JCAN - Jerusalem Community Advocacy Network - is a Palestinian non-profit civil society organization operating in East Jerusalem. The body currently operates two storefront community service centers in the most marginalized and disadvantaged areas of the city. The first center opened in December 2009 in At-Tur, Mount of Olives, and the second in June 2010, located in Sur Baher, southeast of the city centre.
JCAN’s primary mission is to empower the marginalized in East Jerusalem to access their rights and entitlements and to negotiate the complex bureaucratic procedures that control the flow of these rights.
Knowing the community and planning with a long-term vision in mind are central values of JCAN. The short-term goal of the two centers is to increase awareness of the rights of Jerusalemites and enable them to defend, protect and challenge policies in order to ensure those rights. This aim is directly related to JCAN’s vision of fostering the development of an empowered and aware community able to respond to its unique challenges.
Programs of both centers include:
- Legal Clinic
- Rights Education
- Literacy Classes
- Targeted Workshops
- Women’s Empowerment
Because community networks are central to the strengthening of individual voices, and a broad range of ideas and skills help bring projects to fruition, JCAN has assembled a top caliber planning board, with Jerusalemite and other Palestinian figures in law, politics, advocacy and rights work, to help guide the growth of the centers.
As part of PCAN – the Palestine Community Advocacy Network - JCAN has the support of a body of committed professionals with more than ten years of experience in MMEP's rights based community practice (RBCP) model, which has been employed to develop several rights-based community practice centers across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
