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The current issue casts a spotlight on the connection between work
perceptions and practical implementation. It expands the discussion
to discourse about working with young girls, leisure, the online
space, working with youth and young adults who lack family support,
career education, and volunteerism overseas. The issue is full of
ideas that I hope will continue to encourage fruitful conversations
over the degree of connection in the program development process
between three areas; world outlooks, intervention practices, and
the voice of the target population.
The first part, Professional Discourse, contains five articles that
focus on various types of discourse and the manner in which they
can influence service development. The issue opens with an article
by Adva Berkovich-Romano, program manager at JDC-Ashalim
for Girls and Women Programs, and Itzik Zehavy, director of
JDC-Ashalim’s Interdisciplinary Division. Their article discusses
the development of a “gender-sensitive” work perception at JDC-
Ashalim in work with adolescent girls and young women in situations
of risk. The writers present the various types of dialogue that they
have developed over the years, and their practical translation for
developing solutions in Israel, and particularly at JDC-Ashalim. The
article deals with a “gender-sensitive” perception that emphasizes
the unique characteristics of adolescent girls compared to adolescent
boys in coping with distress. Further, it discusses how this perception
constituted a basis at JDC-Ashalim in prior years for establishing
“Girls on the Map” – a comprehensive initiative for developing
solutions for the particular needs of young girls at risk. This initiative
operates in partnership with government ministries, associations
and organizations, in an effort to raise awareness of the particular
needs of young girls and women at risk among professionals, and
to support the development of suitable programs.
Both the second and third articles address the leisure culture. The
article by Elie Cohen-Gewerc of Beit Berl Academic College
suggests a connection between a person’s free time and the range
of possibilities in which one can fill this time. The article opens a
small window for somewhat philosophical aspects that form the
basis of the connection between free time and the leisure culture.