Yuvalim Project Officially opened

Wednesday 3 December 2008 saw the official opening of the Yuvalim Project in Galil village of Beit Jann. The Opening Ceremony was attended by Rabbi Wittenberg of New North London Synagogue and Natie Shevel, UJIA Israel Regional Director.

The new Yuvalim centre in the Druze village of Beit Jan will offer youth at risk a path to success through enrichment, educational and social intervention. The centre will expose the youth to a variety of unique activities, helping them improve their academic achievements and encouraging them to excel.

The programme focuses on three main 'tracks":

1. The "Educational Track" provides extra study hours for underachieving pupils, and enriching study experiences to high achieving pupils.

2. The "Personal Empowerment Track" the pupils participate in activities such as Challenge sports, Community Theatre, digital photography, football, arts, cinematography, TV and dancing. These activities cultivate a positive self image and a sense of capability as well as developing the children's social skills.

3. The "Community Contribution Track" the children learn about concepts of receiving and giving. During this process the pupils in the programme initiate and conduct community projects that contribute to their local environment

This type of programme is entirely new to this peripheral town and without it children and their families in the village would not be exposed to the notions of public service, civil society and volunteering.

The programme is unique for targeting junior high school pupils, a population that is often overlooked but which can vastly benefit from well-placed and well-planned educational and social support. At this age, the pupils are at a critical phase of their education and personal development, where many fateful decisions are made regarding how much effort and seriousness they are willing to devote to their studies.

The project will serve seventy 7th grade pupils.

The evening started with a private meeting with all the project partners, which included a representative from the Ministry of Education, Beit Jann High School, local council, Keren Yuvalim and UJIA.

Following the meeting, the opening ceremony took place, inside the sports hall of the school. The ceremony included parents and children associated with the project, and consisted of speeches, ethnic music interludes and local scout trumpet troop.

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