The Quaker Palestine Youth Program (QPYP)
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| Work in the park was organized for a number of Public Achievement groups. They enjoyed planting trees and getting to know each other. |
The QPYP has adopted a program model called Public Achievement (PA) which ivites young people to become active citizens in their society. It teaches and/or enhances skills the youth need to be able to fully contribute to the improvement and preservation of their communities as well as the society as a whole.
Originally developed by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota, Public Achievement has over the years been established in areas ridden by conflict and inadequate opportunities for young people: Northern Ireland, South Africa, Turkey, Bosnia, Israel, and now in the West Bank and Gaza through AFSC.
The Popular Achievement model focuses on inviting young people to become active citizens in their society. It teaches and/or enhances skills the youth need to be able to fully contribute to improvement and preservation of their communities as well as the society as a whole.
Each PA group consists of 10-12 individuals, 14-17 years of age. Depending on the social and cultural environment the groups are either all male/all female or mixed. Each group is coordinated by one or two college- aged coaches.
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| Training of trainers sessions bring together Gaza and the West Bank staff, partners and coaches. |
The participants identify the issue they want to work on during the cycle of 8 months. Then they design, implement, and evaluate the project and finally present it at the festival that brings together all of the participants from West Bank and Gaza.
The projects chosen by PA groups include: establishing science labs and computer centers, developing youth-focused web-sites by youth, starting libraries, campaigning against early marriage, initiating cultural heritage education and preservation etc. In addition to the external changes they make through their projects each participant goes though a number of personal changes that very often become apparent to their peers and families.
Over the past four years over 2200 young men and women voluntarily participated in the program while 190 university students became coaches and facilitated "Popular achievement" groups .
Learn about QPYP's current projects:
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