Act2gether
Act2gether · Israel · 2024–2025

Act2gether for
Child Rights & Well-being

78 young people 5 communities 160,000+ total reach
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Context

In Israel, children and young people have almost no real say in the decisions that shape their lives. Participation spaces for young people are scarce. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is barely discussed in schools or local government, and rarely in communities. Act2gether was built to change that. Starting with young people, in five communities across Israel, with mentors who believed that youth voice is not a nice-to-have: it is a right.

About the Programme

What Act2gether Is

Although children's rights are increasingly recognised, their meaningful participation in shaping decisions that affect them remains limited.

Act2gether brings children and adults together to listen across differences, reflect on roles, and act together in shared decision-making, enabling more meaningful participation and collective responsibility for community well-being.

In Israel, the Act2gether for Child Rights and Well-being project was implemented by Education for Life (EFL), in partnership with the Learning for Well-being Foundation. Participation and co-creation were central throughout its design and implementation. Working collaboratively with young people enabled the team to adapt activities to their needs and provide more effective support across the project.

Act2gether participants during a programme session in Israel
Programme Structure

How Youth and Adults Work Together

6 months · 16 weekly sessions · 3 intensive seminars · everything co-designed with participants

Three Learning Phases
1

Foundations

Dec–Jan · 5 sessions

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, community mapping, critical thinking, and group collaboration. Connecting needs to rights.

2

Planning

Feb–Mar · 4 sessions

Through a project management hackathon, participants strengthened key skills in planning, budgeting, stakeholder engagement, and storytelling, applying them directly to the development of detailed work plans for community action.

3

Implementation

Mar–May · 7 sessions

Execute community projects. Assign roles, document process, address challenges, prepare presentations, plan for sustainability.

Skills Youth Develop
Children's Rights
UNCRC clauses, rights vs privileges, local application
Community Mapping
Identifying needs, stakeholder analysis, issue assessment
Project Design
From idea to initiative, work plans, sustainability
Budget Management
Financial planning, resource allocation, reporting
Partnerships
Stakeholder engagement, organisational collaboration
Storytelling
Communication, narrative development, advocacy
Well-being
Mental health awareness, values-based education
Documentation
Process tracking, portfolio creation, presentations
Where We Worked

Five Communities

The programme reached communities across northern and central Israel, spanning different geographic, cultural, and socio-economic contexts.

1
Kiryat Shmona
Northern Israel
Conflict-affected
2
Katzrin
Northern Israel, Golan Heights
Community coffee cart built here
3
Kisra-Sumei
Northern Israel
Arabic-speaking community
4
Emek Hefer
Central Israel
School permanently adopted programme
5
Hadassah Neurim
Central Israel
Five Act2gether communities across Israel 1 2 3 4 5
● Northern sites   ● Central sites
Scale

By the Numbers

Reach at three levels: direct participants, community impact, and digital audience

Direct participants
78
Young people aged 14–17 who completed structured workshops, inner diversity activities, and youth-led social action planning and implementation.
Community reach
~20K
People reached across the five project sites through youth-led initiatives, presentations, and local events: approximately 1,000 in Katzrin, 1,400 in Kiryat Shmona, 800 in Emek Hefer, and more.
Digital reach
160K+
Additional individuals reached through the 24-episode podcast series and associated social channels.
141,000 Instagram views · 2,400 YouTube views · 680 Spotify listens
223
Activities delivered
20
Organisations engaged
25
Knowledge products published
€604K
Total investment
How It Works

Programme Components

Three interconnected elements that work together

Weekly Mentorship

16 weekly sessions with dedicated mentors building knowledge, skills, and project planning across the six-month programme. Mentors reported daily communication with participants outside of formal sessions.

Intensive Seminars

Three residential weekend gatherings: Opening (December), Hackathon (February), Closing (May). Participants described these as the programme's centrepiece, feeling "like small adults who were given responsibility."

Youth-Led Social Action

Community initiatives designed, managed, and delivered by participants through a participatory grant-making process that proved transformative for youth ownership. Supported by microgrants and ongoing mentor guidance.

Youth participants collaborating on community action projects
Impact in Action

What Youth Built

Five initiatives were designed and led by young people.

