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What is JCAN?

A Palestinian nonprofit civil society organization operating in East

Jerusalem, established in 2009 in response to urgent need for community

based advocacy in East Jerusalem.

Specializes in advocacy for and empowerment of marginalized residents

who suffer from broad infringements of social, economic, cultural, and

political rights, as well as policies that lead to displacement,

impoverishment and marginalization.

Its overall long term goal is to see a viable, strong civil society in East

Jerusalem, in which residents are able to obtain their rights and

entitlements and advocate for themselves.

JCAN’s Rights Based Centers

JCAN currently operates four centers in Jerusalem, in areas most in need and

where the communities lack nearly all services: Sur Baher, Al Tur, Kufr Aqab

JCAN’s reach extends beyond these neighborhoods.

The centers serve communities that are poor and disadvantaged, facing severe

and systemic problems: family reunification and child registration, lack of

accessibility to civil documentation as well as to legal and bureaucratic

procedures, and neglect of social welfare services and infrastructure. Legal

assistance is also prohibitively expensive and frequently unreliable.

JCAN’s Model of Practice

JCAN raises awareness of rights within the communities it

serves while helping individuals develop the skills they need to

access and preserve their rights

JCAN uses the tools of RBCP—organizing, social work, and

legal advocacy—to create empowerment at each societal level—

the individual, the institutional, and the community--advocating

together with local residents to create policy change.

The PCAN and ICAN Connection

As a member of PCAN which has affiliate centers in the West

Bank and as a member of ICAN, JCAN has access to capacity

building and training assistance, a cadre of professionals-

Palestinians trained at McGill but living in the region-on which

to draw assistance with fund development and management,

and is a part of a global effort through ICAN to expand the use

of RBCP in international development projects and the

fellowship program.

How we work

We help organize local residents together on collective problems

particularly those that lead to social and economic inequality.

We mobilize community volunteers to help residents set their own priorities

and advocate for the issues that are most important to them.

We empower residents to access their rights and entitlements and to

negotiate the complex bureaucratic procedures that control the flow of

these rights.

We raise awareness of legal rights encouraging residents themselves to drive

the processes and decisions that affect their lives as individuals and

communities. We have been successful in aiding residents to secure national

insurance family reunification and the halting of identity card revocation.

We develop the advocacy and rights protection skills of individuals groups

and institution through our Resource development and volunteer work unit.

Hundreds of volunteers have been trained to conduct outreach, lead rights

based activities and develop campaigns.

We influence decision makers policies and service delivery to bring them in

line with international conventions on human rights.

JCAN’s impact

on the community during 2016

10,800 East Jerusalem residents benefited from the individual

advocacy services and legal consultations

4,366 East Jerusalem residents benefited directly from the

capacity-building, training and public awareness services

2,400 brochures every three months have been distributed.

300 volunteers were trained using our volunteer training manual

Jerusalem Community Advocacy Network ( JCAN)

Store front

Our volunteers

JCAN understands the importance of including young people as volunteers and advocates for

access of rights and entitlements in East Jerusalem .

JCAN believes that working with volunteers is a cost effective way to change attitudes and behavior towards

building a network of volunteers.

Volunteers walk through our store fronts and or are selected from the communities we work in or come to us

from Universities (law and social work students) .Through our training and support they are able to have a

significant impact in their communities and beyond .

Volunteers hold awareness-raising sessions to introduce JCANs legal and social counselling services to people

in the communities the centers work in through door to door knocking and or the more formal workshops

and training sessions .

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Sample of activities

Workshops to explain Israeli laws and their impact on rights of East Jerusalem residents (4 legal session per month facilitated by our lawyers at each center). These workshops are designed to foster open discussion in communities about the importance of understanding the law and its consequences in an attempt to ensure East Jerusalem residents understand how to protect own rights

Awareness-raising workshops on gender-based issues resulting from unjust traditional practices in conservative communities. These workshops also provide opportunities to lobby against local decisions and to seek rights advocates from within the community.

Social workers provide activities for women and children such as violence against women workshops, accessing rights and entitlement workshops, personal empowerment workshops, and other courses including Hebrew language courses and computer-literacy programs for children.

Coordinating with other organizations to help conduct and implement other necessary activities

Visual Art Course. This course started in December 2016 and will finish in May 2017. Nine woman attend this course, two of whom lost their sons. The attendants are very committed and excited with this training because they will learn to support their families and communicate with their children in a better way.

Candle and Soap manufacturing: Ten woman attend this course which is conducted once a week by one of our volunteers in JCAN .

A public meeting with the community to

learn about their legal rights in Israel

A public meeting with the community to learn about

their social rights in Israel

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A public meeting with the community to learn

about their social rights in Israel

Arts training program

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One of our Success stories is a story of our employee Tamar Hassassian who was

married to a west banker and has two children ages 11 and 4.

She wasn’t recognized as a resident in Jerusalem because she was living in the

West Bank.

Consequently, she had problems with the national Insurance institution.

She rented a house in Al Tur since the day she began working in JCAN and

sorted out her problems with the national insurance institution.

After that she went to the ministry of interior and renewed her ID and she

officially became a resident in Jerusalem . She also started registering her kids

and requested id numbers for them.

Arts training program

SUCCESS STORY

Challenges

Dealing with an occupying bureaucracy which does not intend to permit

Palestinian residents to receive full benefits and entitlements and has

established a mode of activity designed to deny these rights.

Primarily in cases regarding family reunification and child registration, we

deal with the ongoing frustration of the residents, and the need to work with

them on long term basis to access their rights.

Competition for scarce funding

Funding

JCAN managed to attract funding from several sources ( for the year 2016)

UNDP(more than once )

NRC

HR