhood in the ‘middle’ from a socioeconomic standpoint. 16,000 residents, including many FSU olim, Eth-Isrs, veteran elderly. The stronger younger families move up to Barnea. Elderly and weak stay in Neve Alonim. The streets are fairly clean (the municipality emphasizes street cleaning) but empty and neglected. This is the southernmost area of Ashkelon, which developed north. Vaknin was born here.

Outside the kindergarten it’s nearly all fathers, recognizably Ethiopian or FSU.

David is Matnas Director, he has a good reputation. January 2010 BT came to Ashkelon, there's been less vandalism, more pride in the neighborhood. You can see more energy here, more activity. The school next to the Matnas also improved its infrastructure. (BT doesn’t invest in physical infrastructure but it’s important to encourage and strengthen the local authority to do so; BT focuses on the programmatic and social ele ments).

In the photos: Room 6 is the early ch ildhood room

The moadon room was redesigned by an architect from Hatzeva. It was officially opened last week, though programs have been running since the summer. It’s very comfortable, well-designed chairs, original art, two brand-new computers, good lighting, clean walls.

CHELI is a social work student doing her training here  (black shirt and pink)

RAVIT is the mother in brown

LOREN is her daughter, here for English classes

BELLE is the educational coordinator

MARGALIT is the youth activities coordinator

SIVAN is the BT coordinator

Margalit: the youth activities coordinator has to pull everything together, cooperate, create new opportunities and an informational structure that allows us to know what's happening with each youth, so that no one falls between the chairs. We have Noar B’Aliyah youth movement garin and we integrate the parents into the activities. It was difficult to bring the parents and children together. There are groups for cinema, communications, meeting professionals, sports instructor group, and more.

There are several older madrichim. Margalit is from Jerusalem, decided to live here with her Garin. They finished the army a year ago and settled right here in the neighborhood. We’re creating a continuum of educational service, focused right now on the 9th grade, and will be expanded.

JENNY is an 11th grader, born in Ukraine. Started volunteering in 9th grade. She says that this week there were 100 youth taking part in activities; we’ve undergone a massive change this last year. I’d rather be here than wandering the street. The 11th grade is responsible for activities like the forum, chanuka party, summer camp. Jenny is also an artist – she drew the main mural on the wall of the early childhood room. Wants to go for officer training in the army, has learned about leadership and personal example from the program here. My volunteering here has helped me in life.

BELLE is in charge of the educational center for math and English. 51 kids come to the center, they have 6 teachers (4 from the commune/garin). Loren is here to study English and math, she's very serious, highly motivated.  Belle notes that the center allows us to identify needs and behavioral difficulties not just in the subjects being taught. Loren’s mother takes part.

Loren’s mother loves it because at school there are 40 kids in the English class. Here there are two. Loren is progressing well, she loves it too. It’s my future success, it strengthens me, my grades are improving. Loren’s mom loves that she comes here now from her own free will, she enjoys being here.

DAVID what we have here is boosting the weakest sectors, narrowing the gaps, empowering, improving people’s self-confidence. There are solutions here that you can't get at the schools and people can feel at home here.

CHELI we have 60 families of kids aged 4-6 taking part in enrichment classes, improving parent-child communication; identifying development problems, referring to the right solutions, developing child skills. There are lots of parents especially here who don’t know how to play with their kids, we need to teach the parents, show them how to be caring, patient, understanding, give guidance, but retaining appropriate parental authority. It changes people’s homes and families for the better.

There's a process, but we see change and progress. We’ve often seen parents come with the expectation that they'd drop off the kids in front of the TV. That’s not going to happen here.

There's a program twice a week for kids under age 2. The mothers’ forum meets around problems, challenges, need to work through concepts, to speak, to discuss. Empower them with skills. How to move from diapers, how to talk to kids, how to play. What's interesting is that they have the ‘formal’ discussion but we see them continuing the discussion outside. There’s an added extra.

David: we’re sending out from here better citizens like Jenny and Victoria. There are quality people here, we can find them and help them. There were those who didn’t speak, we didn’t see or hear them. David tells the story of a 9th grade boy who didn’t speak, wouldn’t look you in the eyes, stammered. Now in 10th grade, takes part here actively, volunteers, smiles, looks you in the eyes, has confidence. It’s because of the learning center and the special attention.

Neve Alonim Neighborhood schematics

Afula City schematics