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Monthly Archives: November 2008

Clalit HMO, Kiryat Yovel – adapting clinics to Ethiopian patients – November 6, 2008

Today, a steering committee of Kupat Holim Clalit (the largest Israeli Health Management Organization), the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation met for the first time. This committee focuses on cultural competency of the Clalit HMO when serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem (read more about this project here).

The meeting took place in the Kiryat Yovel clinic, one of the clinics that serve the Ethiopian community. Representatives of most of the relevant clinics attended, as well as Dr. Sarit Avishay, the medical director of the Clalit HMO Jerusalem district. Many cultural issues and appropriate responses were discussed. In general the first important steps in each clinic include providing Amharic tele-interpretation services (of Tene Briut), conducting trainings to staff, communicating with the local Ethiopian community and assigning staff members as Cultural Competency Officers. It was decided that the JICC staff, together with the Clalit staff, would map the main cultural competency issues. The Kiryat Menahem clinic was suggested as the first clinic to undergo pilot training.

Next week the JICC staff will meet with the Clalit committee head who was assigned to promote the first steps of the process.

2017-05-26T20:06:19+00:00November 6th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

Meeting of the Jerusalem Employment Coalition – November 5, 2008

Background: The JICC initiated an employment coalition in Jerusalem in 2005. To begin with the coalition’s main focus was the Welfare-To-Work program that was implemented at the time in Jerusalem, and in three other locations around the country. This program, the first of its kind in Israel, generated much controversy between experts from the government, business sector and NGOs active in the area of employment. The JICC invited the many agencies and businesses that were involved in the implementation of the program or in opposing it, to cooperate in the employment coalition. The coalition enabled the organizations to conduct an effective dialogue that made it possible to improve many aspects of the program. Unfortunately, such a coalition was not mirrored in other regions in Israel where the W2W program was implemented.

Toward 2008 coalition members suggested to upgrade the mission of the coalition and to become the Jerusalem Employment Coalition. A main focus of the JEC is to find ways to advance the adaptation of the employment field to the diverse identities in the city. In the bimonthly meetings, hosted by various coalition members, participants increase their exposure to, and understanding of, diverse aspects of the professional work in this field, and look for synergy and partnerships that would address the needs of the Jerusalemite identities.

Today we held a meeting at the Governmental Employment Service in Jerusalem. Thirty coalition members listened to Mr. Nimrod Alon, the director of the Jerusalem District, and discussed the services provided by this agency. The main issues that were raised related to courses offered to ultra-orthodox women and to unemployed Ethiopians. Two sub-committees will continue to meet in order to address the adaptation of governmental employment services, as well as help employers adjust their businesses to these identities.

Jerusalem Employment Coalition - November 5 2008

Jerusalem Employment Coalition – November 5 2008

The next meeting will be held at Teva, an Israeli biotech company that works closely with employment assignment services.

2014-07-11T08:34:43+00:00November 5th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Employment, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Outside Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Employment Coalition, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

The Arabic-Hebrew Studies Center in Jerusalem – Beginning of the 2008-09 class

On the week of October 26, 2008, we began another year of the language courses at the Arabic-Hebrew Studies Center.

These intensive courses are intended for professionals and leaders who need language skills in order to be more culturally competent in their work and activities. Participants include Jewish-Arab facilitators and project managers, Jewish lawyers who help Arab residents to gain their rights, Arab activists who work with Jewish NGO partners, people from the business sector who seek cross-cultural collaborations, and more. This project is funded by our strategic partner, the Jerusalem Foundation, with whom we share the belief that whoever works in an Arab-Jewish environment must have adequate knowledge of the two languages. Regrettably, up until now this approach is not well acknowledged in Israel. However, in Jerusalem, thanks to this project, we can see a significant shift.

Indeed, after only a few years, the results are noticeable. Jerusalem is probably the only city in Israel where most Jewish-Arab staff members have a good command of both languages. This transition has also affected the JICC itself – all our staff, including administrative staff, has elemental knowledge in both languages. Not many Jewish-Arab organizations can be proud of such an achievement – and remember that the JICC is not a Jewish-Arab organization, its West Jerusalem-East Jerusalem work is just a part of its undertakings

This year, in response to high demand, we opened two beginners’ classes instead of one and still had to screen the candidates. The intermediate course, which two years ago hardly had enough participants, filled up very fast, and the advanced course is also almost full. Just a year ago this group was half empty – there were simply not enough candidates for the higher level. The intermediate and the advanced groups are populated mainly by graduates of previous years.

One of the Arabic Beginners Course 2008-2009

One of the Arabic Beginners Course 2008-2009

This year we also added another aspect to the courses – although we focus on the spoken dialect, the participants will learn to read Arabic. The formal Arabic (Fus’kha) is very different from the spoken Palestinian dialect, which is taught in all our courses, so the students will not become readers of formal Arabic. However, they will be able to read names, signs, newspaper headings and similar – literacy at its best. This will be the next significant shift, as most Arabic-speaking Jewish professionals are unable to recognize their own name written in Arabic.

2014-04-05T05:07:56+00:00November 5th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cultural Competence, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Language Center|

Clalit HMO, East Jerusalem – adapting clinics to Arabic speaking patients – November 2, 2008

Kupat Holim Clalit, who is also the largest Israeli Health Management Organization in East Jerusalem, was the first to join the Jerusalem Cultural Competence in Health Project of the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation. As part of the process two steering committees were formed to tackle cultural competence issues in East Jerusalem and in the Ethiopian community.

Today the first meeting of the steering committee focusing on East Jerusalem was held in the Sheikh Jerah Clalit HMO clinic. This is the central clinic in East Jerusalem serving around 200,000 people. The committee drafted a list of many challenges in this clinic and in other parts of the East Jerusalem health system. It was decided that the JICC staff, together with Clalit staff, would map the main cultural competency issues in the Sheikh Jerah clinic towards the next meeting. In parallel, we will examine some of the issues related to Arabic-speaking patients who are sent to experts in West Jerusalem, most of them are Hebrew-speaking Jews. Language was found to be an important barrier, but also other cultural barriers were identified as central to the quality of health care.

Next meeting of the committee will proceed with the planning of the cultural competence project in the Clalit HMO.

2014-04-04T12:54:43+00:00November 2nd, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs|
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