WIZO Posnansky Trust Centre

WIZO Haifa is located in Israel’s largest mixed city. This unique quality enables us to connect with and help a diverse array of cultures living in one space. Our branch specifically encourages women of various backgrounds to come together to acknowledge their differences, find a common ground, and bridge the gap between them. Our programming empowers women to build a more unified and equitable society by focusing on the issues of welfare, gender equality, and education through a lens of intersectionality. Our branch recognizes the social, economic, and educational needs of those living in the surrounding area and strives to meet them by not just strengthening the individual, but strengthening the entire community.

Growing Together

Growing Together joins mothers from different backgrounds and ethnicities who have been in domestic abuse shelters and have no familial support together to learn and develop different strategies and skills in order to become independent. Growing together builds a support system comprised of women from the local community who foster a safe space for the women and their children to share their experiences, ask for advice, and build confidence. The women are provided with knowledge and applicable tools on parenting, economics and other subjects in order to build the foundation of their new independent life.

Moving On

Moving On is a support group for women going through the process of separating from their partners. Women come together to discuss the challenges they face during this process, creating a safe space that empowers and encourages them to recognize their own strength and, if necessary, build courage to separate. Moving On makes information about their different rights more accessible and mediates between relevant support systems for the women when needed. The program creates a network of support for the participants and teaches them different skills and tools necessary to cope with their new family structure.

Directors Course

The Directors Course provides practical tools, mentoring, opportunities, and collaboration with professionals to encourage women to seek leadership positions in Haifa. Through participation with the city private and public sectors, participants are mentored and encouraged to become mentors for the next generation of female leaders. The course offers practical tools and skills to establish these women as capable leaders and builds the confidence necessary to envision themselves in authoritative positions. The Directors Course aims to steer women in the city of Haifa to leading positions such as members of directories or chairwoman on public, private, and governmental committees.

City for All

City for All is a collaboration between WIZO, the municipal government of Haifa, and other local organizations that promote a policy for gender equity between men and women. The program focuses on the six key issues that deal with the subjects of security, employment, management positions and influential roles, education, culture and sports, and infrastructure. Committees are built around these topics that first map the needs of the citizens in the city and then lead multi-sectoral discussions that consult and collaborate with experts in the relevant fields, local citizens, and organizations. Together they aim to create a Gender Equality Action Policy that is posed to the local government as a plan for action to enact and integrate into the municipal work plans.

Legal Department for Women

Our legal department offers one-on-one legal advice operated by voluntary lawyers, psychologists, social workers and mediators. It provides women with guidance and knowledge of their personal, domestic, and workplace legal rights. The department also organizes open lectures that discuss legal subjects for disadvantaged and excluded communities as well as for wider audiences. The objective of the legal Department in WIZO Haifa is to help make information about legal rights more accessible to disadvantaged women and to assist them with legal advice that wouldn’t be regularly available to them.

B Style

B style is a program for at-risk teenage girls focused on self-empowerment, positive body image, and feminist outlooks through styling, fixing clothes, and finding their unique look. The program assists its participants in acquiring tools for coping with the changes and challenges of teenage development and allowing them to present themselves professionally.