About
How was Shiam Established?
Shiam is the spinoff organization of the internationally recognized Palestinian Youth Local Councils (YLCs) program initiated by Global Communities in 2008 to develop youth as accountable leaders’ who believe in and practice democracy, good governance, equality, humanity and their own agency to effect positive change in their society. Shiam organization was founded by Palestinian leading youth advocates, YLCs alumni, and non-partisan civic engagement activists. It was established to sustain the YLCs venture, scale-up and institutionalize its national presence, enhance coordination, networking and synergies between all YLCs, provide an advocacy platform for effective policy change, and build youth capacity through targeted trainings and practical engagement in their communities’ social, cultural and economic development.
Our Work
Shiam works in collaboration with local Palestinian communities to enhance the capacities and potentials of youth, women, People with Dissabilities, and people of expertise (elderly). We work on enabling our participants to become positive leaders of change in each of their respective communities. Our approach in creating impact is as by acting as:
Administrators through working on overarching issues affecting YLCs such as adoption of unified Bylaws, commitment to term elections, streamlining and unifying trainings and skills development, forming and solving YLCs, or making decision that require collective agreement
Influencers through working with relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors to create linkages and build on synergies, advocate with policy makers to pass laws and regulations on youth issues such as voting age and role in local economic development. In specific, work with the Ministry of Local Government to advocate for policies that promote youth engagement in the local governance sector through the YLCs as a tested successful model, their sustainability and role on the local community based level
Mobalizers through creating and managing a YLCs network and mobilizing public, private and civil society actors in support of the YLCs and their community development and problem solving projects. We estalis
Vision & mission
Our Mission:
Support Platforms and Initiatives that Promote Youth Social, Economic, & Civic Participation. To achieve our mission, we work in a participatory approach to promote youth engagement and inclusion in their local communities. Shiam team is committed to engaging in different project and initiatives that support youth in becoming key actors across of Palestine.
Our Vision:
Enabler for Palestinian Grassroot Youth Leadership Spreading the principles of democracy and good governance among Palestinian youth and enabling them to take leadership roles in their societies, based on national foundations and human values, through active participation in democratically elected volunteer youth local councils across of Palestine.