Building Better Communities: Inspire, Empower, Engage!

Background Information

In 1999, Zouk Mikaël received the UNESCO prize for City of Peace for the Arab Countries as a tribute to its efforts for maintaining peace and development during the hard times of 15 years of civil war, despite the scarcity of resources and the pounding of missiles. Since then, the city council has been striving to undertake further infrastructure development to cater to its growing population.

As we stepped into the 3rd millennium, the need to further invest and develop the city’s “supra-structure” - its population - became a must. This necessity stems from the increasing demand on human development as an investment capital in raising the city’s livelihood, security and social standards.

However, the resources available to the local government, mainly at the level of financing and central government expertise, are scarce. While Zouk Mikaël is both an urban attraction and a coastal city, the post-war development plan did not reach it despite being less than 20 km away from the capital. Thus the municipal council had to resort to its existing human capital and financial scrutiny in order to gather enough funds and resources to achieve its development strategy.

The problem:

Once a town of 5,000 residents, Zouk Mikaël grew into a city of 35,000, a sevenfold increase in a lapse of 15 years, which augmented strain and pressure on the city’s infrastructure and facilities. It houses five schools, two universities, 75 restaurants and hundreds of shops, companies, factories and businesses that channel over 30,000 persons on a daily basis, making Zouk Mikael a city pumping with life. During the civil war, the city council had supported existing youth clubs and scouts groups in their programs and activities, providing them with funding and refurbishment of their facilities in addition to building a public garden, several green spaces, a small public library and an open-air theatre. But the population and urban boom in Zouk Mikaël required the city council to take new measures and develop a youth strategy in order to avoid an increase in school dropouts, drug use and juvenile risks. In order to implement such a strategy, young people had to have a voice in the design and implementation of the policies that affect them. Thus the mayor conducted a series of meetings and surveys with key youth actors in the city and came to the conclusion a youth cultural complex was needed to provide young people with a space for interaction, study, skill development and expression.

It is also important to note that the electoral system in Lebanon, whether at the municipal or legislative level, denies residents the right to vote in his lieu of residency if he/she is not from this region itself, and thus you could be living in Zouk Mikaël for 20 years and yet have no power to take part in the municipal elections. This creates a sense of disinterest from the residing population who have little education of public interest and since their needs are disregarded by the municipal council who does not feel accountable to a population with no political power over its authority.

Consequently, Zouk Mikaël has now set the trend for public service, regardless of origin.

Goals of the Initiative

YCC is a municipal center that acts as an incubator for interaction and development aiming to:

•Create a space for dialogue, which seeks to increase communication among all segments of society.

•Promote a sense of participatory democracy and citizenship through meetings and exchanges.

•Familiarize the public with new technologies by providing training and access to the Internet, social media and regular and open source software.

•Promote culture and art as catalysts for universal communication.

•Provide a space for reading and support active involvement in the learning process by encouraging the formation of research groups eager for knowledge and learning.

•Supporting creative industries by empowering and promoting young artists and talents by building their capacity and offering them a venue to produce themselves and interact with the public.

•Offer a free space of dialogue for civil society organizations.

•Promote the dialogue of cultures by producing culturally diverse events and raising the population’s cultural awareness.

The ultimate and principal goal of the center is to engage the local population in municipal and community life. Zouk Mikaël was the first city in Lebanon to call for and implement a participatory democracy program (including residents and “zoukis”). Such public initiatives bring the population closer to decision makers and thus the latter can start making decisions that meet the needs of the population.

Parties and Partners to the Initiative and Resources Used for Implementation

The Youth and Culture Center has established a great platform of interaction and collaboration with over 60 local, regional and international civil society organizations in addition to foreign embassies, schools, universities, scouts and youth clubs, as well as a large number of artists and young talents.

We have collaborated with over 600 artists including writers, poets, painters, dancers, musicians, singers, DJs, designers, actors, puppeteers, photographers and directors.

The resources used for implementing the initiative include:

As no public strategies were adopted by the central government and more notably the ministry of culture and ministry of youth and sports to further develop youth and culture initiatives in favor of a sustainable human development, the municipality of Zouk Mikaël took it upon itself to find the resources and means to carry out its ambitious project: the Youth and Culture Center.

The primary source to fund the three-story building was the municipal funds, through savings and rationalized spending.

