THE CITY'S YOUTH TOOK OVER FOR THE RAANANA MUNICIPALITY'S SENIOR PERSONNEL ON 26.2.07 - THE "CHANGING OF THE LEADERSHIP DAY"

Once a year, there is a day on which the city's youth take over the control of the municipality and become part of the municipality's ongoing activity for one day.

Last Monday, on the "Changing of the Leadership Day", 30 representatives from the youth council and the student councils had the opportunity to replace 30 top municipal officials, who cleared their busy schedules on behalf of the city's youth!

The Municipality employees included the young people in their work, while listening to issues pertinent to the city's youth which were raised by the representatives.

The event was organized by the Youth Department serves the city's youth and is attentive to the needs of this population as presented by the Municipal Youth Council. It makes every effort to assist the city's youth.

This year the Youth Council earmarked two main issues to promote on this special day:

The first was "Putting Youth in the Center" – Representatives of the Youth Council promoted the importance of including young people in the Municipality's central decision-making and to strengthen the position of the student councils and the Municipal Youth Council within the city's schools and throughout the city.

The second issue is the creation of a "Youth Employment Center". A large portion of Raanana's 4,000 teenagers, aged 14-18, are interested in finding employment. Council representatives have uncovered a need for a center to assist these young people in finding employment, and to inform them regarding their legal rights related to employment, and to provide guidance and training for business initiatives.

This special day was concluded by a summary meeting attended by all the participants held at Raanana's youth cafי - "The Martef (Basement)". Around a large conference table, the young people raised their insights and the day's accomplishments on behalf of the city's youth. The municipal officials gave their impressions, discussed their experiences and the lessons they learned from the event. The Youth Department representatives raised the idea of strengthening and developing ETGAR-MABAR classes for children with learning disabilities, from a leadership standpoint. Also raised was the proposal of Deputy Mayor Ronit Weintraub and her assistant Karen to establish a youth newspaper. A written declaration was proposed by the group stating that in two weeks a detailed plan will be drawn up for the establishment of a youth employment center, which will be organized by Tamar in conjunction with Dr. Avishai Ya'ar – Director of the Youth and Leisure Department.

The Municipality officials commended the day's efforts and noted that they learned a great deal from their replacements regarding the youth population and its needs and the other ideas raised. Mayor Nahum Hofree noted that this day was indeed a special event during which the heads of the major municipality departments learned more from the youth representatives than they learned from them. He hopes that from now on, each representative who participated in this event will keep in contact with the official that he/she replaced. Moreover, in the future, more time will be allocated for an additional day such as this, in order to learn even more about the issues.

The event was organized and summarized by Noga Gur Arieh, Chairwoman of the Municipal Youth Council. She noted that the city's youth are very serious and consider this day to be a platform to develop and shape the leaders of the future. She hopes that the officials will include the Raanana's young people in important decisions regarding the city's youth and its philosophy. Ofek Ron, Spokesman for the Municipal Youth Council, noted that he felt that the young people had achieved their goals for this day and it was a catalyst for continued joint professional efforts in the future.

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