Florentin

 Florentine community is in the city of Tel-Aviv.

 Because there are no social services in the neighborhood, and the population is varied and composed, amongst others, of temporary residents and residents that are not citizens, there is no numerical knowledge about the resident, particularly not about children and youth.

The limits of the neighborhood are: Jaffa road in the north-bordered with Neve Tsedek neighborhood, Haalya street in the east-bordered with Neve Shaanan and Shapira neighborhoods and Sallame road in the south indicates the north border of Kiryat shalom and Jaffa. West to Elifelet Street there is the American colony, which counts as a part of Jaffa.

Florentin neighborhood was established at 1927, as a part of the mandatory Jaffa, south to the railroad track Jaffa-Jerusalem, in the lands of a big orchard. Since the beginning it was built as an urban neighborhood that combines trade business, handicrafts and small industry, with 3-4 floors per building and narrow streets between them. Since the ‘70s, the living conditions in Florentin became tough, as a result of low buildings’ quality, neglect and lack of preservation investments, annoyance made by the business activity and also lack of social services. At the ’80-‘90s, Tel Aviv municipality has started a program of urban renewal in the neighborhood, mainly in form of monthly rent grants. This program is one of the reasons to the stepwise transfer of new population into the neighborhood, which brought culture of coffee shops, clubs and pubs. This process, that is called “Gentrification”, brings new residents to the neighborhood and increases the value of the apartments, but on the other hand it made the veteran residents’ existence impossible. One of the main reasons to this impossible existence, in addition to the rise of the monthly rent and the harassment of the owners to “key” money inhabitants, is expulsion and closing of critical social services for families and kids. Today Florentin neighborhood suffers from lack of infrastructure for families and women: there is no community center, there is one day care center and kindergarten that is not enough for all of the children un the neighborhood, the elementary school Doryanov was closed and became into an art center that is not connected to the residents and Rogozin high school was united with the elementary school: Bialik. There is no children doctor in the neighborhood, there are no green spaces and the only public garden is not suitable for kids and is populated mainly by dogs. In addition there are hazards in the neighborhood such as a gas station, escort institutes and industry buildings.

After Mahapach-Taghir’s activists’ struggle, the residents managed to return a part of the public territories for their authority – tow rooms in the Building of Doryanov School, which was passed by the municipality to the “Artists’ workshops” after the closing of the school about 30 years ago. The rooms were given to the use of the community under the responsibility of Mahapach-Taghir, which accepted to run the place. This is the only public building in the neighborhood, and it is active for four years already as “Florentin Community Center”. The Community Center is an outcome of cooperation between residents, Mahapach-Taghir organization and the municipality’s community, youth and sports department. It functions as an extension of Neve Tsedek community center.

Residents of the neighborhood, along with Mahapach-Taghir’s students and volunteers, activate the center on a voluntary basic.

The activity in the center is designated to all of the neighborhood’s residents, when the participation is conditioned with some sort of activity for the community’s favorably, as a return.

The activity in the center contains:

Learning Community:  is active on Sunday to Thursday, afternoon till the evening, for the children of the neighborhood. The activity is divided to days of activity; every day is designated to a different age group:

Children from kindergarten to ninth grade (divided to three groups):

Children and youth from different ages comes every day afternoon, and participate in a personal tutoring, educational help, social and enrichment help and work in the communal garden that is outside the center.

Youth center – tenth to twelfth grades:

The activity in the youth center includes personal and supportive contact with a youth guide, a youth meeting place inside the neighborhood in order to prevent loitering in the evening, learning group “Osim Bagrut” – to prevent dropout and preparing to the Bagrut exams – that meets once a week, coffee shop evening that is managed once a week – in order to create equal positive social group, boy’s group and girl’s group that meets once a week.

Play room for preschoolers (designated to ages 0-5 and their parents)

The play room is active two days a week and constitutes a place which parents can spend quality time with their toddler children, meet other parents, receive support, guide and advice.

The activity in the playroom includes free playtime, story hour or guided activity in the developmental area, preparedness to first grade and women’s group.

Communal garden of organic crops is growing out of the civic center. About 15 volunteer residents grow and cultivate it every week (at Friday noon) – adults, young people and youth, participating the learning community children. The garden is open to the general public and operates as an area center to environmental education too.

In addition, idifferent teams of rsidents are active in the civic center – neighborhood’s plans and development team, that leads a struggle about the neighborhood’s outline program; cleanliness and sanitations that cooporates with the municipality for a more pleasant and enviromental neighborhood; communal steering comitee is active in the areas of community, culture and education and represents the residents versus the autharities constitutes a sort of a parent committee of the learning community; preschoolers education team promotes establishment of satisfying and sufficient frameworks to ages 0-5.

Likewise, the community center is a meeting place for groups and organisations that are active in the community and serves a framework to adults’ free time. On holidays, the residents produces community days and neighborhood events, leaded by the steering committee.

Mahapach-Taghir’s community coordinator – Meytal Strul, which coordinates the community center too, along with the steering committee, escorts the communal activity.

If you want to participate you are invited to contact Meytal, the community coordinator – 054-7608124

news:

 Environmental sculpture in Florentine Photos