In Eastern Europe, homegrown giving and volunteerism is taking root

JTA October 4, 2012

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10/04/3108251/once-bitten-jews-in-ex-soviet-bloc-less-shy-about-giving

ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) -- Wearing an elegant dress and a name tag, Dasha Fedoseeva flitted among the tables during a recent Jewish community dinner in Moscow just after Rosh Hashanah.

Fedoseeva wasn’t just a guest. She was part of a team of young Jewish volunteers whose goal was to mingle and charm older guests into increasing their donations to local Jewish charities.

Organized by the Russian Jewish Congress, the gala dinner and auction raised $85,000. In 2011, the Congress allocated $385,000  to a Jewish orphanage in Moscow -- all the money was raised locally in fundraising drives.

The raising of substantial funds locally is a sign of something that was almost unthinkable just a few years ago in former Soviet bloc countries. For years, the Jewish communities there subsisted on Western help for welfare and community building. But as these communities grow up, they are becoming increasingly self-reliant -- something that’s evident both in the growing culture of local volunteerism and homegrown philanthropy.

“Over the past few years, we see more volunteering by young Jews and more donations, which are aspects of the same trend of giving,” said Matvey Chlenov, deputy director of the Russian Jewish Congress.

“In the 1990s there was a feeling we were struggling to survive in the post-communist upheaval,” he said. “Now in Russia we have more time and money, and some people are looking for a way to do positive things for the community.”

Chlenov says this applies not only to Jews but to Russian society in general.

In Ukraine, a $70 million Jewish community center in Dnepropetrovsk due to be dedicated this month was funded entirely by local philanthropists. Elsewhere in Ukraine, JCCs are encouraging activism and philanthropy among young Jews while accustoming older members to paying fees.

In Poland, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee recently received its first significant donation from a local philanthropist.

Promoters of Jewish life in Eastern Europe say that getting people to donate time and money is difficult in the former Soviet bloc, where bitter memories of “forced volunteering” remain, and there is deep-rooted skepticism in the idea of sacrificing for the common good.

“Former Soviet countries have little culture of giving or volunteering, and I know exactly why,” said Karina Sokolowska, director of the Poland office of the JDC. “Growing up in communist Poland, I remember attending ‘compulsory-voluntary action’ every month. We would go somewhere and do what they told us. It profoundly affects your attitude to community work.”

Mariya Zarud, 22, of Odessa, encountered this barrier to community work at home.

Zarud, the regional coordinator for the JDC-funded Metzuda program for developing Jewish leadership, said she had to plead with her parents to convince them that her unpaid role in the Jewish community was a good thing.

“Initially it was pretty tough. I had to make them see I wasn’t wasting my time,” Zarud said of her teen years, when she first became involved with JDC programs. Like many people who grew up under communism, her parents were wary of organizational activism, she said.

While her parents’ generation looks askance at volunteering, young Jews recognize that it is up to them -- not just international Jewish aid groups -- to build their communities, she says.

In Odessa, the Beit Grand Jewish Community Center, which was dedicated in 2010 thanks to American Jewish donations, collects fees for all cultural activities, according to Ira Zborovskaya of the local JDC office.

“Even if it’s only symbolic, everyone has to chip in and pay something for services,” Zborovskaya said.

In Soviet times, “charging fees for cultural activities was unthinkable -- it was all free,” said Kira Verkhovskaya, director of Odessa’s other JCC, Migdal. Fees are also collected as a matter of policy there, but most of the budget comes from subsidies from Jews in the West.

“Some older people are not happy when they are asked to pay,” she said.

Both Migdal and Beit Grand have programs that encourage young Jews to contribute time and effort to the community.

Beit Grand also operates a luxury Jewish kindergarten for 40 children whose well-off parents pay a monthly fee of $500 -- approximately double the average national monthly salary. The kindergarten is so popular that it has a long waiting list. The annual income of $240,000 from fees helps cover other programs, including charitable activities.

