At Topaz International, partnerships are not a supporting component.
They are the foundation for action
The Foundation for Action
Partnerships constitute one of the five core pillars of action at Topaz International and serve as a central component of the HANSHAKA paradigm – the integrative model developed by the organization over nearly a quarter of a century. This paradigm is designed to address complex human and social challenges – such as trauma, dropout, migration, and poverty – based on the understanding that these challenges emerge and evolve within multiple, interconnected life systems: personal, familial, community, and institutional. Accordingly, the responses to them must also be multidimensional and integrated.
Within this framework, partnerships are not perceived as an add-on or a supporting mechanism, but rather as a fundamental condition for achieving meaningful change. The underlying assumption is that complex problems do not belong to a single system, and therefore cannot be resolved by a single actor.
Trauma, for example, simultaneously involves mental health, education, welfare, family, and community; at-risk youth encounter education, welfare, legal, and health systems; and migration engages states, local authorities, communities, labor markets, and cultural systems. From this emerges a conceptual approach according to which only joint, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral action can generate effective and sustainable responses.
At Topaz International, however, partnership is not defined merely as a list of stakeholders or as formal agreements between organizations. What characterizes the organization’s work is the creation of deep partnerships – grounded in shared responsibility, a shared systemic vision, joint learning processes, and the co-development of responses. Instead of a hierarchical structure in which each entity operates separately – one funding, another referring, and another providing services – a collaborative operational system is built in which all partners are true co-owners of planning, implementation, and leadership.
This approach is reflected across all Topaz initiatives. In every arena – local and international – the organization works to build a broad partnership ecosystem that includes local authorities, education and welfare systems, health services, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and at times also actors from the business sector.
From this network emerge a shared vision and multi-year action plans that integrate community – based interventions, professional training, employment development, strengthening of local leadership, and the embedding of processes that foster resilience, belonging, and community cohesion.
At Topaz, partnerships are not working tools – they are deep alliances grounded in shared responsibility, a shared vision, and continuous learning. An operational system in which all partners are true co-owners of planning, implementation, and leadership.
Realizing the HANSHAKA Principles
Partnerships serve as the mechanism through which the other principles of HANSHAKA are realized in practice:
Moreover, partnerships create continuity and stability. Rather than isolated, short-term projects, they enable the development of ongoing, multi-year, sustainable systems -establishing a network of action in which knowledge, authority, resources, and commitment are shared among different partners working together toward a common goal.
Across all four impact spaces of Topaz International – within the local Israeli arena, the international development and humanitarian sphere, the field of arts for social change (SoArt), and the Altneuland space – partnerships are not merely a working tool. Through them, Topaz moves from isolated interventions to broad processes of social change that connect individuals, communities, and systems, and integrate knowledge, action, and long-term impact.
They are the systemic infrastructure upon which all action is built.
המודל החברתי ישראלי – עמותה העוסקת ביזמות שכפול. שותפה עם טופז להפעלה של חממת אימפקטוב.
ברית עולם – עמותה העוסקת בפיתוח בין לאומי – שיתוף הפעולה מתמקד ביצוא מודלים שפותחו בטופז כגון “בית ספר מוזות” ומיזמי אומנות של “אינספריישן”. העמותה חולקת מרחב משרדי משותף וחלק מהמתנדבים משותפים לשני הארגונים.
נתן – עמותה העוסקת בסיוע הומניטרי לאזורי אסון. העמותה מופעלת כיום באמצעות ברית עולם ועושה שיתופי פעולה נוספים עם טופז.
הפורום האקדמי ליזמות חברתית – שותפות של שלושה ארגונים: בית הספר לעבודה סוציאלית באוניברסיטת תל אביב, ארגון שתיל וטופז. הפורום עוסק בארגון שולחנות עגולים וכנסים בתחום היזמות מתוך רצון להעלות את איכות הדיון אודות סוגיות בתחום היזמות החברתית.
