1. The Young Social Innovators
With Young Social Innovators, Ibtikar provides Palestinian young people
with the opportunity to use their creativity to respond to social issues
and contribute to building a fairer, more caring, and equal society. To
achieve this , we empower and support young people to realize their
potential as social innovators, giving them the skill s and confidence to
tackle the social issues to face them, their communities, and wider
society. The 12-month initiative i s a cus tomized capacity building
program for school s tudent s in Bethlehem di s trict. Student s work in
teams , explore social i s sues that concern them, and develop and
implement creative responses and solutions to social needs . Learning i s
youth-led and value-based, infused with an under s tanding of human
right s , civic engagement, ethics , and contribution to achieving the
SDGs .Ibtikar works with 200 school s ’ s tudent s (14-16 year s old) yearly.
Student s divided into 20 groups . Each group receives 50 training hour s .
Sixty teacher s are as well targeted through the same program. These
teacher s receive specific guidance to support the young innovator s in
developing new practices that respond to our community needs. This ,
in turn, contributes to improving the quality standards of the
the educational system in Pales tine.
2. The SDGiNNOVATION
The Sustainable Development Goal s (SDGs ) are a universal call to action
to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy
inclusion, peace, and prosperity.
With SDGiNOVATION, Ibtikar provides Palestinian young people with
the opportunity to use their creativity to respond to social issues and
contribute to the realization of the SDGs . SDGiNNOVATION focuses on
achieving greater awareness and knowledge among students , teachers ,
parents , and decision-maker s on the SDGS (education and development
based goal s ). The given project was developed to learn and teach for a
sus sustainable future in Pales tine through empowering school s and
teacher s across Pales tine to act on the United Nations Sustainable
Development through the use of social innovation tools . The project is
about; (1) teaching and learning through a global jus tice lens , allow
school students , teachers, parent s and decision-maker s to explore
knowledge, skills , attitude, and values necessary to become global
citizens, (2) Empowering young people to use social innovation to
respond on social issues and act on the SDGs and (3) Facilitates school s
to work for a more just and sustainable world. The given project is
based on the following main pillar s (1) Student training, (2) Teacher s '
training (3) Parent workshops, and (4) School action project s with the
involvement of decision-makers.
3. Designing your life
A high percentage of the Palestinian people believe that they have
made a wrong decision in terms of their academic choices. Some of
them are not satisfied with their jobs. A lot of college graduates do not
work in a field that bears s any resemblance to the subject they majored
in. Ibtikar believes that human beings can reach their designation even
if their current location isn't the one they hoped. Ibtikar thinks that
human beings need to know the direction.
There are four critical areas of our life. We always need to assess before
we embark on our transformative journey: (1) Health: The main pillar s of
thi s areas are phys ical, emotional, and mental s tatus . (2) Work: It i s
about the work the human beings are doing, whether it is paid or a
volunteer. (3) Play: It is about entertainment and the things we do for
the fun of them and (4) Relationships: The relationships that human
beings develop and invest in. With Designing your Life, Ibtikar provides
people with an opportunity to find a balance between these four areas.
In other words, Ibtikar is trying to help people to find the most suitable
situation for their current interest s in such a way that meets their future
expectations. In this program, we suggest innovative ways that help
people to design their life through different interactive and creative
exercises. The main philosophy of the program is summarized in; (1).
Human beings choose better when they have lots of good ideas to
select from. (2). Human beings never want their fir s t solution to any
problem. Designing your life is a 2-month program that targets s 20
participant s maximum. The program is based on the Design Thinking
Process. It is realized through different components:- Dysfunctional
beliefs: they are unfounded constraint s that we put on ourselves,
limiting our options. These belief s make people feel inadequate. Ibtikar
provides people with different exercises to reframe their dysfunctional
belief s .- Personal development: Ibtikar empower s and supports
participant s to realize their potential, giving them the skill s and
confidence to tackle the main challenges facing them in their
communities and society. This part of the program builds wellbeing
amongst participant s to recognize the full potential that leads them to
the future that they want.- Life-long Strategy: In this part, Ibtikar helps
the participant s to design a lifelong strategy in which they can find a
balance between the four life areas mentioned above. Ibtikar will test
this strategy through the next step, which is prototyping.- Prototyping
your new life: Prototyping is an excellent way of testing new ideas,
features, or experiences. The benefit of prototyping is that the
participant s can learn a lot about the experience over a short time with
minimal investments. Ibtikar provides participant s the opportunity to
have prototyping talks with people who are doing the same thing that
the participant s are planning to do in the future.
