Author: Noy Drori
Profile on Noga Adler Shtern, Director of Community Urban Development at the Service for Community Work at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs
Translated by: Galya Globerman
Planners will be told that good planning is good planning for everyone. I would like to challenge that precept and say that while good planning is good for everyone, it must also hold space to contemplate and observe, and allow particular adaptations for individuals and unique/distinct groups. I think that planning should look at individuals living in poverty, who are a growing proportion of Israelis, and strive to improve their quality of life. Planning is a powerful tool that can be used to change the social order, and in order to do so, planners need to embrace interdisciplinary dialogue.
Noga Adler Shtern has three daughters, lives in Mazkeret Batya, and is a social worker by profession. She is currently the Director of Community Urban Development at the Service for Community Work at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. In her role at the Ministry of Welfare, she extensively deals with issues related to spatial planning and development and advancing and improving social aspects and conditions of public spaces and communities, while paying special attention to more vulnerable populations groups which are entrusted by the Ministry of Welfare.
In her answer to the archetypical question “How did you get into urban planning studies?” Noga noted the deep and ongoing connection between the welfare and planning worlds. Noga explains that “in 2003, Vicky Knafo led the single mothers’ protest following dramatic cuts to social security benefits, in particular child benefits. During that same period, I worked as a caseworker in the social services department in North Jerusalem and faced individuals experiencing hardship and multi-generational poverty on a daily basis. To a certain extent, I felt that we, social workers, functioned as a safety net that the State tasked with maintaining social order. We were the professionals responsible for absorbing the pain and distress bubbling up from the bottom, tasked with treating those same voices that emerge once in a while in social protests.”
“A number of life decisions, including choosing to do my M.A. in social work with an orientation toward social policy led me to work at the Department of Social Work established by the Community Social Work Department at the Jerusalem Municipality. Through community social work I discovered tools that helped shape a worldview on various adversities people face. Community social work offers an interdisciplinary approach to poverty by taking into account social, spatial, economic, and environmental aspects, all while facilitating partnerships with people living in poverty in order to improve their quality of life. A few years later, through my role as an Urban Community Work Coordinator, I was given the extraordinary opportunity to participate in the writing of the social section of master plans for neighborhoods that were undergoing urban regeneration through pinui binui. The more involved and acquainted I became with these processes, the more I realized that a degree in urban planning could provide me with a greater skillset and allow me to become a better community social worker. If in my work as a social worker I was able to give one-on-one help and focus on individuals, through community social work and urban planning I would be able to look at the individual in the context of the environment in which they live and the diverse and complex community they come from, which is a resource to said individual which also requires intervention.
Credit: Bruno Sharvit
I believe that planning is universal, but it can also cater to selective needs.
According to Noga, the unique connection between social work and planning lies in their ability to look at civil society, which is sometimes marginalized and even eliminated in the planning discourse. She says that she realizes that goal in the planning world is to create a holistic and universal approach but believes in the power of social work that is integrated into planning processes to meet human needs, wants, and desires. More specifically, she believes in the power to meet the needs of marginalized and disadvantaged groups, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. She thinks that planning should serve everyone, while simultaneously recognizing that there are populations that know who to voice their wants and needs, and those who either don’t know how or cannot do so.
In recent years, Noga has worked toward promoting spatial and distributive justice through the planning system and local communities while attempting to bring the relevant local authorities and actors to action. For example, she says that in her work in Project Urban95, which she did through the Urban Clinic, in an attempt to incorporate toddlers’ and their family’s daily needs into public space. To Noga, this project presented an opportunity to learn about the connection between social needs and the planning world, in this case, it meant recognizing developmental needs in early childhood and planning in a framework that is conducive toward toddler development.
What role does the planning system play in promoting spatial justice? Noga emphasizes that the planning system also deals with the development of resources and capabilities.
“For example, How do you get a local authority to prioritize weaker areas when it promotes plans? When there is an annual budget for street renovation and development, how do you get the authority to focus on investments in the city’s weakest spaces?” When I asked Noga, to what extent is a planner’s role to promote equitable planning? Noga explained that “this ability to think and look at society as a whole should be inherent. Someone needs to say that planners will be told that good planning is good planning for everyone. I would like to challenge that precept and say that while good planning is good for everyone, it must also hold space to contemplate and observe, and allow particular adaptations for individuals and unique/distinct groups. I think that planning should look at individuals living in poverty, who are a growing proportion of Israelis, and strive to improve their quality of life. Planning is a powerful tool that can be used to change the social order, and to do so, planners need to embrace interdisciplinary dialogue”.
Noga is currently using her skills in social work to translate and transform local voices into policy. Her day-to-day work in urban development consists of multiple issues that arise. The same week we met, she also met the directors of social services in Atlit, Hadera, and Binyamina, dealt with a shortage of green spaces in Arab localities, and proposed a reform in the urban renewal process under the Arrangements Act (“Hok Haesderim”). She can bring these diverse voices and policy interventions through interdisciplinary collaboration, tool development, and training for professionals such as social services department managers. According to Noga, “it is this type of work that enables community organizing on various scales and promotes policy change. Social workers are already doing this today by advancing legislation related to urban renewal and urban processes, for example. However, it is important to note that to local authorities, where efforts are very localized, this interdisciplinarity is doubly important.”
She describes government work very succinctly, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. She says this to emphasize the importance of getting to know the various ministries and their work methods to shape partnerships. The inter-ministerial differences are not based solely on different terminology, their DNA is completely different. For example, the discourse in social work is softer, enables processes, and promotes dialogue, while the discourse in planning is often viewed as much harsher and dependent on the stakeholders.
Noga is also promoting a partnership with Dr. Ella Brand Levy, a fellow at Mimshak in preparation for the climate crisis at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. Despite being one of the last offices to join this program, the Ministry of Welfare is one of the first government agencies to begin preparing a climate change preparedness plan. This is based on the understanding that the imminent climate crisis will have more devastating effects on already vulnerable populations.
In addition to her multiple roles, Noga is also a partner in the Accelerator Program led by the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Environmental Protection. Its purpose is to create plans to deal with climate change on a local scale. The Ministry of Welfare has identified and mapped where the more vulnerable populations live, such as senior citizens and people with disabilities who live alone, as well as identified whole communities which may be threatened by floods, fires, and extreme urban heat. Based on this knowledge the Ministry is working toward creating a deployment plan to be prepared when disaster strikes.