Community Advocate Mentor Program

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“If you live in conflict, which we have, the whole emphasis was on surviving... it has been very helpful to learn the tools we can put in place to further our own peace process. It is now about trying to find the opportunities for people to understand there is a different way of life.”

~ 2006 CAMP-NI Delegate Pamela Dooley

The Community Advocate Mentor Program (CAMP), is designed to strengthen the public policy, lobbying and advocacy skills of recognized women leaders from regions moving from conflict to co-existence. CAMP began in 2000 with a 5 year program that trained female leaders from the Northern Ireland region. At the end of the program, CAMP had trained nealy 100 women leaders and had made a genuine impact on the Northern Ireland political landscape. Because of the overwhelming positive response from the CAMP-Ireland program, IWDC was approached to begin a new program for women leaders in Israel and Palestine, and so CAMP-Middle East was born. Beginning in 2007 and stretching over a five year period, IWDC will train women leaders from the Middle East how to effectively lobby their government and strengthen civil society.

IWDC has now made a five year commitment to facilitate the Community Advocate Mentor Program with Palestinian and Israeli women leaders that began in the Spring 2007. Twelve established women leaders - 6 Israelis and 6 Palestinians - crossed borders into Washington and crossed barriers by becoming friends.

The initial CAMP Delegation, from Northern Ireland in 2000, takes a moment for pictures with Representatives Carolyn McCarthy and Peter King (right).

Purpose:

• To strengthen the public policy, lobbying and advocacy skills of established women leaders living in regions of conflict.
• To train women leaders how to effectively lobby their legislators, to advocate for issues central to their organizations' mission and to manage issue-based campaigns.

Program:

• Each year, established Palestinian and Israeli women leaders will travel to Washington, DC for two weeks of intensive hands-on public policy training.
• The first week includes an overview of how public policy is created through sessions led by lobbyists, public policy specialists and Members of Congress.
• During the second week, each woman shadows a Washington, D.C. based lobbyist and a Member of Congress to gain first-hand experience of how the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government intersect to shape and create public policy.

Read about the successes of a few of our past CAMP programs: CAMP-NI 2000, CAMP-NI 2006 as well as the first Middle East program completed, CAMP-ME 2007, and most recently CAMP ME 2008.