Ramat Negev Reginal Council

COMMUNITY VILLAGES

In an internal survey conducted in 2005 among council residents, the majority gave especially high marks to the quality of life, of the environment, and of education, community services and personal security. Also highlighted in the survey is the fact that the villages incorporate values of community, Zionism and fulfillment, and provide a genuine sense of active, supportive and all-embracing community life.
The unique nature of life in Ramat Negev is the basis for

consolidating a broad program for development in the existing communities. This development will be executed by creating a planning infrastructure for authorizing new lots and marketing them in order to strengthen the existing

villages, to build new villages which appeal to various sectors and to initiate ventures that generate new workplaces.

Among the projects emerging in Ramat Negev are the construction of new neighborhoods in Mashabei Sadeh, Telalim, Ben Gurion Village and Ashalim, and in Pitchat Nitzana: in Kadesh Barnea and K'mehin; establishing three new villages: Nitzanit (in Pitchat Nitzana), Be'er Milka and "Desert Shanty" ֲ– a different kind of rehab village

and Nahal Laban; establishing "Spirit in the Desert" ֲ– a therapeutic rehab village for drug and alcohol addicts, which will add 100 new workplaces and will care for about 100 rehab patients; and "Desert Shanty" ֲ– a different kind of

rehab village for youth at risk, which is being established in conjunction with the Shanty House Nonprofit Association, at Zipporim Junction adjacent to Ben Gurion Village; it, too, is expected to add about 40 new jobs.

A new residential venture that has been gaining great momentum in the last few years is "Adiel", a village for college students and young entrepreneurs ֲ– the first of its kind in Israel ֲ– which was established by the "Ayalim" Association in conjunction with, and encouraged and supported by, the Ramat Negev Regional Council, near the community village of Ashalim. The "Adiel" Village currently houses about 70 students, who combine their academic studies with active community involvement in the peripheral border settlements. It is designed to absorb, at a later stage, another 150 students.