In some countries Hizmet volunteers are struggling to establish healthy, open, and inclusive relationships with members of host cultures and local religious communities. In what ways do religious teachings, cultural traditions, and ideological or administrative anxieties contribute to this struggle?  What measures should the Hizmet Community take to address these handicaps?

Keywords: engagement, dialogue, collaboration, inclusiveness

When civil societies like the Hizmet Community fail to create institutionalized internal critical mechanisms and constraints, resolutions to developing problems may be blocked by internal powers. When the community desires to investigate the status quo, what are ways to prevent pushback from internal power holders?

Keywords: checks and balances, inner critic, constraints

–Hizmet Hareketi’nde Bağımsız İç Kritik Mekanizmaları – Ferit Akova

When educating youth who have been exposed to multiple religious and cultural traditions in their schools and neighborhoods, minority communities should carefully choose their priorities and pedagogical methodologies to balance religious and cultural identity and larger community youth engagement.

When we instill cultural and religious identities into youth, what are the realities and barriers that exist in the larger community and conflict with cultural and religious identity?

Keywords: child development, emotional barriers, parenting

–Seküler Ortamda Din, Ahlak ve Kültür Eğitimi – Gazi Murat Karadağ

Hizmet volunteers bring along certain habits and cultural traditions from their home cultures. Although they might make sense within the home culture, some of these cultural practices may be obstacles and exclusionary elements in the global context. What potentially damaging cultural habits that the Hizmet Community should abandon to achieve inclusiveness in the global community?

Keywords: cosmopolitanism, cultural practice, social development

Founding principles of the Hizmet Community shape the vision, mission, core values, and methods of its practices. Do you believe that Hizmet volunteers acculturate these principles into their daily lives?

Do you think individual cultural attributes play a positive and/or negative role in understanding these principles?

What are the cultural barriers that prevent internalization of these principles in Hizmet volunteers?

Keywords: global vision, core values, organizational culture, founding principles, communicating the vision, cultural restraints, differentiation of the self, internalization

Deliberate meetings in which participants can share their perspectives without concern can be achieved by all participants respecting and following specific rules and principles. Such meetings maintain a safe space, which may help to increase well-informed and sound decisions for the welfare of a community.  What rules, practices, and principles could be helpful for creating and maintaining such a safe space?

Keywords: democratic innovation, mutual consultation, deliberation

–Nakıs İstişareler ve Grup Düşüncesi – Yasir Bilgin

–Müzakere ve Toplantılar İçin ‘Grup Sözleşmesi’ Örneği – Yasir Bilgin

When the individual, family, and social order come to a standstill and financial problems and social anxieties confuse our minds, how can we stay productive? What are the preventative measures to slow down ever-changing priorities? Where can one find spiritual and mental rituals to stay relevant and efficient? During these times of crisis management, how can we define beneficial outcomes?

Keywords: coping, crisis management, contingency plan

-Hizmet Toplumu ve Geri Bildirim Mekanizmaları – Mustafa M. Bahar

Keywords: arbitration, conflict management, dispute resolution

The Hizmet Community enjoys a great amount of social capital, human resources, and global presence.

Under current circumstances, what adjustments and improvements are necessary to:

• Maximize local and global impact of this potential?
• Improve managerial and communicative efficiency?
• Increase contributions to social development?
• Turn the Hizmet Community into a mainstream movement?

Keywords: social capital, resource management, community organization, expertise sharing, knowledge management

What kinds of theoretical and practical approaches should we adopt and develop that differ from classical teaching methods when giving religious and moral education to youth and children raised in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom as well as cultural and religious diversity?

Keywords: diversity, educational models, educational philosophy, religion – moral education, inclusive, fundamental values, global education,cooperative learning

Natural disasters, wars, disease, poverty, political oppression, loss of assets and  privileges, and civil wars cause trauma on the individual and social level. Which strategies, methods and measures can maintain the well-being of the community and minimize the devastating long & short term effects of these traumas?

Keywords: social trauma, PTSD, bereavement, anxiety, stress, counseling, dissociation, victim, response

–Travma Sonrası Stres Bozukluğu – CRIS Akademi

Crises may have many long & short term negative consequences for societies. Besides these endemic negative outcomes, it has also been observed that crises have many positive consequences, serving to develop and transform the society. How can the Hizmet Community turn its current crisis into opportunity and embrace social transformation?

