Thinking Doing
The Thinking Doing Project – Active Communities Lead Quality of Life
The program, an ICL initiative, has been active since 2014 as part of a strategic plan to promote partners and partnerships in the Negev. The program supports social and environmental processes, creates social empowerment and strengthens local identity by creating a regional network of local entrepreneurs, who have both the ability and desire to contribute to the local community, as well as to the entire Negev region. The program promotes close cooperation with municipal authorities and allows for the pooling of resources to improve the physical and social conditions made available to residents.
Thinking Doing enables ICL to be a significant partner in the establishment of the Negev’s environmental, economic and social resilience.
Principles of the Program
- The program provides professional and economic support to different initiatives in the Negev region and creates long term change.
- The program enables Negev residents to realize their dreams in aspects of environment, economy and society. This is done by supporting initiatives that realize dreams that are relevant to everyday life and are based on the needs of the community.
- Local residents choose areas in which they wish to promote an initiative related to education and community, public spaces and creating communal infrastructure, local economy, and environmental issues. The local entrepreneurs connect local residents to the initiative in order to make a notable social impact.
- During the process, a meaningful community effort takes place, with multiple local organizations cooperating.
- ICL incorporates, on top of the professional and economic support, hours of employees who volunteer in these various community projects.
Method of Operation
ICL, as an influential and major factor in Negev communities – acts as a catalyst to motivate processes that will create a joint effort of business, the environment and the community to strengthen the Negev and help to build a social, environmental and professional network, as part of its community activities. Various projects and initiatives are supported, including long-term projects which promote change by pooling resources for greater empowerment and creativity in the community space.
The Thinking Doing Project enables individuals and the community to use and initiate practical tools to realize unique initiatives related to the environment and society. These individuals establish community and environmental initiatives in various Negev communities, for the purpose of building an independent and active community that promote the environmental issues and society in general. During the development process of this project, local residents select areas in which they wish to focus their activities, including education and community, the local economy and environmental resources. A community representative is involved in each part of the program.
This is a significant community program, initiated and supported by ICL, and with the active cooperation of many local organizations. ICL contributes both funds and volunteering time of its employees to these community projects.
The Operational Model
- Recruiting municipal authorities to promote social and environmental issues, and establish a link to the local vision.
- Establishing a local steering committee;
- Establishing a professional team led by the local municipality;
- Mapping communities, needs, dreams and challenges;
- Selecting a main issue linked to the local vision;
- Publication of call for proposals to communities – to motivate processes;
- Guiding and leading community initiatives;
- Building a professional human infrastructure;
- Creating young leadership, through scholarships for students, serving as a significant human resource in Thinking Doing projects.
The Thinking Doing Project in Yeruham
The Program began as a pilot project in the town of Yeruham, and has been in operation there since 2014. As a result of the program, a regional network of local entrepreneurs was created possessing the ability and the desire to contribute to the local community and to the entire Negev region. Together with Yeruham residents and the town’s local leadership, and by connecting with the town’s agenda and the town council head’s vision for sustainability, the program supports social and environmental initiatives of local residents, thereby aiding in rebranding Yeruham as a sustainability fostering town.
Following two years of operation, during which the Thinking Doing program had great success as a game-changer in the community, a local coordinator was appointed on behalf of ICL and the Local Council – a town sustainability coordinator, who is responsible for leading sustainability issues in Yeruham in general and for the assimilation of the Thinking Doing program in particular.
The connections and partnerships between various organizations in the town, as well as the empowering of social entrepreneurs and the motivating of partnership processes, have served to create social empowerment and self-esteem, in addition to transforming the public realm into a ‘warm home’ for the town’s diverse population. Yeruham is comprised of a diverse human mosaic, and hence public discourse and shared social action are an important platform for the development of local economy, employment, infrastructure, the environment, intellectual property and the quality of life in this desert town. Thanks to the successful combination of active entrepreneurs and a supportive leadership, a change for the better is already visible on the ground. This model of activity was the first of its kind in the Negev and served as inspiration for additional municipal authorities in the Negev, who have since joined the Thinking Doing program.
Successful projects in Yeruham include, among others:
- Construction of a network of community gardens, community meeting places and community libraries;
- The Shade Trees project – adding and maintaining shade trees in public areas;
- “Improve the World” (Tikkun Olam) community woodworking workshops – a local project that evolved into a regional project;
- Subsidized community alternative healing clinic;
- Yeruham Mosaic – a project showcasing the legacy and heritage of Yeruham neighborhoods
- The Wagon project – a project promoting woodworking and design next to one’s home – following the operation of the first “wagon” in Yeruham, the project was expanded also to the Ramat Negev regional council, and later on also to the towns of Mitzpe Ramon and Dimona.
Expanding The Thinking Doing Project to new locations
The Thinking Doing program has expanded and currently operates also in the Tamar and Ramat Negev regional councils, as well as in the towns of Be’er Sheva, Dimona and Mitzpe Ramon. The program is carried out under the administration of ICL in collaboration with municipal authorities and NGOs, with volunteering of ICL employees and financial support of the company.
The “Negev Communities Leading Change” Conference
The Thinking Doing was the basis for an annual tradition of holding a mobile community conference, allowing a glimpse of the creative and community richness of Negev communities.
The conference, which manifests multi-sectorial partnership, began in Yeruham in 2018, as part of the long term partnership with the town. The 2019 conference was held in the Ramat Negev Regional Council.
The conference is held in full cooperation with the municipal authority and showcases the regional activities of various Negev social entrepreneurs, not necessarily belonging to the Thinking Doing network.
The conference provides an opportunity for an all-regional view of social resilience in the region, and allows for discourse between council and town leaders as part of traditional panel dealing with regional processes in community and environment, alongside the presentation of success stories of entrepreneurs and residents who promote change for the benefit of the Negev communities.
