The Coalition for the Promotion of Social Sports held its first meeting of 2024, hosted by the Israeli Association of Community Centers and Value Sports. The meeting was attended by 40 of Israel’s leading figures in the field of Sports for Social Impact. 
The meeting focused on partnerships and collaborations. The workshop on “Key Issues in Partnership Management” led by Dr. Tami Rubel-Lipschitz, a psychologist, researcher, and organizational consultant from the Hebrew University, who has been involved in research, consulting, and organizational development for the past 15 years. In the workshop, Dr. Rubel-Lipschitz presented the existence of partnerships between organizations not as a dichotomy but as a continuum with different possibilities:
- At the most basic level of this continuum is the sharing of basic resources and consultation.
- Next is limited participation in joint events.
- Next are limited joint programs.
- Finally, there is strategic collaboration between organizations.
Dr. Rubel-Lipschitz also emphasized a number of important issues for the successful existence of a partnership, such as aligning expectations, building trust gradually, and matching organizational cultures, among others.
Following the workshop, which provided theoretical and practical tools for participants, members of the coalition divided into four working circles to apply the tools and begin building partnerships. The four circles touched on the main areas of focus of the coalition’s organizations:
- Empowerment of girls and women
- Youth at risk and work in the social-geographic periphery
- Shared society
- Work with special populations
The coalition will continue to build on these working circles throughout the year, in the hope of promoting meaningful partnerships of various types between member organizations.
For more information on the theory behind the workshop, please refer to the article by Dr. Tami Rubel Lipschitz and Milena Yairi (In Hebrew).
