Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Projects
2015 2016
The Heschel Center plans to expand the Network and add 5 more communities annually.
3
Dr. Hussein Tarabiya is the Director and visionary leader of the Town Association
for Environmental Quality (TAEQ) in the Arab city of Sachnin. He points to the
participation in the first cohort of the Fellows Program as a key turning point
in his career and worldview convinced that, "the Fellows program enabled me
to gain knowledge and inspiration and be a part of the big picture of social
environmental shift of sustainability". Practicing these very words, Hussein has
since gone on to develop the TAEQ Center in Sachnin as a regional and national
leader of grass roots initiatives for energy and water conservation, green
building, environmental education, wastewater treatment, organic agriculture
and community empowerment. The prize winning eco-friendly building at TAEQ
used traditional Arab architectural know how and local materials has become a
model that draws thousands of students and visitors each year.
Hussein takes the broad view of social and cultural renewal and dialogue in
all his work: "I think environmental issues require cooperation along the whole
spectrum, regardless if
we are Arabs or Jews.
In the end of the day
everyone wants to live
and breathe clear air.
We must collaborate
in order that there will
be water and open
spaces and more
sources of renewable
energy."
Relations between business and local government to date have largely focused on
taxes, licensing and services (cleaning and garbage collection). Business is rarely
included in local policy on social environmental and economic issues.
The local PPP being developed is a new model for cooperation between businesses
(corporations and small businesses), municipalities and civil society organizations
wishing to promote a sustainability agenda.
With this in mind, the Local Sustainability Center at Heschel brought together a
diverse group representing a multi-sector, multi-cultural cross section from all over
the country. The group formed a delegation that travelled to visit three German
cities that have successfully built collaborative models for sustainable economic
and urban development, learning firsthand about best practices as well as the
challenges faced along the way.
Three cities - Stuttgart, Freiburg and Ludwigsburg, hosted the group to learn how local
authorities support and create opportunities for businesses to become more sustainable
and become active in promoting this agenda in the city as part of their corporate
responsibility commitment. But by far the major take-away cited: the difference that
holistic cross- sectorial policy makes for driving action, as opposed to the current Israeli
practice of largely disconnected governmental agencies and budgets.
The Israeli delegation came away inspired to adapt and implement similar models back
home, as well as learning methods that German communities are using to connect and
foster collaborative initiatives among business, government agencies and civil society.
As a result of the tour the participants are
continuing to work together to share good
practices and visit each other to learn and
build connections. They have embarked on
a mapping process to build a data base of
initiatives and potential partners between
their communities. Their long term group
goals include expanding sustainability
awareness to more partnerships and
further engaging municipalities.
PPP delegation in Germany
As part of our renewed strategy, Heschel is now looking to scale up these transformative
learning models. If until now we reached about 100 change makers per year through
ongoing trainings and courses, our current goal is to enroll 500 participants per year
within two years' time, while retaining the depth and quality of learning, strengthening our
evaluation metrics and processes. In short: making more courses available to more people.
New modules planned for the upcoming year include:
Regional Heschel Fellows Programs Building on the success of the Heschel Fellows
model, we will launch two new Regional Fellows programs in 2016 with focus on local
social and environmental challenges. Particular emphasis will be placed on acquiring
tools and skills to forge inter-sectorial and inter cultural collaborations and to pool
resources for innovation at the local and regional levels. The new formats to
be launched: a) Heschel Fellows- North in conjunction with the Sakhnin TAEQ
Environmental Center will focus on Jewish Arab cooperative sustainability ventures b)
Ramat Hanadiv- Heschel Fellows in conjunction with the Ramat Hanadiv in Binyamina.
3. On-line Courses: As part of our strategic aim of reaching broader sectors of the
Israeli public, we are developing MOOCs the first free online introductory
course in sustainability in Hebrew for the public at large.
4. Poor World Rich World and Climate Change - First time ever on-line course
developed for high school teachers and approved by the Ministry of Education, The
focus: understanding the great twin challenges facing humanity in the 21st century how to teach about them and how to engage students in social activism to address them.
2.
Liat Zvi worked for many years in top advertising firms. She talks about her
experience at Heschel and the intensive Fellows year: "Heschel programs
are a rare phenomenon in Israel. Very busy, top level people in their fields
come together to be even more busy about things that really matter, and with
no immediate remuneration. Thus, in one class you will find- a manager of a
chemical firm, product designer, environmental activist, academic researcher,
architect, marketing director, and an army officer. We came to understand first
hand that sustainability requires synergy. A most inspiring way to learn that
to tackle the environmental challenges in the coming years we will need very
strong cooperation."
7
Preschool Gardening