A comprehensive roadmap to promoting children, youth, and young adults along the path of socio-economic mobility. This is achieved through collaborative efforts between various departments within the municipal ecosystem, fostering the development of human capital and organizational resilience.
The Background
The potential of the younger generation to ascend the socio-economic ladder compared to their parents is significantly influenced by the extent of opportunities provided to them. These opportunities are linked to their physical living conditions, the efficacy of law enforcement and personal security in their surroundings, the accessibility of reliable healthcare services, the caliber of both formal and informal educational systems, the availability of higher education and quality employment prospects, and the presence of adequate welfare services when required. Consequently, a child’s likelihood of advancing on the socio-economic ladder is inherently tied to the opportunities afforded by his or her place of residence.
The link between locality and intergenerational mobility has spurred a growing trend of devolving budgets and responsibilities from central government to regional and local levels, yielding numerous benefits. Local authorities are equipped with a profound understanding of the population and its needs, a holistic perspective of the chronological and interdisciplinary service continuum, and an enhanced capacity to devise responsive strategies aligned with local culture. Moreover, local authorities exhibit greater agility compared to the national government, enabling seamless integration of stakeholders and engagement with entities operating within their region, thus facilitating adaptable policymaking that addresses on-the-ground necessities.
The Challenge
Populations residing in the geo-social periphery exhibit limited mobility in comparison to other demographic segments within Israel. These local authorities typically occupy the lower socio-economic tiers, struggling with complex economic, systemic, cultural, and human capital challenges. The majority of these authorities tend to prioritize immediate concerns, often failing to recognize their role in shaping the future quality of life for the youth within their jurisdictions. Additionally, the legislative framework in Israel lacks provisions regarding the role of local authorities in facilitating achievable social mobility.
Apart from having constrained budgets, local authorities situated in the geo-social periphery exhibit a lower level of emphasis on professional personnel training compared to authorities in the central regions. They face complex obstacles in attracting and retaining a quality workforce, and struggle with the issue of well-off residents departing. Consequently, while localities within higher socio-economic clusters possess the manpower and resources to “enhance” the array of services available to each resident, those in the lower clusters are compelled to suffice with basic offerings, engaged in a battle for mere survival. This reality perpetuates a vicious cycle that strengthens the advantaged, weakens the disadvantaged, exacerbates differences in opportunities between children raised in different localities, and consequently deepens gaps in society.
The Opportunity
The Local Government Mobility Initiative creates a multifaceted municipal ecosystem with the objective of advancing children, youth, and young adults within local authorities situated in the socio-geographic periphery. This initiative operates across five key domains that research has shown to significantly influence the potential for socio-economic advancement: education, economy and employment, healthcare, digital literacy, and a sense of community. Within the framework of this initiative, skilled professionals collaborate with locality staff to develop a tailored strategic roadmap that addresses these five areas of life. This process includes extensive diagnosis and mapping, accurate data-driven strategic planning, the construction of a proactive action plan, and ongoing guidance throughout the process of putting it into action. In addition to managing collaborations between the local authority and initiative partners, the initiative also seeks to involve more strategic collaborators at the local level. This could include private businesses, local government departments, and academic institutions.
The initiative results in an all-inclusive program designed to boost socio-economic mobility within the local authority. This program is comprised of five distinct planning processes, each addressing a specific area. The initiative team provides ongoing support to the authority for a span of five years – from the initial planning stages to execution, and develop the essential infrastructure and expertise needed to support sustained operations.
Local Government Mobility in Tiberias
The Tiberias Local Government Mobility Initiative was born out of a pilot project initiated by the Menomadin Foundation, with the key intention of crafting a strategic roadmap with an educational focus for the city. The process involved setting up a network of stakeholders dedicated to enhancing education within the city. The outcome of this endeavor was a model that outlines the process of crafting high-quality education, capable of being tailored to diverse local jurisdictions, while embracing their distinctive local features.
A crucial understanding acquired from the education initiative was that the advancement of education is closely linked to a broader context. Consequently, the decision was made to expand the initiative’s scope to encompass additional municipal systems. The City of Tiberias submitted a tender published by the Ministry of Welfare and had been selected to participate in the Local Government Mobility initiative. This allowed the Menomadin Foundation, the Joint-Ashalim, and Tiberias’ municipal team to collaborate with the local community, and actively involve essential sectors like education, welfare, healthcare, and community services in a joint effort to enhance the prospects of children, youth, and young adults within the city across various life domains.
The strategic planning methods combine insights from worldwide research that highlight effective approaches for increasing social mobility, customized to meet the specific criteria of Tiberias. Creative planning methodologies that encourage agile and promptly responsive strategies are also deployed. By incorporating constant measurement, the operational workplan is designed to encourage decision-making that relies on data and focused on achieving results.
