This week I was fortunate enough once again to visit another one of the wonderful YEDID Citizen Rights Centers, this time in the nearby city of Petach Tikvah. My immediate impression was that it was much like the center in Tel Aviv, just on a smaller scale for a smaller city. What's unique about the Petach Tikvah center however, is that it has a really awesome roommate. We'll get to that in a minute.
I'm greeted by the center's director Liat, who's in a meeting with someone, so I take a seat and a minute to observe. It dawns on me that I'm in a classroom, sitting in one of those desk/chair combo thingys that I haven't seen in a while, and in front of me is a whiteboard. For a second I almost want to learn something but quickly remember that I've yet to finish paying my loans from my first college experience, and I don't want to revisit any memories of debt. Two volunteers are hard at work in front of the whiteboard, one sitting with an elderly man and the other with two women. A few other volunteers are also busy working. One volunteer comes in to try and work but due to limited space on this particularly busy day, she's free to go as there's nowhere for her to sit. She sticks around anyway. When Liat gets free she comes over to explain our surroundings a bit and give me a tour. Much to my surprise, she tells me that the room we are sitting in effectively comprises the entire center! There are 2 large desks with computers, a printer, and a cabinet with various office supplies. And that's basically it. Coming off the elevator I walked down a hall with a kitchen and few other offices lining it, but Liat explains that those rooms don't technically belong to YEDID. Instead they are the property of Paamonim, another volunteer-based non-profit that focuses on helping families get their finances in order. When the Petach Tikvah center's previous sponsor had to withdraw funding due to financial difficulties of its own, Paamonim stepped in to offer a new space for the center to reside. So far it's been working great, and thankfully physical space isn't the only thing Paamonim has to offer.
Liat uses an interesting metaphor to help me understand more fully the relationship between the 2 organizations. "We are the social emergency room", she says, while Paamonim is dealing with issues that are more big picture or long term. They are financial coaches, engaging every member of a family and not just individuals, to figure out lasting solutions that will eventually effect the financial change needed in a household. The work being done at the YEDID center is more immediate. For example, I later find out that the elderly man at the front of the classroom needs housing, and he needs it now. Why is that? He was living with a woman for about 10 years who recently passed away. Now her children who lived with her want him gone. He has no pension and in his condition, no real earning power. So he needs a place to sleep tonight. That is a real problem in need of a real and immediate solution, and that's the type of problem YEDID hears everyday. Liat and the other volunteers are securing a spot for the man in a state shelter for the elderly. His next option is the street. As she tells me this story the ER metaphor seems perfectly apt. Common issues that the center sees regularly involve forced evictions, public housing, labor law disputes and unmanageable debts. Liat tells me of one case that wrapped up just recently. A woman entangled with Social Security was awarded an increase to her monthly sum of 1000 extra shekels, retroactive to about 50 months. Her file is now closed, a special occurrence at the YEDID offices because oftentimes clients' problems are so multilayered. But here was a job a long time in the making, now finished. There's a big smile on Liat's face as she speaks. "It was a great phone call to make before the holiday," she says of letting the woman know about the success they'd achieved. I automatically assume that any such holdups are due to unrelenting bureaucracy on the part of the system. Liat corrects me, explaining that much of the wait this time was the fault of the client, refusing to complete paperwork in a timely manner. "It's not always the authority," Liat says. "Sometimes trust issues arise, sometimes it is just a process. But during process empowerment arises." I'm reminded of the conversations I had at the Tel Aviv center, where the same subject of clients' self sabotage is also regarded as something that's simply a reality of the job. My hope for this particular woman is that through her victory, she has become empowered to trust the process and use the system to her advantage.
Before leaving I meet with Uriel, head of Paamonim. He speaks very highly of YEDID and it's work and very much enjoys the partnership they share. NGO's are not always as smart as they could be about employing each others' resources to get results. Instead I'm told, there is competition where there should be cooperation. Uriel is happy Paanomin has been able to keep the Petach Tikvah center open and he wouldn't have it any other way. There's a lot of talk about the need to help one another, but what's happening between these two organizations is living that that truth, Uriel says. Help is a two way street. Even if we have separate individual goals, there is one common end goal, to help people, he explains. So in terms of working together, Uriel simply shrugs "why not?" Why wouldn't these two groups work together, he asks? It's common sense. I learn another Hebrew word which really excites me. Uriel refers to YEDID as "havera". Liat tells me it means "friend." Confused, I say that I thought "yedid" actually meant friend. No, Uriel jumps in. Yedid is more of an acquaintance, while havera is a close friend. We close the meeting and Liat asks if I have any more questions. I say I think I pretty much get it, using my own metaphor to convey my understanding. "It sounds like YEDID and Paamonim are the perfect marriage." "The perfect marriage?," Liat responds. "I like that."
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