This program is organized into three
stages. The first involved going into communities and training coaches in our
methodology and setting up the program. Once the coaches are trained, we can bring
in the players and begin to teach them elements of basketball. In Stage
II, we will
work with the players' parents and teachers to strengthen them academically.
In stage III we will bring our present Jewish teams and the new
Arab teams together to train together and to share classes in Hebrew and Arabic and
basketball theory. Teachers from the Arab schools and from the Jewish public schools
will work together to develop an enrichment program for the players that will teach them
each other's language, history and culture. The players will take on a group project
which will be presented to their respective community. The academic classes and
dialogues will be geared not only to basketball, but also to understanding their friends
and neighbors better, especially those who come from different backgrounds and
cultures
from them.
We need to hire instructors to teach Arab coaches now working with
Hapoel. Hapoel is teaching them how to set up their own sports program in their
communities with our continuing guidance. In order to expand the program beyond our
present facilities we will also need to rent gymnasium space in different parts of the
city.
Many of the Arab youngsters who want so much to participate are
unable to pay the modest membership fee of $50 per month for
the basketball program. We are already subsidizing or providing full
scholarships amounting to $35,000 per year, but we require another 52 scholarships for
this project in the coming year which there is no budget. We are determined not to
turn away any youngster with the sincere desire to learn basketball due to the inability to
pay.
This is a great challenge for Hapoel Jerusalem Youth Program and
we have accepted it. We offer one of the only youth programs where boys and girls
from all walks of life, both religious and secular, Jewish and Arab, can meet together
three or more evenings a week to play and learn together. Basketball creates
binding friendships and teaches tolerance and respect for others that last a lifetime.
EVALUATION PLAN:
We will administer a questionnaire prior to and after one year in
the program, designed to measure knowledge, skills, and attitude towards players from
other backgrounds. We will anticipate a marked change in all of these areas at the
end of the year. Another measurement of success will be if we are able to
recruit significant numbers of Arab players to participate in the program. Finally, when the
Arab coaches and players are fully integrated, they will then be placed, depending on
their ability, on existing teams.
