Service learning is valuable to PSD because it allows us to advance sustainability in several areas at once. First, it creates community development as we use community members to identify and address problems. Second, it encourages youth engagement, as it is young people who are the main targets of such programs and are challenged to change their lives and communities. Third, service learning is a form of capacity building, giving youth valuable skills. PSD has put on several service learning activities in the past few months. Here are a few:
Twasel Initiative
In coordination with the Ministry of Education, PSD chose two local schools (Almazinyya and King Talal) to engage 150 students in communication, leadership, and CYD training for 1 hour a week. Afterwards, they revitalized their schools: students went to work cleaning the courtyard, painting walls, and planting trees and flowers.
Junior Police Program
In Nablus and Salfeet the PSD youth groups implemented the idea of the JPP in cooperation with the police and education directorates in the aforementioned districts. In mid-January the program started in schools of Nablus and Salfeet, adopting a peer-to-peer approach which engaged last years' trained participants and their peers.
Ambitious Lawyer Initiative
This initiative, which took place in May, engaged twenty young lawyers who wished to enhance their interpersonal skills. Bader Alhudhud trained participants in collaboration leadership, communication skills, job ethics and community development. At the end of the training the participants were divided into four groups based on university major to develop community initiatives in “Democracy and Human Rights.” Participants then established the winning initiative, a Human Rights Clinic, at the Nablus CLDC to provide younger generations with workshops to raise their awareness of their rights in the community.
On November 1, 2011, members of the Salfeet Police Department received certificates for completing an English training course given by PSD. The course developed the English skills of the police officers, focusing on phrases and vocabulary necessary for communicating with English-speaking visitors. The students studied topics relevant to their work – including making introductions, asking for identification, giving directions, and responding to complaints. They learned through lectures and handouts, and practiced their skills by role playing as police officers helping English-speaking tourists. This course lasted three months and met twice weekly. The 23 police officers in the class received credit for a total of 50 hours of English.
The Nablus CLDC has spent the week carrying out activities and programs in its many areas of activity, including ICT training, English conversation classes, and the NETKETABi program. In ICT, the Nablus CLDC has continued its computer classes for all students in various subjects. In the English conversation classes, the classes for this month have undergone a more extensive leveling system, in which a detailed verbal examination was used to place students into one of four levels. Currently in the English conversation class there are two level one classes, two level two classes, a level three class, and a level four class. The addition of two high school classes and a primary school class on Saturdays have brought the total number of students to about one hundred.