"But very quickly, even in the first meetings, we understood that we have much more power here than we thought. And that we have an option to bring something to our town, that we really need."
Youth Participant, Act2gether Israel
1
Community Coffee Cart, Katzrin
Youth established and now operate a community coffee cart that serves as a welcoming weekly gathering space for local young people. It has become a permanent fixture in the community.
Permanent · Still running Weekly gathering point
2
24-Episode Podcast Series
Youth Advisory Group members produced and published a podcast series interviewing social leaders across fields including healthy sexuality, culture and leisure, sport, and heritage, expressing their own perspectives throughout.
141,000 Instagram views 2,400 YouTube views 680 Spotify listens
3
Mental Health Awareness App
A digital tool designed by participants to raise mental health awareness among peers. The app was conceived, specified, and developed entirely by young people, grounded in the programme's rights-and-well-being curriculum.
Designed by youth, for youth
4
Children's Rights Day Educational Materials
Booklets, stickers, and activity materials promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, developed by participants for International Children's Rights Day and distributed to schools and youth groups across Israel.
Distributed nationally Available for reuse in future educational activities
5
Creative Learning Spaces
Youth teams redesigned classroom environments to support participatory learning. At Emek Hefer, the school responded to ongoing youth dialogue by installing permanent facilities and establishing a dedicated staff team to continue and expand the initiative.
Permanently adopted by Emek Hefer school

Three of these five initiatives continue to operate or influence practice independently beyond the project period.

Act2gether youth participants in community session
In Their Own Words

What Participants Said

 

"Looking back, I realised that this project and the tools in the project have taught me far more than how to launch an initiative. It taught me that even in challenging realities we have the right to dream, to survive, to grow — and to succeed."
Maya, Youth Participant
"Finally someone believes in us… suddenly youth thinks it can do and works alone, and isn't afraid to dream."
Youth Participant
"Being a mentor was a huge privilege. Guiding motivated teens who want real change based on learning and understanding their rights gave me deep meaning. The project brings out strengths often hidden in teens — turning dreams into action."
Rina, Mentor
We changed this thought that youth only does what adults tell them. Suddenly youth thinks it can do, and works alone, and simply isn't afraid to dream.
Youth Participant, Act2gether Israel
Evidence

Measured Outcomes

Independent evaluation findings, 2025

Programme-level data compares Baseline (N=35) with Endline (N=29). Child-Led Social Action (CLSA) data uses matched individual analysis (n=20), Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. All percentage increases shown are relative increases.

+60%
Community Rights Knowledge
50% to 80% of participants reported knowledge of child rights issues specific to their community
Statistically significant, p=0.007
Doubled
Rights Discussion in Daily Life
26.7% to 53.3% reported discussing child rights with peers, parents, and community members
Meaningful practical shift
+18%
Comfort Across Difference
79% to 93% reported comfort working collaboratively with people who hold different perspectives
Programme-level finding
r=0.47
Aspirations and Well-being
The strongest and most statistically robust finding: composite aspirations score improved significantly across the CLSA cohort
p=0.041, moderate effect size
+60%
Energy and Vitality
"I feel full of energy, play, and a sense of being alive": 58.8% to 93.8% at individual matched level
CLSA individual finding
+58%
Rights Discussion in Project Group
63.2% to 100% of CLSA participants reported often discussing child rights issues with their surroundings
CLSA individual finding
Who Changed Most
Girls: Energy and Vitality
+125%
44.4% to 100% at CLSA individual level, the largest single subgroup gain observed
Preadolescents: Community Agency
+150%
40% to 100% in community action and agency at programme level, the largest age-group gain observed
Preadolescents: Sense of Calm
+100%
50% to 100% on calmness and connection to the world at CLSA individual level
Girls: Sense of Connection
+33%
54.5% to 72.7% sense of connection to the child rights project at CLSA individual level
Significance

The Only Programme of Its Kind

"The whole issue of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is something that is not talked about in Israel. At all. This is the only project in my opinion that talks about the Convention on the Rights of the Child."
Mentor, Act2gether Israel
Municipal co-funding
Most municipalities formally co-funded child-led projects and incorporated outcomes into ongoing programmes.
School adoption
Emek Hefer school installed permanent facilities and established a dedicated staff team to continue the work.
Toolkit published
Child-Led Social Action Toolkit published in Hebrew and English for ongoing educational use.
Cross-border meeting
Israeli and Palestinian teams met together in Spain, December 2025, finding common ground despite the conflict.
Act2gether youth participants during programme activities
Financial Transparency

Investment Breakdown

Complete transparency: where every euro went

Leadership Development€355K
58.8% · Expert facilitators and capacity building
Intensive Gatherings€111K
18.4% · Residential seminars across Israel
Youth-Led Projects€87K
14.3% · Microgrants for community social action
Impact Evaluation€42K
6.9% · Independent assessment
Operations€9K
1.6% · Communications and administration
When young people are trusted with real agency, they lead.
+60%
Rights knowledge gain
+150%
Preadolescent agency gain
160K+
Total reach
Developed and implemented by
Learning for Well-Being Institute Learning for Well-Being Foundation Education for Life