Developing Socially Committed Leadership
DATE • 20 June 2018
GOAL • Supporting young Arab and Jewish leaders in challenging patterns of thought and action that increase social gaps in Israel and distance us from a reality of the common good.
PARTNER • Kav Hazinuk Association (“The Starting Line”)
AUDIENCE • Approximately 100 Arab and Jewish youth, parents, alumni and staff.
WHERE • Acre – A mixed city of Arabs and Jews
WHO • 100 Attendees
The Starting Line :
Minimizing inequality and training vision-oriented leadership – these are two of the main goals faced by Israeli society. The “Kav Hazinuk” Association copes with these challenges by training high-quality youth from Israel’s social and geographic outskirts, in a first-of-its-kind in-depth model. The Association’s youth participate in a ten-year training program that starts in high school, continues in their military service and throughout academic studies – enabling them to express and exert their hidden abilities – each in his/her own area. The program enables its participants to make a significant contribution to the community and undergo individual development as future leaders in the areas of their choice.
Kav Hazinuk poses selected youngsters with the challenge of their lives, providing the tools and long-term mentorship required to transform them into the social, political, and business leaders of the future – role models for their and the next generations.
Kav Hazinuk identifies teens with potential and builds regional leadership groups comprising youth from the surrounding towns and villages. Every year, twenty of the students with the highest leadership potential are selected out of thousands in each region. The groups are formed under a plethora of cultures enabling the diversity required to create high-quality leadership groups around the country. Leadership values at Kav Hazinuk are based on integrity, social involvement and long-term vision, but above all – on groundbreaking social enterprise.
Within the Association there are currently 360 teenagers from 44 municipalities around Israel, who have affected over 60,000 people through their actions of social enterprise.
We performed at the event to mark the end of a year of activity in the north.
The audience was attended by 100 youths, parents, alumni and staff.
In my opening speech, after presenting Beyond Words Org, PTC as contributors to the event and our Playback theatre (and its uniqueness), I emphasized some values that are needed for youth in order to break through the economic and social framework in which they live:
- Character – determination, flexibility to change, social skills.
- Understanding and acceptance – the importance of diversity in the society
- Knowledge and skills to lead social projects.
The performance was great, the reactions were warm and enthusiastic.
Our playback this time was Arab, Lamis and she turned to the youth, the staff, the alumni and the parents to get stories from different angles.
We asked questions such as:
– If you had to explain to someone, in one sentence, what the “Kav Hazinuk” plan was, what would you say?
– Share something you’ve learned about yourself in one of the workshops you’ve been through
– What a unique gift the program gave me
– How did I meet boys/girls from another sector of my own, from a different life environment of my own
– To the parents: How do you take pride in your child? What team member do you want to praise?
– To the alumni: Fifteen years from now, you’ll have a childץץץ talk to him now, in the present tense, and tell him what you’d like him/her to do, what program should he/she choose? What social circle would you like him/her to belong to?
– Share in the memory that you will carry in your heart for many years to come…
When we “returned” and presented the stories, in different ways, a strong experience arose in all of us.
After the show we divided into 4 circles and the participants told us other experiences that were meaningful to them during the years of the program.