Youth Program: (Empowerment… Participation… Resilience)
The Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) bases its work on an integrated set of programs that reflect its vision of empowering communities and strengthening their resilience by ensuring equitable access to services, with particular attention to the most vulnerable groups in the Gaza Strip. In its efforts to enhance the quality of its interventions, the Association adopted an integrated programmatic approach in 2024 that restructured its services, improving the efficiency of its response, strengthening integration across programs, and expanding their impact on the lives of women, men, girls, and boys who benefit from these services.
The Youth Program is one of the Association’s core programs. It aims to empower young women and men, including persons with disabilities, and strengthen their role as active partners in development, humanitarian response, and community recovery. The program adopts a human rights-based and community-participation approach that integrates capacity building, economic and social empowerment, psychosocial support, entrepreneurship, and advocacy, thereby strengthening young people’s resilience and capacity to lead change amid ongoing crises.
The program focuses on developing young people’s leadership, life, and vocational skills, and on providing safe spaces where they can express their views, develop their creativity, and launch community initiatives, while also supporting their participation in advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns and decision-making processes. It also places particular emphasis on promoting mental health and psychosocial well-being by providing support and counseling sessions and psychological first aid, helping young people cope with everyday challenges, regain their ability to move forward with their lives, and contribute to their communities.
In the context of the humanitarian response, the program adopts the Survivor and Community-Led Response (SCLR) approach, which strengthens the role of communities in identifying their priorities and leading solutions that respond to their needs. It also empowers young people to lead community recovery efforts, support affected children, women, and families, contribute to organizing the humanitarian response, and facilitate access to those most in need. This approach strengthens social cohesion and promotes a culture of initiative and volunteerism.
Youth and Community Program Projects
The Youth and Community Program focuses on empowering young women and men aged 18 to 35 by developing their leadership, creative, and vocational capacities; strengthening their participation in community initiatives; and preparing them to be active partners in leading recovery and humanitarian response , with a focus on strengthening community resilience in affected communities and displacement areas.
Target Groups:
Key Achievements and Results
The program contributed to achieving a range of qualitative outcomes that strengthened the role of young people in development and humanitarian response. Key achievements include :
Operating two safe, interactive spaces for young people throughout 2025, providing a supportive environment for learning, participation, and creativity.
Delivering 12 field-based training sessions and specialized workshops to build young people’s capacities across a range of areas.
Providing young people with training in emerging skills, including artificial intelligence (AI), mobile filmmaking, visual arts, and creative writing, enhancing their opportunities for creativity and professional development.
Organizing a creative youth exhibition to showcase young people’s artistic and literary productions and works.
Producing the literary booklet Hunger in the Mouth of the Homeland, a youth publication documenting young people’s experiences amid war and famine.
Established and operationalized 31 Community Resilience Committees (CRCs) in camps and displacement sites, strengthening community participation in managing the humanitarian response.
Built the capacity of 429 community leaders (women and men) through CRCs, community-based organizations (CBOs), and community networks.
Implemented 12 community-led initiatives addressing urgent needs in water, electricity, sanitation (WASH), and essential items (NFIs).
Provided psychosocial support (PSS) and psychological first aid (PFA) to at least 120 young women and men.
Enhanced the role of community committees in accessing areas with the greatest needs and facilitating the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Through these integrated interventions, the Youth Program has successfully built young people’s capacities and strengthened their role as leaders of community change and partners in the humanitarian response, while providing a supportive environment that enables them to develop their skills, launch their initiatives, and and and participate in decision- making.
These efforts contribute to strengthening the resilience of Palestinian communities and building a more sustainable recovery.
Number of beneficiaries
Number of services provided
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