Gilo | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

From Gilo to the Center in 15 Minutes

Have you ever taken a bus from Gilo to the central bus station in Jerusalem? Better have a good book and a lot of patience – because today it’ll take you more than an hour, regardless of traffic. How long does it take in a car when it’s not rush hour? Oh, about 15-20 minutes.

What?!?!?!?! 5 times as long if you don’t have a car?!?!

Thanks to an active group of Gilo residents, together with the Gilo Community Council, and with our assistance and that from the 15 Minutes organization that seeks to offer good, fast public transportation all over Israel, the Ministry of Transportation has promised an express bus from Gilo to the central bus station in 2018. Most importantly, this line will be in addition to existing lines, not instead of. This decision was published on the MyNet Jerusalem web site, and in the Kol Ha’Ir newspaper, which carries local Jerusalem news. Here’s the article in print, and here’s a link to the online article.

Kol Ha’Ir Headline: Gilo: New Bus Line from the Neighborhood to the Central Bus Station

All the partners in action worked superbly together to bring this about – bringing the issue to the press and raising public awareness, bringing in key public figures, organizing a trial run with representatives from Gilo, 15 Minutes, the Dept. of Transportation, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Egged Bus Company, and more, until the decision was made. We were there to support the activists, proposing new strategies and tactics, making connections to move the process along, adding positive energy to feed the momentum. We will also be there to make sure that follow through to the end.

Gilo residents meeting with 15 Minutes in October

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its support for our activities to advance deliberative democracy in Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2017-11-25T12:55:35+00:00November 3rd, 2017|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Gilo, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants|

2016 – What a Year!

As we jump head-first into 2017, we wanted to take a minute to reflect on 2016, and what a year it’s been! Overall, a year of unprecedented growth and development, and we can’t wait to get started in 2017. Here are some highlights:

Cultural Competence

The Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City conference in May 2016, organized jointly by the JICC and the Jerusalem Foundation as part of its 50^th anniversary celebrations, was a turning point for the JICC. Attended by hundreds of professionals, from Jerusalem and throughout Israel, the conference presented strides that have been made over the past 10 years, and set the stage for the next step of meeting diverse residents’ diverse needs, in all areas of life.
Continued work in the health care system, in Jerusalem and as a model throughout Israel, training in-house coordinators and facilitators to increase sustainability and adaptability within individual institutions. For the first time, work included a national network of hospitals and clinics.
Expansive work in the Israel Police Force, reaching most police stations and present and future commanding officials, and continuing to expand training in 2017.
Groundbreaking work with the National Insurance Institute (NII), East Jerusalem branch, the first NII branch in the country to undergo a process of cultural competence.
In the Jerusalem Municipality, the entire Community Services Administration, which includes welfare, public health, immigrant absorption, and more, is undergoing training, as well as the Auditor’s Office which will be able to look at the entire Municipality’s operations through the prism of cultural competency and sensitivity.
Santé Israël, the first web site to make Israel’s health care system accessible to French speakers, celebrated its first birthday.

Ms. Uzma Shakir, Keynote Speaker, Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City conference

Paramedical Professionals

Making healthcare practitioner exams accessible to Arab residents of east Jerusalem

2016 was an important year for us to take stock of the past four years of this program. Our conclusions show that:

The number of certified Arab paramedical professionals in East Jerusalem has grown significantly.
The program has enabled the JICC to more clearly map the situation of different paramedical professions in east Jerusalem, contributing to the knowledge of training in the Jerusalem area.
The awareness both among Palestinian institutes of higher education and health care institutions in east Jerusalem as well as Israeli Ministry of Health has been raised significantly.
A large window of opportunity for Arab women paramedical professionals to improve economic opportunities has been opened.

