Odelia Karmi will be awarded the Spitzer Prize on Thursday for professional excellence in social welfare in the Negev by the Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer Department of Social Work. Karmi is the community and health manager of the Ashalim organization, a project of the JDC.
The prize is awarded bi-annually and represents the department and the Spitzers’ commitment to develop and improve social services in the Negev. The Spitzers met with Odelia on a visit to the Department during the 46th Board of Governors Meeting two weeks ago.
Odelia Karmi was born and raised in Shibolim and has lived in Beer-Sheva for the past decade. She is a graduate of the Department.
Odelia was active in fighting for employment rights and especially social workers’. She is one of the founders of the “Our Future” movement to promote social work and a founder of the “Amuta” cell to promote the standing of privatized social services employees. One of her professional tasks was to create and run the “Rights Center for Those Harmed by Privatized Social Services" founded by the Social Workers Union and the Joint Social Justice Forum at BGU.
She worked for “Memizrach Shemesh", a Beit Midrash (House of Study) and Center for Jewish Social Activism and Leadership in Israel for many years mentoring students from the socio-geographic periphery in a community, group and personal development process to affirm their identity and social action work.
Currently, Odelia manages the community and health section of the JDC’s Ashalim in the South. She developed a program to build community resilience in weak neighborhoods. As a community worker she strives to integrate community development and social justice while providing opportunities for self-fulfillment, living with dignity, community, familial and personal resilience for the residents of the South’s communities.
The certificate award ceremony will take place tomorrow, Thursday, during the Department's Projects Day in the Joya Claire Sonnenfeldt Auditorium.
