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Gender Sensitive Employment Model- GSM
Our Gender Sensitive Employment Team emerged from the need to give special attention to gender related issues regarding young women at risk in the work place. The goal of this project is to build a gender sensitive employment model (GSM) which our forum could assimilate through different employment programs designated for young women at risk.
Project's background and significance:
Our teams' goal is to collect knowledge regarding the different barriers young women face in the employment sector, to exam the influence of gender on the inclusion of young women at risk in employment and to establish a model that will present these barriers and offer attainable solutions.
Project's steps:
First, recognizing different barriers that emphasize the need to deepen the research on the topic, including: center-periphery gaps, lack of education, employers discrimination and bias toward young women at risk. sexual harassment in the workplace, gender discrimination, wage gaps and difficulties to stand out in the presence of male coworkers.
Step 1: Collaborating with the Social-Legal Clinic for Youth and young adults at risk in the Collage of Management. In 2017, the clinic's students met with professionals from the field and with young women at risk in order to map the existing barriers regarding long term involvement in employment, and to identify different methods to overcome these gender barriers.
Step 2: Conducting a vast research, which it's results and conclusions will generate the model. The research begun in February 2019 and is due to be finalized in January 2021.
Step 3: Initiating and producing a conference in collaboration with the Collage of Management on the topic "Employment for Young Women at Risk", where the model will be presented. The conference took place in June 2019
Step 4: Creating the GSM – based on the results of the research.
Step 5: Assimilating the model in different employment programs that targets young women at risk.
The team is currently working with the researcher on the questionnaire to be distributed at the end of 2019.
The project is held with the support of NCJW organization and Bank Leumi
Policy Change - Handling Debts of Young Women at Risk
Project's background and significance:
Debts are stressful and challenging for every individual, let alone for young women who lack funds or family support networks.
Many young women deal with significant debts in the process of emerging into adult, independent life. Those debts create an immense burden on their day to day life and inclusion in society, hinder their earning capacity (they cannot open a bank account), and increase their psychological barriers and sense of insecurity. Unfortunately, many young women at risk live in hiding and fear of the different governmental agencies, thus preventing them from turning to different services for financial or emotional support and affecting their ability to exercise their rights.
Moreover, being a young woman in financial insecurity can lead to a life of survival in the margins of society, and might create relationships of dependency upon men, such as partners, employers and landlords.
Project's goals:
Raising different relevant services awareness to the problem, in order to create solutions and programs preventing the formation of debts and diminishing existing debts among young Women at risk.
Project's steps:
Step 1: Creating partnerships: Yated program and the Legal Aid department in the Ministry of Law have joined forces in order to lead this initiative with our forum. In 2019 the "JDC Israel- Ashalim" joined this partnership.
Step 2: Round table-In October 2018, a meeting of representatives from all three sectors and a few governmental ministries took place. In the meeting we presented the issue of debts and their adverse consequences on young women at risk. In addition, a woman told her own personal story regarding dealing with heavy debts.
Step 3: Mapping the different factors related to the issue and existing options that try to address the problem, in order to offer operative tools for workers who try to assist young women at risk with their debts.
Step 4: Producing a manual for social workers and assistances which will guide them on how to help young women at risk with their debts.
Step 5: Holding a professional conference to which we'll summon professionals and representatives from all sectors. The conference will allow us to present the topic, offer information and tools that could diminish or assist in closing debts and brainstorm the different aspects that still requires change in order to decrease the prevalence of the issue.
Step 6: Policy change with the relevant services in order to diminish the phenomenon.
The first three steps have already been executed, and our debt handling team continue to address the topic in collaboration with the Yated program and the Legal Aid in the Ministry of Law.