Nurses studying to pass their Israeli certification examinations

Talking Coexistence – Arabic Language Instruction

Both 2015 – 2016 and 2016 – 2017 broke enrollment records. In 2015-16 there were 180 students in 12 classes, over 5 levels. In 2016-2017, there are 240 students in 16 classes, also over 5 levels. We also held several cultural evenings to enrich students’ understanding of Arabic culture. Here’s a short video about the program:

Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents

The Atta’a Center has been in existence since 2004, and in 2015 it came under the aegis of the JICC. In 2016 we have seen:

70% growth in number of requests
Ballooning of its Facebook page to over 7,100 ‘likes,’ and launching of its web site.
Publication of a widely-referenced booklet on the Ministry of Interior
Expansion of network of partners in action, both from NGO’s and advocacy groups as well as municipal and government agencies.

Atta’a Presenting workshops

MiniActive for Arab Residents of East Jerusalem

For the first time ever, MiniActive activities led to a change in policy. After months of campaigning, MiniActive led the way toward the addition of 3 million NIS to the annual municipal sanitation budget for east Jerusalem, and 16 million NIS for the purchase of additional equipment for sanitation. As a result of this work, the entire Municipality is focusing their attention on garbage collection throughout
In January 2016, MiniActive organized the first ever Arabic language Horticulture Therapy course in Jerusalem for special education teachers, in cooperation with the David Yellin Academic College of Education.
Bus stops in entire neighborhoods were repaired and replaced, thanks to MiniActive.
210 women – including 50 youth – are studying Hebrew through a volunteer NGO to improve the effectivity of their activism. This is a record-breaking number, which broke last year’s record of 150 women.
In MiniActive Youth for the Environment, teenage girls learn leadership skills while participating in major environment-improving public art and other projects in neighborhoods throughout east Jerusalem.
MiniActive became a model for international work, hosting a delegation that works with the Roma population in the Czech Republic in November 2016.

Take a look at MiniActive’s own year in review. It’s pretty easy to understand, even if you don’t know Arabic:

Emergency Readiness Networks

In 2016 we expanded the network to include 14 communities throughout Jerusalem. In addition to training new volunteers, the program included training of existing networks to maintain ability to respond and increase sustainability.

Planning strategy on map

Multicultural Participatory Democracy

In 2016 we mentored community center staffs in Gilo, Kiryat Menachem, Givat Messuah, Baka’a and south Talpiot. For the first time, residents – especially the Ethiopian community in Kiryat Menachem and the highly diverse community of south Talpiot –felt that they were able to influence issues that affected their everyday lives. Training included using Facebook as a community-building tool key to increasing residents’ engagement in community processes.

Writing and submitting objections in Gilo

Promoting Tolerance in the Public Sphere

Since the summer of 2014 the JICC have been at the forefront of promoting tolerance in Jerusalem. 2016 accomplishments include:

A Different Day in Jerusalem celebrated Jerusalem’s diversity through 50 coordinated events, affecting tens of thousands of people on Jerusalem Day. It was the first time such a broad effort has been made to celebrate Jerusalem’s diversity.
JICC-mentored Speaking in the Square and other tolerance initiatives that came in their wake led to the redesigning of Zion Square, to be called Tolerance Square. The initiative’s Effective Dialogue methodology spread, and is now being presented in national frameworks.
0202-Points of View from Jerusalem are now liked by nearly 80,000 people and reach some 150,000 people weekly on Facebook and the Internet. The network now includes pages that translate from Arabic to Hebrew, from Arabic to English and one which brings news from the Ultra-Orthodox world to the awareness of the general population.
The JICC was asked to be one of the leading organizations in the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations to Promote Tolerance, formed by the Center for Young Adults and the Municipality’s Young Authority.
The JICC is continuing to develop Tolerance Network Teams (TNT’s), a series of neighborhood-based and theme-based grassroots initiatives that seek to advance tolerance in Jerusalem.

Haaretz article about A Different Day in Jerusalem

Window to Mount Zion

Since October 2015, Window to Mount Zion has bridged inter-religious and inter-community gaps that have festered between Jewish, Christian and Muslim groups for centuries. As a result of its activity over the past year:

In unheard-of cooperation, religious Jewish and Christian groups have issued joint statements condemning hate crimes on Mount Zion.
Christian ceremonies, which in the past have caused inter-religious tension, proceeded without incident.
The celebration of Christian and Jewish holidays that coincided simultaneously, which in the past had been the source of conflict and tension, also proceeded smoothly.

