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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
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