Keywords: Strategic Leadership, Emergency Preparedness, Crisis Management, Crisis Intervention, Risk Management, Forecasting, Reputation Management, Political Opportunity, Business Opportunity, Organizational Change, Habit Change

Faced with hardship, financial constraints, and defeat, we sometimes feel doubts about our life purpose and meaning. Lost amid this chaos; we may lose motivation. How can we strengthen our motivation? How can we approach apathy so as to reconstruct our life purpose, meaning, and direction in new ways?

Keywords: Meaning, Crisis of Meaning, Crisis of Faith, Purpose-Driven Life, Spiritual Grief, Spiritual Struggle, Meaning Making, Character Building, Faith Formation

When comparing the manifestations of Hizmet in your host and home cultures, what are the missing or misrepresented components of Hizmet Community vision and mission compared to your home culture? What are the difficulties in this cultural translation?

Keywords: Cultural Translation, Communication Styles, Communication Strategy, Literary Translation, Culture-Specific Items, Source Language, Target Language

What might be the main reasons youth in the Hizmet Community refrain from taking an active role in community development, leadership and decision-making? What prevents their involvement? What might be the cultural and organizational changes that will allow youth to take a more active role in their communities?

Keywords: youth involvement, engagement, cultural change, organizational democracy, inclusive decision-making, youth agency, immigrant young people, youth cultural identity

What tangible contributions does the Hizmet Community provide to the social development of the country in which they live? What are the tangible and measurable (statistical data and figures) contributions of the Hizmet Community in:

a) Providing basic needs and improving lives in regards to: food, health, security, shelter, freedoms, social belonging and support, and living conditions for human dignity?

b) Increasing the level of education, critical thinking, and sound reasoning, as well as helping people to reach accurate knowledge?

c) Reducing social unrest, division and conflict?

Keywords: local contributions, measurable outcomes, basic needs, security, shelter, liberties, belonging, human dignity, poverty, cognitive capacity, educational opportunities, critical thinking, social clash, social unrest, reconciliation, arbitration, mediation, diversity training, pluralism

What is the promise and contribution of the Hizmet Community to the global community? Beyond religious, ethnic and cultural identities, what common needs do the Hizmet Community address? Why should anyone outside of Muslim, Turkish and developing countries embrace the Hizmet Community? How does the Hizmet Community contribute when operating in these countries? Besides providing awareness about Turkish and Islamic culture, how does the Hizmet Community serve and benefit to people?

Keywords: global contribution, common needs, affiliation, tangible outcomes, cultural and religious education, diversity, social development

What are the positive aspects, values, practices and habits that the global Hizmet Community can learn from the host culture in which you reside?

Keywords: local engagement, cultural awareness, cultural diversity, local perspective, host culture, cultural exchange, cultural translation, cultural transaction

What are the conflicting points between the Hizmet Community’s vision, mission, founding principles, and methods and the host culture in which you are living?

Keywords: cultural conflict, host culture, cultural translation, cultural adaptation, incompatibility

How does the trauma experienced by the Hizmet Community manifest itself within you and your local community? Consider beliefs, religious practices, mental and physical health, family relationships, social functioning, coping habits, etc.

Keywords: trauma symptoms, reactions, intrusion, coping skills, functional and dysfunctional coping, stress management, appraisal, secondary trauma, social trauma

–Travma Sonrası Stres Bozukluğu – CRIS Akademi

When operating in defective democracies, hybrid or authoritarian regimes pose serious challenges and risks for civil societies. Having experienced such challenges, what key lessons did the Hizmet Community gain in areas such as administrative structure, power management, decision making processes, and relations with political and state powers?

Keywords: defective democracies, hybrid and authoritarian regimes, vulnerability, survival skills and methods, civil society, civil rights, political involvement, boundary violation, social integrity, culture of democracy

–Demokrasi Kültürü Nasıl Gelişir? – İhsan Çolak

–Sivil Toplum Nedir, Ne Değildir? – İhsan Çolak

Youth in the Hizmet Community who grow up in different host cultures and the first generation who grew up in Turkish culture may manifest different cultural and habitual characteristics.  What types of activities should the Hizmet Community organize in intellectual, communicative, and cultural categories to lessen the generational conflict and dissociation? What activities can increase understanding, appreciation and mutual contribution among these generations? What local practices could Hizmet volunteers develop?

Keywords: generational gap, cultural gap, host and home culture, conflict, dissociation, active listening, empathy, appreciation, intergenerational transmission, intergenerational relations

In the long term, is it possible for the Hizmet Community to pass down its vision, mission, core values and methods, as they are, to the next generation? Taking into account the realities of the new generation, what amendments, measures and transformations could the Hizmet Community embrace?

Keywords: intergenerational transmission, cultural heritage, agency of youth, generational adaptation, cultural interpretation, efficiency, relevancy, rituals, social institutions, group identity

Is it imperative to be Muslim and/or Turkish to be included in the decision making apparatus of the Hizmet Community? If it is, how does the Hizmet Community justify its presence in non-Muslims countries? If not, then according to what criteria should someone consider himself/herself a member of the Hizmet Community? According to what criteria can a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu or Atheist claim membership of the Hizmet Community?

Keywords: belonging, group identity, in-group out-group, group formation, priororities, social inclusion, upper identity, decision-making bodies, inclusive leadership, inclusive decision-making

What could be the contributions, alternative perspectives, and innovations of the Hizmet youth who are growing up in different geographies and cultures? What and how can the Hizmet Community learn from its youth?

Keywords: youth involvement, inclusion, power dynamics, social change, cultural change, adaptation, youth development, feedback mechanisms, organizational rigidity, cultural deviation, growth mind

As someone who has a Muslim, Turkish and Hizmet Community background, what types of problems and inner conflicts are you experiencing while adapting to the local culture you reside in currently, outside of your home country?

Keywords: cultural shock, inner transformation, cultural adaptation, alienation, assimilation integration, cultural heritage, conservation, hybrid identity, personal integrity

Click for cult criteria.

According to these criteria, what beliefs and practices of the Hizmet Community are cultish? How could the Hizmet Community make a relevant and plausible explanation of these beliefs and practices? Which of these beliefs and practices originated in the home culture and which are the main teachings of the Hizmet Community? What kinds of adjustments could the Hizmet Community make to appeal more to the host culture?

Keywords: cult, cultural translation, maladaptation, leadership styles, charismatic leadership, choosennes, authority, transparency, loyalty, decision-making

How can the Hizmet Community enjoy the intellectual wisdom, life experience and social memory of aging members in building a collective identity, providing a historical perspective, and passing down wisdom to the younger generation? In what ways do members of the Hizmet Community appreciate their fruitful lives? How can the Hizmet Community assure aging member’s involvement in community life? How should we respond to their personal and social needs? What can you do to contribute to elderly life quality in our local society?

Keywords: elder ministry, aging, senior citizens, retirement, assisted living

–Yaşı Kemale Erenler ve Hizmet Vesileleri – Yasir Bilgin

Within the Hizmet Community, what are the cultural and traditional barriers preventing women from taking a more active role in leadership, decision making processes, and management? What should be the long & short term restorative steps and measures? What would be a good road map going forward?

Keywords: women empowerment, gender discrimination, patriarchal society, glass ceiling, women leadership

How can civil societies, such as the Hizmet Community, manage political participation and contribute to development of democracies in local and global contexts? To promote democratic values and educate the public about their rights and responsibilities, what can civil societies do in countries where the boundaries between state and civil society are not clear and often violated, civil rights, initiatives and movements are vulnerable, and civic organizations are seen as a threat by state authority?

Keywords: civil society, interest groups, political participation, non-governmental organization, civic engagement, citizen participation, protest

–Demokrasi Kültürü Nasıl Gelişir? – İhsan Çolak

–Sivil Toplum Nedir, Ne Değildir? – İhsan Çolak

Within the Hizmet Movement, what must be the rules and policies of institutions and the collective body when managing resources such as money, human capital, organizational power, influence, social network, and common resources? Are criteria such as merit, piety, assignment, affiliation, and loyalty sufficient requirements for proper power management? If not, how should the Hizmet Community create organizational checks and balances?

Keywords: civil society, interest groups, political participation, non-governmental organization, civic engagement, citizen participation, protest

What questions should we ask to measure the viability of emerging or ongoing nonprofit organizations and initiatives in our community? What should we know about these organizations when they ask for our financial, emotional, social and informational support? What aspects should we examine on a regular basis before maintaining our support?

Keywords: program assessment, evaluation, organizational assessment, legal compliance, program outcome, volunteer feedback

–Sivil Toplum Projelerinin ve Kurumlarının Fizibilitesi – Yasir Bilgin