Despite the numerical strength of the Palestinian minority in Israel (1 million people), enormous gaps persist in living standards, social services, education, employment and infrastructure. The bleak social reality faced by the Palestinian minority requires community activation by professional project managers, with strong community organizing skills, who are able to play an active role in bringing about social change through community based development programs. Ahali, in conjunction with the Goree Institute of Senegal and Yenza Learning Systems in South Africa, developed and implemented a Training of Trainers Project in 2000. The project was successful in training, for the first time, a group of eight professional trainers and project managers. With this core team of trainers, Ahali intends to spread the methods and tools of project development and implementation within the community.
That is why Ahali is further developing its Training of Trainers Project: to expand a local cadre of professional grassroots activists and community organizers who can mobilize the community to act on their needs and interests, and to contribute to the strengthening of civil society.
The Project
Ahali's will recruit participants for the second phase of the TOT Project to train them in the methods of community organizing and project development. Participants will be trained to develop and implement individual projects that serve the needs of their specific community. Every project will involve a range of conceptual and practical skills associated with community organizing. A series of Modules of Community Organizing Methods previously developed will be further expanded with new material and published for the first time in Arabic. These modules, tailored with relevance to Arab grassroots needs in Israel, will consist of tools such as booklets, brochures, a CD-ROM, and other relevant materials, and provide a practical aid and systematic approach for future trainees as they expand their activities into the larger community. Future TOT activities will focus especially on students and Palestinians living in mixed Arab-Jewish cities.
The Goals of project include:
To instill the concept of community organizing into the Palestinian minority in Israel as a means for social change.
To tailor a culturally sensitive approach in organizing and activating the Palestinian grassroots community in Israel.
To train an expanded group of activists to become professional community organizers in a range of areas and interests.
To develop a curriculum for the systematic learning of the methods of community organizing and project management.
Support for this Project will enable Ahali to:
Gather a group of consultants to advise the project
Purchase computers and audio-visual aids
Prepare a TOT curriculum and other related materials in Arabic, including a CD-ROM;
Utilize the core team of trainers for future courses and Ahali project
Recruit appropriate trainees;
Conduct the training sessions;
Follow-up projects developed in the training courses.
The Arab Farmers 
