TYO Hosts Final Workshops in Training Series

During the week of Sunday, April 17, 2011, Tomorrow’s Youth Organization hosted the last two civic engagement workshops for the volunteer participants in our collaboration with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).

On Sunday, Volunteer Coordinator Ahmad Hanani led a workshop, which highlighted the importance of volunteerism. Ahmad explained the roles and responsibilities of a volunteer as well as the benefits of service to the volunteer and the community. The discussion that followed focused on how the volunteers at TYO and in the literacy project identify with the term “volunteer” and their evaluation of the status of volunteerism in Nablus. Many of the volunteers at the workshop said that the training gave them a deeper understanding of the importance of their work at TYO and a renewed sense of urgency.

On Monday, Psychosocial Specialist Suhad Jabi led a workshop on the seven principles of leadership. The training focused on the personal characteristics leaders hold including personal integrity, strong values and beliefs and an astute awareness of others. The participants were eager to learn about the personality traits and skills of a strong leader. Many of the participants were surprised to learn that good leadership is as much about vision and making decisions as it is about including others in the process. The participants were challenged to consider their role as leaders and role models for the children that participate in TYO’s programs and activities.

These workshops marked the end of the spring workshops series that promoted the values of volunteerism and civic engagement. Thirty university students, ten mothers and several TYO staff members participated in the full training as part of the TYO-MEPI literacy collaboration.

The collaboration will expand this summer to include an additional fifteen volunteers in a new training series and more than two hundred children in reading activities.

Site Visit: Morning of Reading in Balata

On Tuesday, March 29, 2011, the women participating in the  TYO-MEPI literacy collaboration (affectionately dubbed the “MEPI Moms”) took the Scholastic My Arabic Library on the road to the Yaffa Cultural Center in Balata refugee camp. Leading reading stations for 30 elementary-aged girls, the women read out loud to the children and encouraged them to read to each other. It was a fantastic and fun-filled morning. Check out more photos from the event on TYO’s Facebook page.

Civic Engagement Training: Literacy in Palestine

On Saturday, March 19, 2011, Tomorrow’s Youth Organization hosted the first of five civic engagement workshops for the volunteer participants in our collaboration with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Dr. Alia Asali, manager of the Education Department at An-Najah University, led the workshop, which highlighted the status of literacy in Palestine. She noted that while literacy rates in Palestine are high compared to other Arab countries, the last two decades have seen a decline, especially among the younger generations. At An Najah University in Nablus, she witnesses the effects of this decline first hand. She said that many students’ abilities do not reflect their grade level through middle school and high school, resulting in a number of university students that only possess basic reading and writing skills.

The discussion during the workshop focused on how innovative community programming, such as the TYO-MEPI collaboration, can help children, youth and mothers rediscover a love for learning and reading. Fostering this appreciation allows the community to focus on meeting each child’s needs by involving them in an active learning process.

 

 

Photo of the Day: MEPI Director Visits the TYO Center

Karen Volker, director of the Middle East Partnership Institute (MEPI), and David Martinez and Rasha Khatib, of the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, visited the TYO Center on Saturday, February 26, 2011. Their visit followed the completion of training workshops for our literacy collaboration: Enriching our Community: Learning to Serve, Serving to Read.

Photo of the Day: Literacy Training

On Saturday, February 19, 2011 Tomorrow’s Youth Organization, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, completed the final workshop in the training series for the new TYO-MEPI literacy collaboration.  For more information on this collaboration, read: TYO launches a new literacy project in partnership with MEPI.

Photo of the Day: Literacy Training

On Saturday, February 12, 2011 Tomorrow’s Youth Organization, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, completed the second workshop of the new TYO-MEPI literacy collaboration.  For more information on this collaboration, read: TYO launches a new literacy project in partnership with MEPI.

Photo of the Day: Spring Session Begins!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been very busy gearing up for our Spring 2011 Session which begins today!  Programs you’ve been reading about like our MEPI literacy collaboration and International Internship Program have taken large strides in the weeks since the beginning of the year and are blazing full speed ahead into what will surely be a stellar and innovative spring!

Today we begin again! Morning and Afternoon Core Programs! Women’s Class! New Volunteers and Interns! Creative arts programming! You should stay tuned, you don’t want to miss a thing.

TYO launches a new literacy project in partnership with MEPI

Political strife and restricted movement have led to poverty, isolation and trauma in Nablus, particularly for the city’s 50,000 refugees and the 60% of residents under 25. The youngest segment of the population is most affected by this lasting reality. Attending schools that are understaffed and overenrolled, many refugee children in Nablus have slipped through the cracks. Today few of these children are able to read and write, resulting in increased drop-out levels and bleak outlook for the next generation’s productivity and life satisfaction. Gone unaddressed this problem will have lasting social, political and economic ramifications; Tomorrow’s Youth Organization (TYO) in partnership with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is proud to launch a new literacy project which seeks to close this gap now. Declining literacy is among the greatest problems facing the Nablus community.

In late September 2010, the MEPI Local Grants Program at the United States Consulate General in Jerusalem awarded TYO a grant for its “Enriching our Community: Learning to Serve, Serving to Read” program. This program will use Scholastic’s My Arabic Library to teach nearly 400 children in Nablus how to read.

The project will engage thirty university students, ten mothers and several TYO staff members in a workshop series that will promote values of volunteerism and civic engagement. Through these workshops, youth and women will receive the necessary training to teach children (ages 6-8) how to read. Following the workshop series, these trained volunteers are committed to serving in TYO’s Core Program, infusing literacy-enhancing activities into TYO’s art, sports, health and technology classes for 160 at-risk refugee children.

After the spring session, these experienced volunteers will spend the early summer training with an additional fifteen volunteers for TYO’s summer program, during which they will teach 220 at-risk children (ages 6 -12) how to read.

The outcome of the TYO-MEPI collaboration will be a fully trained and committed volunteer corps and almost 400 children in Nablus’ refugee camps and other marginalized areas who can read!

TYO partners with National Children’s Museum in Washington, DC

TYO is excited to announce a new partnership with the National Children’s Museum (NCM), based in Washington DC. The partnership is based on the organizations’ shared interest in engaging and empowering children. NCM, like TYO, offers educational and recreational activities for children and families that inspire curiosity, eagerness to connect with others, and drive to help, as they learn more about their world.

Based on this common passion, we know that the TYO-NCM partnership will be productive and long-lasting! For now, our cooperation will include training of TYO staff and interns, particularly in NCM’s family literacy methods and materials. Our newest staff member, Robyn Holley, had the chance to attend one such event before she left Washington DC last week! She enjoyed the training, and confirmed that the creative, yet simple, NCM programs will be very transferable to Nablus. We know from experience that the ideas contained in the Family Literacy programs are very much needed and wanted in Nablus!

The second major component of the cooperation is the multimedia exhibit that an international intern will curate this summer in Nablus. She will gather a range of art created by TYO participants of all ages, and bring it back to the Washington, DC area for display in the NCM Launch Zone, as well as NCM partner schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland and elsewhere around the country. The exhibit will serve as a way for kids in the US to gain a direct perspective on the feelings, identities, tastes and talents of their peers in Nablus. Hopefully, a later phase of this initiative will include a similar exhibit created by American children that can be displayed at the TYO Center in Nablus.