Window to Mount Zion volunteers

Asylum Seekers

The JICC, together with the Jerusalem Municipality, sponsor the only paid public servant in Israel to help asylum seekers, outside of Tel Aviv. We are also part of a consortium of organizations and agencies that seek to meet the needs of asylum seekers living in the city.

Families of asylum seekers on tour of Nahlaot neighborhood

Thank You!

Many many thanks go out to our partners in action and our donors. You can read about our activities in more detail either by clicking on the hyperlinks above, or by clicking here.

Looking forward to making 2017 even better!

Join the Group, Like the Page – Building Community through Facebook and Other Social Media

In our day and age, the bricks and mortar of building community take many forms. One of the most important forms today is through Facebook and other social media.

During the month of July we held two workshops with the staff at the Gilo Community Council in using Facebook to build community dialogue. The workshop stemmed from our work over the last year with the neighborhood community worker and the local planner, and in our experiences using Facebook in the process.

Using Facebook as a tool for community building

The Gilo Community Council has a very active Facebook page and Facebook group with several thousand members that does a fantastic job in communicating a wealth of information (locating and taking care of nuisances, providing information, advancing small businesses, raising needs in different fields, requests to the Community Council lay and professional leadership to deal with burning issues, and more). There are a number of community-led groups as well; in many of them the community worker is an active member. Here’s an example of an event on the Community Council’s Facebook page:

Because we understood how much the use of Facebook is important in Gilo to the community discourse, we decided to use it to inform residents about the impending expansion of the light rail system into the neighborhood, and to create active discussion and involvement in this process. This work proved to be very effective and impressive. They opened a new Facebook group and uploaded all the relevant information. A number of community town hall meetings were set and advertised in the group, minutes were distributed and discussed in the group (residents expressed their opinions, asked questions and discussed different issues) between residents, as well as between residents and professionals. Here’s an example (in Hebrew) of one of their posts:

Light rail facebook

We learned a great deal as a result of this experience – the dilemmas raised, and the conclusions that we reached – and we concluded that it is important that everyone who works with the community should use this tool. Thus the community worker and JICC staff designed a 3-part workshop for all the staff at the Gilo Community Council: 1) a technical review that discusses the using different aspects of Facebook; 2) skills to use Facebook as a tool for dialogue; 3) ethical questions regarding Facebook and different solutions.

Practicing what they learned

Throughout the month of July there were two meetings with the administrative and coordinating staff of the Gilo Community Council, which included the Director, who actively participated throughout the process. There will be another meeting in October.

We expect that these workshops will enable the staff and leadership of the Gilo Community Council to further engage the community in its important work. Of course, this is only one aspect of their community work….

Naomi Roff2016-08-26T14:34:47+00:00August 15th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Gilo|

Blue Line Blues – Public Discussion about New Light Rail Line in Gilo

We’ve talked before about planning light rail lines in Gilo. There’s going to be both the Green and the Blue lines there when the project is finally finished, so there are several processes taking place at the same time.

Learning about the blue line

The Blue Line will run from Gilo to Ramot, and meet up with the Green Line, which will also run between Gilo and Mount Scopus. On March 21, some 20 residents, staff of the Gilo Community Council, staff from the transportation master plan, and the regional planner from the Municipality came together to discuss the new line, its planning principples, and to raise different concerns. Residents received all the relevant information and asked important questions. We were there to facilitate the process and help the Gilo Community Council staff.

Light rail illustration

This was the first meeting regarding the planning of the Blue Line, after we began the process of being involved in the Green Line.The first step in the Green Line process was submitting dozens of objections and requests for changes to the existing plan. Residents will be involved in all the steps along the way, until the Green and Blue lines are actually running, some 10 years from now. We’ll be ready to help the Community Council staff help them throughout the process.

Event poster

Naomi Roff2016-04-09T11:00:42+00:00April 4th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, Gilo, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations|

Just in Time for Springtime! Planning New Playgrounds in Gilo

Just in time for springtime – we’re helping residents and professionals plan more playgrounds.

After the outstanding success on Afarsimon St., we, together with the Gilo Community Council staff, began an additional public process of planning public playgrounds in Gilo. This time, it’s on Harduf St.

