About the Social Development Committee
The Social Development Committee (SDC) is an unaffiliated, non-profit organization of the Haifa Arab community. Established in 1984, the SDC evolved from a group of Haifa parents who organized to redress the lack of educational activities for Arab children to a registered NGO that occupies a central role in community affairs. Located in Wadi Nisnas, the heart of Arab society in Haifa, our finger is firmly on the pulse of community issues. Our projects both address the consequences of systematic discrimination faced by the Arab community and empower the community to transcend its disadvantaged position. As an Arab organization, we strive for equality and justice for our community. As an Israeli organization, we strive to amplify the voice of the Arab minority within the democratic system.
Goals
- To improve the socio-economic position of Arabs in Haifa;
- To maintain and preserve Palestinian Arab heritage, history and architecture in Haifa;
- To build co-existence between Jewish and Arab communities in Haifa;
- To develop and strengthen equality in civil society in Haifa;
- To strengthen Haifa’s Arab community and empower them to access their rights and address discrimination against them;
- To provide assistance and support to Haifa’s most disadvantaged residents such as women, children and the elderly;
- To link Arabs living in Haifa with those who formerly lived in Haifa and now live in the Diaspora.
Main
Activities
- Strengthening Community Participation: a 3-year capacity-building and organizational development project;
- Community Advocacy Project: an advocacy and lobbying initiative addressing critical issues exposed in our 2004 socio-economic survey of the Haifa Arab community;
- Community Action Against Home Demolition: legal campaign against proposed road expansion and building demolitions in Wadi Nisnas;
- Democracy and Rights Media Project: a joint high school co-existence project with Leo Baeck;
- Mixed Arab-Jewish Summer Camp: an integrated summer camp with Leo Baeck;
- Preparation for First Grade: a teacher-training program that addresses the unique needs of Arab children in mixed cities in weekly meetings with children and parents;
- Protection and Detection of Abused Children: a teacher-training program and school curriculum against violence implemented in several Haifa Arab schools;
- Home Repair: assistance to Arab families living in uninhabitable public housing to make essential repairs;
- Warm Hearts: direct relief for community’s most impoverished members;
- Joint art initiative with Jewish and Arab Israeli, Palestinian, German, and French children;
Services
- Non-profit dental clinic;
- Arabic Language Library and Pedagogy Center;
- Pre-School;
- Enrichment activities
Publications
- Know Your Rights Handbook
- From the History of the Armed Palestinian Struggle - Strike and Revolution, 1936-39
- Discussion of Palestinian Poetry
- Guide to Vocational Education
- The Civil Rights of Working Youth
- We Want Our Rights Now
- The Significance and Role of Parents' Committees
- The Home
- Guide to Haifa 2002
- Arabs in Haifa 2001 - Reality and Needs
- Haifa, History and Memory
- Haifa Arab Streets
- The Socio-Economic Position of the Haifa Arab Community: Field Study
| 
