Main Projects / Activities

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.