Writing Effective Public Policy Papers: 39th Teaching Public Administration Conference Rutgers University, Newark May 2016 Writing Effective Public Policy Papers: Professionalization by Community-Campus Partnerships Erez Tzfadia Public Policy and Administration, Sapir College, Israel Visiting Professor at Rutgers Bildner Center and Jewish Studies

‘Organizational’ Framework: Sapir Collage The Department of Public Policy and Administration Under Graduate program Final Project: Under graduate thesis – groups of 12 students, mentored by a professor on particular issue. Writing effective Policy Papers for community-based organization

The Partner: Shatil – the New Israel Fund Initiative for Social Change, has been on the cutting edge of building civil society and actively promoting democracy, tolerance, and social justice in Israel for 30 years. Shatil builds the capacity of hundreds of organizations through tailored consulting and providing valuable skills to Israel’s agents of social change, enabling them to develop long-term strategies to change policies.

Reasoning Though Israel southern periphery enjoys intensive activism by community-based and grassroots organizations, many of them have limited resources to bring policy changes. A Comprehensive Study on ‘real’ world of public policy Improving students’ skills: To work in collaboration with value oriented organizations. Organizations and communities realize how important public policy is to promote their interests and to bring change. An effective way to explore local problem to officers and politicians.

Reasoning “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea” (The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) Writing policy paper is not a mere technical skill. It is the understanding that good policy is achievable, that students have the skills and knowledge for that, and that there are good reasons to bring policy change.

Road map for course: Call for proposal for policy papers: WHEN? WHAT? WHO? Summer Call for proposal for policy papers: Shatil Admission: selecting 8 proposals Shatil and professor Coordination of expectations meeting Shatil, professor, organization Fall Semester Students select a project – attentions paid to value-orientation Students Problem definition Students & organizations Spring semester Alternatives, evaluation, chosen policy alternative, writing the paper End of the year Submission-correction-submission-correction-editing-submission-grade Students & professor & editor Lobbying the paper Shatil & organizations

Teaching Methods Annual course, 2 hours class weekly. Teaching ‘stages’ in policy papers in class – the ’technical’ skills. Immediate implementation of each stage by the students in reference to their paper. Routine of in-class presentations by the students. Progressive writing: Routine of submissions of the chapters, that will finally be part of the policy paper.

Successes – ‘good’ examples’ What? By Whom? Promoting urban agriculture Local Authority Night health centers in small-towns Ministry of health and local authorities Integration policy of Bedouin-Palestinian women in labor market Israeli Employment service, industrial council A coordinating model of NGOs in local authority Federation of Local authorities in Israel Economic abuse as domestic violence Israel Parliament (amendment) Improving welfare benefits of orphans to persons killed at work Israel Parliament, Social security Promoting drug courts Ministry of Justice, Magistrate court.

Dilemmas Values, Values and Values… Coordination between 4 parts: students, organization, Shatil, academia (professor?). Policy papers by undergraduate students? Liberal art in public policy and administration does not teach policy analysis. So how can the students analyze policy alternatives? Writing skills. Dis-functioning organizations…