Project profile — SALALEM: Prosperity and Advancement for Palestinian Women and Youth

The project aims to improve the learning outcomes of young women and youth with disabilities in the West Bank and Gaza. Project activities include: (1) designing demand-driven, gender-responsive curricula on life skills, internship/apprenticeship and small business management; (2) inviting professional role models to attend networking events for young women and youth with disabilities; (3) conducting workplace improvement pilots with interested employers; and (4) selecting youth and heads of households of the Leadership Institute to collaborate with a media organization and key stakeholders to develop a strategic messaging campaign.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased agency amongst young women and youth with disabilities to make employment decisions for themselves when actively seeking employment or small business opportunities; and (2) reduced gender, disability and other social barriers to workforce entry and retention for young women and youth with disabilities.

Results achieved as of March 2023 include: (1) 20 percent of sampled graduates of the Salalem Leadership Institute gained employment and among those, 28 percent retained employment by the same host employers as their internship; (2) 190 host employers received safe and relevant on-the-job learning opportunities. Also, across Gaza and West Bank, host employers reported that 90 percent of interns demonstrated good or very good work readiness skills; (3) 1,109 students received gender-responsive Life-Skills training; (4) the Alumni Leadership Network organized 21 professional networking events (of which 14 events were in Gaza and seven were in the West Bank). Also, 96 percent of participants reported they have at least one connection in their new social and professional network that they could contact for support or problem-solving; and (5) four out of the five completed workplace improvement plans at the host employers` workplace were approved in the previous year. Also, all four employers attended an inclusion training to increase employer knowledge around creating a more inclusive workplace for people with disabilities and women.