In this section you can find references and details of associations, institutions and bodies active in Palestine. The list also includes organisations and institutions which took part in the online conference “Palestinian Youth: Challenges and Opportunities”, which are particularly active in the field of youth work and civic engagement. In addition to that, you will find links to international voluntary networks and to institutions which provide financial support for intercultural projects.
Baladna is a non-profit organisation based in Haifa. The association seeks to empower Arab Palestinian youth in Israel as transformative agents of social and political change, enabling them to overcome discrimination and marginalization while advancing their individual and collective rights. Baladna engages in capacity building to enhance youth skills in grassroots activism, critical thinking, community organizing and advocacy while strengthening their understanding and application of principles of equality, democracy, social solidarity, and human rights.It also provides youth with structure and guidance as they build strategies to address the underlying structures and societal conditions precluding them from fulfilling their rights.
The International Palestinian Youth League (IPYL) is an independent non-governmental organisation based in Hebron. The IPYL was founded in May 1997 by a group of young Palestinians with the vision of empowering youth in order to confront the various economic, social and political challenges facing Palestine in the context of the on-going Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Among its many activities, IPYL has also run 75 work camps based in Palestine. These actions host groups of local and international volunteers in historic locations within the West Bank for periods usually of two weeks. The work completed during these camps has great symbolic significance for local Palestinians, for whom it has served as an expression of solidarity. Volunteers from all over the world have gained an appreciation of Palestine’s culture and history, as well as an understanding of the challenges brought about by the occupation.Â
The Youth Development Department was established in 2000 as part of the Arab Studies Society. YDD is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, working alongside community based organisations (CBOs) and youth institutions in Jerusalem to develop the capacity and skills of young Palestinians. YDD works as an umbrella organisation helping to raise awareness for CBOs, providing them with the resources and necessary contacts to help them establish their projects and youth programmes. For fifteen years, the Youth Development Department has collaborated with more than forty youth grassroots organisations in Jerusalem and has succeeded in reaching out to between ten to fifteen thousand young people, helping them succeed in having healthy and active lifestyles.
Service Civil International (SCI) is an international network of voluntary organisations created in 1920. SCI’s vision is a world of peace, social justice, and sustainable development, where all people live together with mutual respect and without recourse to any form of violence to solve conflicts. SCI’s mission is to promote a culture of peace by organising international volunteering projects with local and global impact. All SCI activities should be in line with SCI’s values: volunteering, non-violence, respect for human rights, solidarity, respect for the environment, inclusion, empowerment, cooperation.Each year, SCI organises international voluntary projects for people of all ages and backgrounds to promote a culture of peace. SCI’s movement, whose international secretariat is based in Antwerp, Belgium,  consists of 41 branches and more than 90 partner organisations.
The Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations is an International Non-Governmental Youth Organisation that represents national organisations which promote intercultural education, understanding and peace through voluntary service. The Alliance, founded in 1982, is presently made up of 50 full, associate and candidate member organisations.
Each member organisation runs an annual programme of International Voluntary Projects in their own country and exchanges volunteers with each other following the Alliance Quality Charter that stresses on the added value of volunteering, its educational aspect and on following quality standards agreed by members.
Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.It has an estimated budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the funding compared to its predecessor programme (2014-2020). The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.
It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda.
The Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures is a network of civil society organisations dedicated to promoting intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean region.
It was set up in 2005 by the governments of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed), a political agreement made in 1995 between the European Union and Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Syria and Turkey. Through the coordination of its 43 networks gathering together over 3,000 member organisations, the Anna Lindh Foundation promotes mutual respect and in-depth knowledge among the societies of the Euro-Mediterranean region, by bringing people together to work on common projects in the fields of education, media, culture and youth participation.