On Monday June 7^th, 2010, Ms. Lena Gurary, Supportive Community’s

The Bernice S. Tannenbaum Prize recognizes innovative contributions to advance the status of women and girls in Israel and the United States. It is named in honor of Bernice S. Tannenbaum’s lifetime of service to the Jewish People, the State of Israel, and Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. The Prize carries forward the mission of The Hadassah Foundation to make a difference in the lives of women and girls. The issues women and girls face often are relegated to the margins. The Hadassah Foundation is dedicated to bringing these issues to the center of Jewish concern by forming partnerships with and providing support for other social change organizations and individuals who share our goals.

Born in Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Union, Lena Gurary immigrated to Israel in 1992, the first member of her family to do so.  In 2003 Lena and three business women from the former Soviet Union initiated Supportive Community Women’s Development Center, and the following year Lena was named Executive Director.

Supportive Community: Women’s Development Center [Sviva Tomehet in Hebrew] started operating in the Herzliya area by giving services to a few dozen women who were new immigrants from the former Soviet Union.  Today, a staff of 7 professionals and more than 20 counselors and moderators serves thousands of women across Israel — new immigrants from the FSU and Ethiopia, native born Israelis (Jews and Arabs) from low income neighborhoods, women from agricultural settlements, Orthodox Jewish women, and multicultural groups.

These three organizations are working together for the sake of the encouraging business and community female leadership.

In the last two years, due to the global economic recession, many non-profit organizations have added profit making and business achievements to their agenda and have created collaborations with business organizations. Alongside those collaborations, we have also seen business organizations adding social, political and ecological issues to their agenda.

Together, businesses and non-profit organizations are opening “coffee shops” with the goal of coexistence and mutual learning which comes from an equal place. These “coffee shops” provide • income to families • allow business organizations to incorporate workers with disabilities • empower womens’ micro-businesses coming from different ethnicities and colors and creates cooperation which indicates a financial need and provides solutions to multicultural communities.

These instances demonstrate that economics motivates social change and connects between men and women coming from diverse background.

Speakers at the conference include:

Safa Younes, Founder and CEO of Arus al-Bahar

sviva_invitationProf. Benny Gidron, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Alisa Gutsman, Social investments Advisor

Panel participants include:

Esti Doron, National Supervisor of Community Work Service, Ministry of Social Affairs

Efrat Bekler-Kahana, CEO of Yoseftan Institute

Hagit Rubinstein, Manager of Micro-Businesses Area, Koret Foundation

Lena Gurary, Founder and CEO of Supportive Community

For more information regarding the conference contact:

office@svivatomehet.org.il

Establishing a micro-business is often the only way for women in Israel with limited job prospects to achieve economic independence and to mobilize themselves socially and personally. For thousands women who recently immigrated or come from less advantaged backgrounds, owning and operating a business opens the door to fuller integration into the Israeli society.

Many women, however, lack business experience and management training; they have great difficulty obtaining credit, suffer from low self-esteem and are fearful of marketing challenges. Where can these women turn for guidance and practical assistance? Most existing organizations are geared toward serving small and medium business owners; thus, Supportive Community was created in 2003 to address the unique needs of women who operate micro-businesses.

Supportive Community – Women’s Business Development Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping every Israeli woman who wishes to improve her economic and social status through establishing and operating a micro-business. Founded by a group of businesswomen, all recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Supportive Community serves women from many of Israel’s diverse backgrounds – immigrants from the FSU and Ethiopia, native Israeli Arabs and Jews, ultra-Orthodox women and others.

The model developed by Supportive Community has been successfully adapted to meet the specific requirements of women from each of these multicultural groups. Designed especially for women, the model enables them to obtain the vital knowledge, skills and management tools they need to set up and develop their micro-businesses. The resulting social and economic empowerment literally changes their lives, and the benefits of their newfound competence and confidence extend also to their families and their communities.

We conduct the following programs to achieve our goals: Women Empower Women; Business Development Services; Loans; Fairs and Trade Shows; Cooperation Projects for small groups of women in the same field who work together with a professional facilitator to develop new strategies for growing their micro-businesses; Businesses for the Community -Women entrepreneurs get involved in volunteer work in the wider community to enhance cooperation between businesses and communal organizations.

To date the organization has helped over 1,600 women. 15 of more than 100 businesses established in 2003, have an monthly turnover of more than 5 thousand NIS. In 2007, 80% of our graduates increased their income by 20%. 33% of our members created jobs for themselves and some times an additional employment opportunity.