Then, we benefited from a twin-ship with the French city of Rueil-Malmaison, who donated over 15,000 books and 15 computers which were added to the center’s assets. YCC’s team also took the time to reach out to the different Lebanese publishing houses and universities and gathered more than 8,000 publications for free.

The terms of our collaboration with Rueil-Malmaison also benefited us through management training at the Jacque Baumel Library in Rueil-Malmaison, France, which was undertaken by YCC director Ms. Eliane Fersan.

YCC librarian and program coordinators benefited from library management (with Assabil Association, Beirut and the St. Georges Library, Sarba) and social media training (with Social Media Exchange – SMEX) in addition to on the job training administered Fersan.

Despite bureaucratic constraints, the city council created two job positions (librarian Marie Rose Kassouf and program coordinator Joelle El Bittar) while the center’s director of international expertise volunteered her time and effort.

YCC has managed to co-organize most of its events and activities in collaboration with the above-mentioned embassies and NGOs and with the help of hundreds of volunteers, saving a lot of resources and setting a trend of civic engagement and participation at municipal and public levels.

•Public Private Partnership

In an attempt to trend Public Private Partnerships, YCC initiated an agreement with the University of the Holy Spirit —Kaslik (in process of signing) through which, there will be an exchange of expertise, internship programs and use of venues facilities. This agreement will be beneficial to both parties and will open new horizons for students and youth and give them on-the-ground working experience and a chance to be sensible to the community’s needs. YCC will notably benefit as an internship and capacity building venue whereby it can benefit from the senior students skills and expand the scope of its activities.

•Independent internship programs

There is an increase in demands for jobs, while the Lebanese market is small and thus highly competitive. YCC offers an opportunity for internships for young people, mainly in management, media relations, audio-visual and other creative industries, event organizing, social work and education.

•Open source and social media

As the funding was scarce, YCC team resorted to the use of social media platforms to advertise its activities and programs. This was probably a first in Lebanon at the municipal level. YCC team built a Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and two WordPress blogs which were used as the main tools of interaction with the public. YCC also uses mobile media in advertising and is continuously training its director and program coordinator on new media innovations and tools.

Innovation for the Initiative

The Youth and Culture Center is a revolutionary initiative in Lebanon, as no other municipality or local authority has so far taken the initiative to engage with its youth community through municipal institutions.

The city’s overseas activities in the frame of its membership in the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and twin-ship with the city of Rueil-Malmaison, France offered exposure to international practices, namely in Europe, and the YCC took it upon itself to bring this experience into Lebanon. The funding, resources, policies and laws available in Europe undoubtedly foster such initiatives and make their implementation achievable, while the available grounds and laws in Lebanon have kept municipalities away from such adventurous attempts.

The greatest risk in such initiatives is to first provide the necessary funding to run the facility after its construction, especially if the facility is intended to provide a service to the population that is based on creativity, expertise, and establishing and maintaining relations with regional and international actors.

The innovation therefore resides in the fact that the municipality of Zouk Mikaël was able to recruit an international expert to volunteer her time and effort in running the center’s activities and programs as well as an expert and renounced librarian to index the library and train its staff on international indexing standards and set the manual.

Another aspect of national innovation is that a municipal institution managed to gain the trust and respect of the public and private sectors to the extent that it is now considered by Lebanon’s number one daily newspaper Annahar to be an exemplary municipal service.

YCC is the only municipal initiative to be a member of the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) network. ALF is a Euro-Med cooperation initiative, headed by the Lebanese National Commission for UNESCO in Lebanon.

The Youth and Culture Center is considered a nationwide example for its management and funding practices.

Management wise, YCC is voluntarily directed by a youth and development expert who works in full coordination with the city’s mayor, city council and departments. She is assisted by a number of volunteers through the city’s participatory, progressive approach of engaging youth and local population taking part in its programs.

Another area of innovation is YCC’s communication strategy is that it solely relies on social media (Facebook, twitter, blogging, YouTube), increasing the possibility to allocate resources elsewhere in order to continue holding activities and events.

YCC’s initiative to support creative industries brings innovation to an otherwise nonexistent public development. We have so far worked with over 600 artists since 2009.

