The goal of "Access for All" is to make academia accessible to vulnerable populations, so that everyone has equal opportunity to realize their potential and contribute to building an egalitarian and just society.
The "Access for All" program aims to build a creative connection between the 'university' and 'the people'- between a center of knowledge and populations that are unable reach this center of knowledge in any other way. As part of the program, the university opens its doors to vulnerable populations and enables them to acquire a vital and practical education in an academic environment.
Participants in the program are adults, referred by the welfare and educational authorities, who once a week take a special adapted introductory course in one of the following fields: law, business administration and psychology. The course is administered by undergraduate students/mentors. The program's participants come from a low socio-economic background, having been expelled from previous educational frameworks and suffer from significant knowledge gaps. The program provides them with basic practical knowledge to help them better cope with their daily lives, but more importantly, to develop their curiosity, restore their desire to learn, and equip them with the tools to continue learning and developing. The studies expose participants to the university experience, to students and faculty members, to their fields of work and worldviews. This creates a dialogue between different strata of the population in Israel that usually never meet. This connection empowers and enriches the participants and contributes to the education and training of the students, but most of all it brings people together and reduces the alienation suffered by those living on the margins of society.
The students-mentors attend a course throughout the academic year, designed to train and prepare them for teaching. The focus of the course is to examine, consolidate and strengthen social commitment. In addition, the students-mentors teach a group of participants once a week and are themselves supervised by a pedagogical staff and representatives of the welfare agencies, responsible for referring the participants to the university. Students receive credits for their participation in the course and for teaching the participants. This is part of the prevailing philosophy that academic education should encourage, initiate and promote social involvement among students, alongside democratization and accessibility of academic knowledge.
The unique operating model: the program participants come to the university once a week – transportation is arranged by the program – and receive a light dinner before class begins. The program's operating model makes possible the social leverage of academic knowledge, human resources (students) and physical resources (classrooms). As a result, the activity is based on a low-cost structure that leads to a particularly high social return in view of the low budgetary investment.
The hundreds of students who have mentored in the program over the years are testimony to its effectiveness as a meaningful learning experience in their lives.
The participating students receive 4 credits in the framework of the Cornerstone Program and a scholarship of NIS 4,000.
The selection of students interested in the program takes place in May-June.
For further details: www.unibaam.org.il