Grantee

Pardes for Community Development on South Tel Aviv

BACKGROUND
The Shapira and Qiryat Shalom neighborhoods in south Tel Aviv (near the central bus station) are populated by disempowered groups—Mizrahim and recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union (chiefly from the Caucasus and Bokhara). They suffer from a poor self-image and a deficit of educational, cultural, and community programs, which causes teenagers to drop out of school and young adults to move away.

In 2001, BINA (an NIF grantee in the Pluralism program) launched a project, BINA in the Neighborhood (supported by NIF between 2003 and 2006). The project comprises extensive activities, including programs on the Jewish holidays in the neighborhood schools; Kehila Hogeget, a study group of adults who learn about the holidays and organize activities for the community; after-school tutoring centers; clubs for teens at risk; etc. The project is run by young people associated with BINA who come from outside the neighborhoods as part of a service-year program or Nahal group. Approximately 25 young people who worked in the project in recent years have decided to continue to stay on in the neighborhoods (mainly Shapira) after completing their compulsory military service (about 20 of them are living in a commune).

In 2006 these young adults, along with others who grew up in the neighborhood, established Pardes. Its main goal is to develop community infrastructure in the neighborhoods.

The group's key strategies are empowering teenagers and young adults and running an information center. The organization has applied to NIF for support for the information center.

The organization has a seven-member board (including 4 neighborhood residents who are not associated with BINA—2 of them were born in the neighborhoods), and 25 members (including 10 young adults born in the neighborhood). In addition, the organization's projects are supervised by a steering committee that includes representatives of the neighborhood committees, the Tel Aviv municipality, and the foundations that support the projects.

The organization has 7 paid employees in 3½ positions: 2 administrators (both of them young adults who came to the neighborhood through BINA), 4 project coordinators, and a fundraiser.

ACTIVITIES IN 2006
The organization runs three projects in the neighborhoods:

Student groups: Two groups of students born in the neighborhood, who meet once a week to study and discuss their ties to the neighborhood, involvement, and social change. The idea is for the groups to develop their own social-action projects in the neighborhood.
Teen club: The activities of the club (for teens aged 13–18, most of them from Bokharan families) include help with their studies, individual tutoring, enrichment activities, a group for girls, work on social skills, etc.
The Shapira Information Center: The idea of the center originated with a longtime resident of the neighborhood who identified her neighbors' need for assistance in dealing with the authorities and for raising their awareness of their rights. The center is located in the neighborhood Community Center (which has allocated it a room). The Community Center is currently providing it with a telephone line and office services. At the end of 2006 a group of 12 volunteers who live in the neighborhood (most of them longtime residents) was recruited to run the center. After initial training (5 sessions) the volunteers began running the center in January 2007. During the first three months the center received some 25 requests dealing with various topics—labor relations, contacts with City Hall, writing a resumé, etc. In addition to running the center the volunteers receive a once-a-year course on rights from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and hold biweekly staff meetings. Some of the volunteers also take part in the monthly training sessions run by the Citizens' Advice Service of the Tel Aviv–Yafo municipality, alongside the permanent volunteers. The center's official opening ceremony, in March 2007, attracted approximately 70 local residents and representatives of 17 agencies and organizations that work in the neighborhood (including BINA, Yedid, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Kav LaOved, the local scouting troop, and a day center for senior citizens).

ACTIVITIES PLANNED IN 2007

During the coming year the center expects to deal with about 70 requests for assistance. The idea is for the volunteers to work in tandem with the clients in 80% of them.
Center volunteers and local residents will hold meetings with representatives of the various authorities.
There will be 6 lectures about various rights for local residents.
Relevant information will be posted on a bulletin board at the center and information materials will be distributed.
The volunteers will attend 15 training sessions to inform them about areas dealt with by the center and provide them with tools for empowering consultation.
A database of local residents who can help clients with various matters, either by telephone or in a single meeting, will be compiled.
A dynamic database will be set up with information about organizations and groups in the neighborhood, events, services, and businesses; it will also be published in booklet form.

The current plan is to focus on individual assistance to residents. In the longer term, however, Pardes sees the center as a setting for local people to conduct campaigns on matters of principle that affect all of the residents (such as a campaign to establish an academic high school in the neighborhoods).