YCC is the body that coordinates with NGOs and embassies on behalf of the municipality of Zouk Mikaël. We are currently working with a number of embassies on initiating town twin-ship agreements in order to increase the municipality and the center’s capacities.

The idea of the YCC is a mix of the city council’s observation of European community cultural centers and the vision and strategy set by YCC’s director. We had to tailor our programs to fit the needs of the local population, for we could not just import foreign examples into the city. However, we benefited greatly from the experience of Rueil-Malmaison and of the experiences of the embassies’ cultural centers (for example, how they engage with the people, set their agendas and look for partners).

Now that YCC is well established and opens its doors for consultation to other municipalities, neighboring cities are trying to initiate similar programs and engage with their populations.

Obstacles and Solutions for Innovation

Most new initiatives find resistance at the beginning, especially when the population has no trust in the local authority. At its inauguration, the biggest challenge was to convince the population that YCC is a serious and reliable initiative. Within one year, we managed to organize events that are always a full house, and to engage with the population that approaches us for future programs and activities.

Outcomes and Assessments

Outcomes achieved are as follows:

Following the inauguration of YCC in 2009, the main challenge was to go beyond the founding of another municipal facility and develop a vibrant destination for youths who seek support and educational and professional orientation.

It was hard at the beginning to convince all the existing youth groups of the utility of the center that we are not in competition with them, - rather, we are there to support and empower them with the means that are at our disposal as a municipal institution.

This year, we managed to set the grounds for a big youth activity that gathers all the youth groups in Zouk Mikaël, a first that shows the trust the youth have in us to be the patron of their unity and collaboration.

In addition to this we are being approached by women who are requesting additional training programs (computer studies, small business development, handicrafts, and languages) as a result of our very popular basis computer training program launched with Microsoft and Lebanon Development Union.

YCC is now a destination for youths seeking employment, as they enroll in our internship programs that increase their knowledge, skills and one the ground experience. We hope to broaden this opportunity by signing agreements with employment agencies.

The impact of YCC’s mission is to increase trust amongst the population in the municipality and the power of the public service of a local government. YCC’s building success should be an incentive for other local governments in Lebanon to demand the Lebanese central government to issue Youth policies and strengthen the local governments’ authorities by empowering them with new laws and additional funding.

The city of Zouk Mikaël has a commitment to “Building Better Communities”. Despite Zouk Mikaël’s location in a highly polluted area, it continues to attract newcomers and is a central economic and commercial hub in the region.

The city is considered an example in local development, and its slogan is, “Smile, you are in Zouk Mikaël”, which is integrated in its official logo. 

Assessments are as follows:

Since YCC is a relatively new initiative, we have been counting on media and audience feedback to improve our work and expand our activities. In addition to this, YCC issues annual questionnaires addressed to all five school administrators as well as parent-teacher committees, youth clubs, scouts groups, NGO communities and the public at large, asking them about improvements, new programs, successes and failures.

New ideas and initiatives are always introduced as a result, while the feedback from the media has been extremely positive: YCC is considered to be the beating heart of the Kesserwan (Agenda Culturel) and an example of municipal governance (An-Nahar). YCC has been featured in 30 TV and radio interviews and appeared in over 150 press articles.

Methods Applied

Whilst the concept may not sound particularly revolutionary, developing policies, procedures and job descriptions in a municipal institution has been practically unheard of in Lebanon. At YCC, we have that and more. Working procedures are set and continue to be developed and updated.

We have been also relying on Facebook polls as a means to inquiring about the community’s needs and preferences.

Relying on public-private partnerships as an effective tool for development is a trend we are trying to set among other public institutions in the city and beyond.

Benefits to Other Cities

In a country with over 75 percent reliance on the service economy, supporting creative industries became a strategic choice for Zouk Mikaël, particularly since it houses five schools and two universities and is surrounded by another three major universities. Every year, hundreds of new graduates try to find jobs, with most of them in the creative and service sectors. 

YCC is now providing training for new talent as well as interacting with the public in a professional setting. Such initiatives help reduce “brain drain” and migration towards the Arab Gulf (the most common destination for young Lebanese graduates) and internal exodus of young graduates into the capital, Beirut.

At YCC, we inspire the youth in our community, we empower them with knowledge, knowhow, opportunities and connections, and we engage them in activities that are beneficial to them and the community. We teach them how to go forth help, themselves becoming actors of positive change.