Final Report Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Primary Implementing Organization Unistream 1 Description of Work Unistream’s Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today was an innovative, three-year program that brought together youth from seven socio-economically disadvantaged Arab and Jewish Israeli communities (Akko, Nazareth Ilit, Julis, Netanya, Afula, Sahknin, and Rahat) ages 14-18 to work together toward a mutual goal of developing, establishing and managing their own startup companies. The program employed a people to people approach to conflict mitigation, while supplying participants with tools for economic empowerment – Unistream’s unique mechanism to enacting long term and sustainable impact. The process included brainstorming and formulating an idea, establishing a company, assigning roles, planning and executing market research, writing a business plan and working to raise capital through activities in the Entrepreneurship Centers and peak regional and national events. This specially honed business pedagogy was tailored for maximum meaningful, people to people interaction that would in turn spark the desired change. In the process, participants gained mutual understanding, as evidenced through monitoring and evaluation, for members of the other group, based on shared goals; while at the same time learning valuable business skills and expanding their professional networks that created a conducive environment for socioeconomic advancement. In addition, participants received leadership and social entrepreneurship training, engaging their broader communities through volunteer initiatives extending the impact of the program to indirect beneficiaries. All activities took place under the guidance of Jewish and Arab mentors, which, as discussed below, added both the professional and business elements as well as further Jewish/Arab interaction. Unistream's proposed theory of change was that (1) Youth are agents of change - If we change how youth perceive one another through working together towards mutual goals (i.e. building a start-up and social ventures from scratch), then their prejudices will decrease. This will lead to a ripple effect, impacting their families, peers and communities, thus facilitating widespread social change. (2) Socio economic mobility builds peace - If we equip participants with a practical toolbox of business skills, networking with key leaders, ability to successfully interface with members of other groups, then we will promote the full inclusion of talented Arab- and Jewish-Israelis from the socio-economic periphery into Israeli society in general and the work force in particular. Building on this theory of change, Unistream proposed a two pronged approach to promote greater understanding between Jews and Arabs and inclusion in Israeli society and the business world. First, by introducing disadvantaged Arab and Jewish-Israeli youth to the world of business development, Unistream provided them with tangible skills, fostering cross-sector social integration between the different groups. Secondly, the program provided a rare opportunity for Arab and Jewish-Israeli youth to interact and work towards mutual goals. In Unistream, the appeal for joining lies in the economic development, hence both Jews and Arabs join the program, even if it is their deeply held prejudices. Thus Arab- and Jewish -Israeli 2 youth, who perhaps had been reluctant to even meet members of the other group, find themselves forging relationships that they never would have thought possible. By introducing disadvantaged Arab and Jewish-Israeli youth to the business world and entrepreneurial mindset, while providing them tangible skills, Unistream fostered positive cross-sector social integration between Arab and Jewish Israelis. Consequently, Unistream paved their way to becoming integrated members of Israeli society, committed to coexistence. Results Achieved 1. Objectives The primary objective of Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today was to raise tolerance between Arab and Jewish Israeli youth through professional interactions and cooperation, utilizing the business and entrepreneurial platforms. This included establishing a connection and working relationships between Israeli Jews and Arabs by utilizing these platforms to promote greater understanding, fostering economic opportunities for low-income Israeli Arab and Jewish youth, promoting inclusion in Israeli society in general, and in the workforce in particular, and improving accessibility of Israeli Jews and Arabs to each other, providing disadvantaged Israeli Arab and Jewish youth with knowledge and practical skills to improve their socio-economic status and engaging participants’ families / broader community through social entrepreneurship activities. In order to meet these objectives Unistream provided Israeli Jews and Arabs with opportunities to meet and interact in a supportive and encouraging environment which included all business and entrepreneurship activities at the seven Entrepreneurship Centers, Twinning activities, and peak regional and national events ranging from Business Hackathons, Entrepreneur of the Year Competitions, Innovation Days, to name just a few. The program also granted participants with access to a forum of over 4,700 business mentors that provided their knowledge, skills, expertise, and connections to help promote the socioeconomic mobility of the participants. The participants had the shared goal of business and social ventures which sparked their interest in engaging and working from different ethnic and religious backgrounds while also forging the next generation of socially conscious business leaders. As a result, there was a significant change in behavior and attitudes upon the completion of the program. This is numerically represented via indicators below. 2. Status of Indicators Targ Actual FY3 Baselin Target Result Target Actual et # level Indicator Code and Name Type e Value FY 1 FY1 FY2 FY2 FY3 3 1.6.2-01-cust: Percentage of targeted participants who agree that they have better understanding of the others that 65% 81% 70% 69% 75% 77% Goal / helped in changing their attitude 1 Objective positively MGT NA 1.6.2-12 Number of USG-funded events, trainings, or activities designed 853 1090 to build support for peace or 853 1108 853 978 23.3% 2 reconciliation on a mass scale OP/ PPR NA deviation 1.6.2-14 Number of people participating in USG-supported events, 284 trainings, or activities designed to build OP/ PPR 300 286 340 300 350 27.9% mass support for peace and deviation 3 reconciliation NA Number of joint initiatives developed and presented by Jewish Israeli and Custom NA 9 9 9 9 9 9 4 OI Arab Israeli youth. Number of startups presented at the end Custom NA 18 20 18 22 18 21 5 IR1 of the year competition % Of Participants who agree they increased their level of understanding Custom NA 65% 93% 70% 81% 75% %71 of the business and entrepreneurial 6 IR1 worlds Number of mixed Arab and Jewish Israeli youth events held on a Custom NA 13 13 13 13 13 12 7 IR2 regional/national level 3. Lessons Learned Transformation of the Organization The partnership with USAID has fundamentally transformed Unistream organizationally both in terms of its integration of CMM principles into the DNA of the organization as well as organizationally efficiency and sustainability as it relates to effectiveness and impact. In regards to the former, Unistream had minimal experience executing conflict mitigation programs. In fact, Jewish and Arab participants only interacted at Unistream’s mixed Entrepreneurship Centers, of which there were two at the time and did not have parity between the number of Jewish and Arab participants, and peak events where, in many cases the interactions where strictly that without any structured people to people relationship building. As a result, the program developed with USAID marked the first steps in helping 4 Unistream evolve into an organization that understands the values of shared society as an intrinsic part of fulfilling the organization’s mission. More concretely, Unistream began to expand conflict mitigation programming including developing, for the first time, people to people interaction between participants of Entrepreneurship Centers that were not mixed, harnessing business and entrepreneurship as a means to create a shared goal between Jews and Arabs thus cultivating meaningful relationships, engaging with mentors working with the “other,” developing intentions to expand these ideals in other programs implemented by the organization, etc. More importantly, a lightbulb went on and the mindset of Unistream began to change. When assessing the content and curriculum, Unistream began to look for opportunities to further the objectives and missions. While this might seem small, it fundamentally altered how Unistream addressed its vision and enforced the undeniable fact that creating a shared society between Jews and Arabs in Israel is a requirement to meet all of the organizational objectives. In addition, USAID has some of the most stringent standards of any organization worldwide that have enabled Unistream to become more efficient and sustainable. This included the structure of the approved and vetted CRM system, policies and procedures, audits both internal and external, etc. In parallel, Unistream significantly increased its monitoring and evaluation, beginning with this program but soon expanding beyond, in order to understand areas of strengths and weaknesses and how the programs are “working.” By addressing these areas