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Boston-Haifa-Seniors Lobby     Click for details
Fannette Modek 11 March 2008

Click here for a short report on
The seminar organized by the Haifa-Boston Civil Society NGO Project
Januar - February 2005

The Haifa Seniors Lobby is an initiative of a group of retired Haifa residents.
The initiative emerged from one of the recommendations of the Municipal Plan for the Elderly of Haifa and received much public support due to the serious economic difficulties of a large section of this population as a result of the severe budget cutbacks.

Twenty percent of Haifa residents (52,000) are over the age of 60 (women) and 65 (men) and sizeable groups depend on only on National Insurance pensions. Led by volunteer leaders, the Seniors Lobby - Haifa is duly registered as a non-profit organization.
It has a permanent board of 11 members and 50 to 60 active persons form the Lobby Council.
To date it has registered over 2500 members and is aiming for 5,000 signatures.

The Master Plan also included a recommendation to establish a WEBSITE for Haifa Seniors outside of the Municipal Website.
From the very beginning of this effort, six months ago, a Website has been established by one of members where all interested persons could follow the development of the Seniors Lobby. The Website also includes a Visitors book, which might act as a kind of Internet forum for Haifa's Senior Citizens.

We have 7 committees, each working on another aspect researching the needs and suggesting action steps - five of them are:

• Services and quality of life,
• The Russian-speaking population,
• The Arab-speaking population,
• Public relations
• Organization and training.

The Seniors Lobby does not intend to take the place or play the role of any of the existing public or private associations already serving the elderly in the city of Haifa.
On the contrary, its purpose is to assist, strengthen and coordinate with existing groups in pursue of the interests of the elderly.
Next month we are calling for a forum of all public and private associations in order to identify areas on which all are willing to lobby together.

We are very much interested in becoming acquainted with the experiences of other similar "lobbies" and believe we can learn from others.

Seniors Lobby-Haifa Israel Arlette Adler Founder Eli Landau Chairman

Fannette Modek Public Relations Committee Seniors Lobby - Haifa Israel

The founding meeting of the Lobby on 29.12.2003 at the Haifa Town Hall

On June 23rd 2004 elections were held and an 11 members permanent management board was elected.

Lining up to vote	Emptying the Ballot Boxes
The votes are counted	Arlette Adler, the moving spirit behind the Lobby