Michal Gilboa Ater | CEO, Democratic Institute
The group of residents “Gevanim (shades) in Hatikva” constitutes a pilot for the Democratic Institute’s model “Gevanim in the Neighborhood”. It offers a possible answer to the question “How do we turn residents into partners?”
The Hatikva Neighborhood is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, with a complex mosaic of residents that is splitting and fading. There is concern that it may even disappear.
?How did it begin
A group of residents gathered from diverse communities, sectors, age groups, genders, occupations and more. What they all had in common was the desire for activist innovation, taking shared responsibility for the neighborhood and holding a fruitful dialogue between all the partners in the group and outside of it.
The group went through a process of self-definition, placing it as a mission team, whose goal is to create a reality on the ground, with close partnership, perseverance and a positive connection to the local authority. Despite the various differences between participants, a common language was develoepd between the neighborhood’s residents, who define the neighborhood’s past, present and future as a whole.
Already now, when the process is still underway, you could say the project is a success story. The group managed to position itself as a significant player for municipality officials – one that can take part in decision making processes and have an influence on them.
Three anchors were defined, which the group chose based on their inclination and the neighborhood’s needs: an historic anchor, local business anchor, and demographic anchor
- The historic anchor deals with turning the neighborhood’s past into a touristic and educational lever. Whilst doing so, they realized one morning that the route of the future light rail that would pass through their neighborhood, was planned to pass over a 19th century well house. The group managed to prevent the destruction of the well and take action to turn it into a conservation and heritage site
- The business anchor in the neighborhood is working towards turning the market and business space in the city into an economic center of attraction for the benefit of the neighborhood’s sustainability. They were thus involved in choosing the route of the new pedestrian mall, participated in a tour that investigated options for its location, and ultimately influenced the final selection
- The demographic anchor deals with building a multiyear work plan to map the populations of the neighborhood, understand the causes for families leaving the neighborhood, and draw conclusions in order to make an impact on the neighborhood’s future, as well as the infrastructure it is to provide its residents. An in-depth survey they conducted serves as a tool to understand the steps required
The feeling of success toward the process was felt and well seen in an exposure evening that took place a month ago in Beit Dani. Our group members participated in the event, along with municipality executives, different officials and city district members – a meeting between residents and authority, which led to the creation of work groups, meetings for challenge development and more.
The process is a success, both in terms of relations between different players in the authority field, and immediate and future outcomes in the neighborhood. The process is still underway, but the model already seems to be proving itself and is about to expand to additional authorities these very days.
