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First and foremost, JDC-ELKA's programs are about making a difference in the way senior executives in Israel's public service do their jobs.
We have asked a number of graduates to describe their experience in JDC-ELKA's programs - if and how their performance was influenced by participation in our courses.
Here are their stories.
| Policy Making and Administration in the Public Sector (Level B) |  |
Much More than Child's Play
Miriam Bar-Giora specialized in Kindergarten Education for her Masters degree. Little did she realize that years later she would be serving as the Director of Services for the Elderly at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, responsible for community services for Israel's 730,000 senior citizens.
Indeed, most of what she learned about management only came about through experience and trial and error during her 27 years of service at the Ministry. Until JDC-ELKA's Level B course.
"I am responsible for 200 senior citizens homes," she explained, "170 day centers, 1,000 clubs and 130 sheltered homes. There is a lot of problem solving needed and efficient organization is vital. The JDC-ELKA course has helped me to sharpen my skills.
I've come away from the course a much better informed manager, feeling reinvigorated and better able to meet the challenges of Israel's aging population."
Another important message in the course is one that is intrinsic to all the activities of JDC-Israel. Explains Bar-Giora: "I have adopted a different management style since taking the course. I utilize a lot more teamwork. I tended to make decisions hastily without carefully weighing up the alternative options. Now I consult a lot more with my senior staff."
Teamwork and forming partnerships. Just like in kindergarten. But for Bar-Giora and Israel's senior citizens who depend upon her care, this is much more than child's play.
| Policy Making and Administration in the Public Sector (Level B) | |
Bettering the Health of Thousands
Dov Fast holds the health and well-being of thousands in his hands.
Fast is Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Health. As Deputy Director, he influences over 30,000 Ministry of Health employees, most of whom work in state run hospitals and clinics. And these employees touch the lives of tens of thousands of men, women and children who use Israel's health system, every day.
Fast is better able to face this challenge after having graduated from JDC-ELKA's Level B Program. "I gained a greater appreciation of the macro aspects of my work during the program," recounted Fast. "Health is not just about health matters. It is a mixture of administration and organization, economics and finance, politics, welfare policy and legal matters. The course gave me a good comprehensive grounding in all these factors and how they inter-relate."
"One important lesson I learned at JDC-ELKA," he explained, "is the importance of long-term strategy and planning." Indeed, such an outlook is critical, now more than ever: Israel, in essence, has been at war since September 2000, and this war is taking its toll on the well-being of many of Israel's citizens. With a growing number of victims, and health care workers being placed under exceptional circumstances on a regular basis, the need for effective leaders with a clear vision in the highest echelons of Israel's health and social service sector is even more important.
The JDC-ELKA course helps the most senior managers in public service understand, the problems that confront them, and the processes by which they can be solved. "The course gave me time to think and see things more clearly. It sharpened and brought into focus a lot of my ideas." He is now taking what he has learned and is working to better the lives of those he can touch.
| Policy Making and Administration in the Public Sector (Level B) | |
Question First
As director of the Ministry of Education's special education division, the decisions made in Ruth Penn's office affect special-needs children in schools throughout the country. Her key position made her an ideal candidate for a JDC-ELKA's Level B program.
The program had some surprises in store even for this seasoned professional. "I couldn't understand why one of the discussions scheduled was on foreign affairs", she recalls. "What possible relevance could that have for my work with blind or disabled or autistic children?"
But the speaker's talk of geopolitics did help Ruth. "He taught us that to get to the right answers - to solutions - you first have to ask the right questions and understand the issues at a deeper level," she says. "I realized that to really lead change, I needed to change how I think".
Change she did. "We've wanted to develop a curriculum for autistic children, but have never managed to move it along. So we started asking why a curriculum isn't already in place? That helped us identify the obstacles. And by understanding the difficulties, solutions fell into place".
"Now we're making that curriculum a reality," she says. "JDC-ELKA helped me do that!"
| Management Development - Directors of Social Services in Local Authorities | |
The Tools to do a Better Job
Vardit Zik was a social worker - and a good one. So good, in fact, that the Jerusalem municipality tapped her to head up social services for 60,000 residents living in the city's northern district. But, while her experience had given Vardit ideas for needed improvements, it hadn't prepared her to make change happen. And when she tried to get one project off the ground - a volunteer-run thrift shop in a poor neighborhood - she found herself stymied at every turn.
Then she heard about a JDC-ELKA program to help directors of social services like her improve their effectiveness, and signed up. The management skills it gave her, the way it opened her mind to the new ways of thinking her position demanded, opened doors she never knew existed.
Vardit took her thrift shop plans through those doors - and found a government ministry willing to give the project the crucial seed funding it needed. "I'd done things a certain way," she says. "The program shook me up, changed me - so now I can make changes I always knew were needed."
| The 21st Century Forum for Mayors | |
Only a Phone Call Away
It never occurred to former Mayor Shai Hermesh* to pick up the phone and call another mayor to consult regarding how to overcome a problem. That is, until he participated in JDC-ELKA's 21st Century Forum for Mayors.
"The most important advantage of the Forum was in the meetings themselves," explained Hermesh, "and in the exchange of ideas and subsequent networking that took place between the mayors. This gave me the practical know-how to advance projects that are crucial for the future of my region such as a new high-tech park and a regional college."
Such an opportunity is highly valued by Hermesh. But more importantly, it benefits the 6,000 residents of his council. "I strive to provide our citizens with the highest possible quality of life," he explained, "and the best available services. We have undertaken many ventures in partnership with JDC over the years."
"I was able to meet mayors representing all sectors of the country's population," he recalled. "Big cities, development towns and Arab, Druze and Beduin minorities. But most importantly, the Forum brought me together with mayors who were confronted with similar problems to ours and with whom I could consult and draw on their experience."
Thanks to JDC-ELKA, mayors from some 120 local authorities that participated in the Forum now know that advice is only a phone call away.
* In August 2002, Shai Hermesh was appointed Treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI)
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