Meeting in Gilo

Unlike the first playground, this time the initiative for the playground came from a Gilo resident, who complained to the local city planner about the noise that was coming from a neighboring playground. This began a long process in which the planner went through the appropriate channels in the Municipality while the resident recruited additional community members willing to fix the playground. On March 21, 18 residents, half of them children, as well as the Gilo Community Council staff and the regional planner from the Municipality, began planning a new playground. Residents raised ideas and discussed their needs, and drew up and prioritized design principles. The children actively participated in the discussion, in a most productive and inspiring way.

List of design principles

Examples of some of the principles:

Appropriate for ages birth – 12
Landscaping appropriate for senior citizens
Planning that prevents crowds gathering
Multi-purpose equipment (e.g. one piece of equipment that includes ropes and swings and bridges, etc.)
Hourglass clock to time turns on the different equipment
Expanding the playground instead of passageways
Planting to enable shaded areas
Soft, environmentally-friendly pavement

The list will be sent to the Municipality and will form the basis for its planning. The next meeting will take place with residents and Municipality representatives in the playground in order to present a number of alternatives and to reach agreement on the best planning for the playground.

It was a fascinating and effective meeting, and we are proud to be assisting the Gilo Community Council staff and residents in this process. Next month – a similar process on Shamir St.

Naomi Roff2016-04-09T10:59:02+00:00March 31st, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Gilo, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants|

Building Community, Building Playgrounds – from Blocks to Mortar

A few months ago we described a fascinating process that we facilitated in a number of neighborhoods, helping community professionals and local residents plan local themed playgrounds. The process took several months, during which both residents and professionals discussed concepts that it was important for the playgrounds to convey.

Inviting to the planning process

Together, plans were drawn up and submitted to the planning architects. The beginning, brainstorming stage, looked like this:

Plans on paper in Gilo

Translated into professional sketch…

Now, several months later, the plans have become real! A few weeks ago the municipal planners’ southern region posted the following pictures:

Persimmon St. Playground, Gilo, today

As they describe the park: “Two levels were developed, one for the younger ages and one that will serve the older population, with an emphasis on a safe environment for the children. Equipment was installed that will combine and develop children’s creativity in swinging, sliding, jumping, hanging, climbing and spinning around.”

More fun in Gilo

It looks like so much fun!

Naomi Roff2016-03-05T11:23:22+00:00March 3rd, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Gilo, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Continuing to Build Community by Solving Problems in Gilo

Extension of the light rail to Gilo is a good thing, right? Or will it just bring years of disruptive construction and lost income for local businesses?

These were some of the issues that we’ve been having in Gilo, together with professionals from the Gilo Community Council and the staff of the transportation master plan.

We’ve been helping the staff from the Gilo Community Council lead the process with local residents for the past few months. Residents first learned about the new line that is being built to Gilo and how it will affect their everyday lives. They also met with staff from the transportation master plan, and presented them with their questions and concerns. And last week, on February 2, residents had an opportunity to submit their objections to the current plan.

Helping to write objections

We’re not talking about objections to the overall concept of the construction of the light rail. These objections were more like specific requests on how to improve the way the rail is built (in stages, instead of all at once), the placement of electrical lines, objections by local businesses on how to minimize the damage during and after construction, etc. We helped the process by making this event a one-stop shop – the room was divided into a number of geographical and other areas, and professionals were on hand for consultation and help in writing up the objections. A lawyer was also there to sign the objections before submission. Most importantly, residents of Gilo felt they have the power to influence the construction of the light rail line. And they have the power to influence other areas of their lives as well.

Writing and submitting objections

Since this process is long-term (given previous experience, it could go on for a decade), the partnership we’ve all been working toward is also a long-term partnership, one based on mutual respect and a desire to respond to residents’ real needs. In this process we’ve built up a community that communicates with each other – on Facebook, through the community newspaper, and more – and solve problems together, in real time. We’ll keep you posted on the continuing developments.

Naomi Roff2016-02-13T14:40:14+00:00February 10th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, Gilo, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants|