The Palestine Youth Action Center for Community Development (LAYLAC), centered in Bethlehem, Palestine, was founded in 2005 and aims to foster youth involvement in community concerns. Through rights-based initiatives and workshops, LAYLAC seeks to engage community members in development, particularly with projects concerning marginalized groups. 

In 2019, with support from the Martín-Baró Fund, LAYLAC focused on three main initiatives, having recruited 18 social workers and 14 youth participants to engage in the projects. After an orientation with the new members, the three groups of participants each tackled a specific project. These included cleaning and beautifying the Dheisheh camp, coordinating a UNRWA class in the camp, and renovating a garden for a school servicing children with special needs in the Al-Khadir village. These projects sought to create collective identity and community investment and engagement through youth volunteerism. 

LAYLAC seeks to continue this work in 2020, while expanding their programs. The two projects supported for funding from the Martín-Baró Fund in 2020 include: (1) Improving the Dheisheh public library to encourage literacy and increase discussions of literature. The library needs to be physically reconstructed and integrated into the community to increase involvement. And, (2) Training for social workers to support community-based education. This training occurs at the Bachelors and Master’s levels and supplements education received at the surrounding Universities. LAYLAC will focus on these two projects in 2020, while continuing their mission for community development and youth engagement.