Nevertheless, the culture of giving is still far less widespread than it is in the West, experts say.

Russia has a Jewish population of 265,000, according to a 2010 official census, and the World Jewish Congress says it estimates the number is at least 330,000. Despite the community's size, local philanthropy comes mostly from a thin layer of “oligarchs or super-rich Jews,” Chlenov said.

“What we are missing is a trusted brand for small donations from middle-class donors, like what the Jewish federation system does in the U.S.,” he said.

Attempts to raise donations from that sector yielded some results, according to Chlenov, but never beyond a total of $150,000 per fundraising campaign.

In Ukraine, Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, says the Jewish middle class still isn't opening its wallet.

“Since the mid-'90s, we are seeing the same 10 to 15 very rich Jews funding charity,” he said. The donor pool is “sadly not expanding.”

This means that with a Jewish population of 360,000 to 400,000 and many thousands of welfare cases, Ukrainian Jewry would “face a humanitarian disaster” if it weren’t for American money, Dolinsky added.

Better Together Afula

Better Together improves services for children and youth in disadvantaged communities such as development towns on Israel's periphery and poor inner city neighborhoods, by maximizing local resources and forging partnerships between residents and service providers.  It improves existing services and creates new programs, accompanying children from birth to 18, morning till night, school to home. The program focuses include early childhood development and academic assistance and enrichment activities, while engaging parents, teachers and community leaders in strengthening communities.

Location: Gvanim School, corner of Negba St. and Wolfson St., Afula

Wolfson neighborhood is the closest to Jenin, but there's no neighborhood identity, they don’t even use the name – most aren’t aware of the fact that it’s called that; they're planning a competition to rename and own the name.

14,000 households with children

1/3 olim from Ethiopia

1/3 FSU olim

1/3 veteran Israelis

PACT was here, very successful, now in phaseout – i.e. we have a strong infrastructure

BT is based on three concepts:  (1) organizational, cooperation with professionals and residents

                                                   (2) professional training

                                                   (3) answering needs

IRIS is the school principal, came to the school two years ago. This is an elementary school. The South East of Afula is in a serious condition, difficult population, violence, drugs, verbal violence, alcoholism, poor socioeconom ics. Therefore the main aim of the program in the school was to ensure that the kids would be ‘free’ to learn and to empower the teachers.

"I found a school ripped apart, parents and teachers would fight each other – literally. There were petitions left and right against each other, it was awful here. I wa s in shock. Parents would come in to the school in the morning, open a classroom door and scream at a teacher, I was threatened. It was a violent and difficult culture. The BT was an SOS for us, first to improve the teachers’ communications and functioning, working together for the students. Now it’s been two years. I met Yehuda, we thought together what tools do we need here, courses, workshops. We wanted to start with the teachers so they could start modeling the right behavior, with parents, working together. There was a lot of opposition at first,  significant change – some of the courses and extras are on the teachers’ free time, they know how important this is."

"After six months we understood that there has to be a social response as well. The long school day finishes at 2:30pm, so kids go home and then they have all kinds of problems. We have to provide an alternative, but we didn’t have funds. There's no Matnas here, there are no social activities. So the school became a center, including alight dinner – because there are kids here who otherwise wouldn’t eat anything in the evenings. We also got recognition as a healthy eating school."

DARI is the community coordinator. The place is vibrant and full of kids and parents this evening. This used to be a violent and unpleasant place. Now most evenings there are activities. Twice a week run by BT, twice by others.

50% of the families in this neighborhood are classed as ‘non-normativ e’ (charig), without proper functioning family structure.

 

MORAN is the artists’ group coordinator. BT emphasizes the voice of the residents.

Yehuda: we did a survey of 150 families – saw the need for community leaders course.

Moran’s group: 30 artists aged 24-27, based on a Nahal garin, integrating into the community as artists in education, community, arts, neigh borhood projects. But we’re residents here. There wasn’t even a Va’ad Bayit when we came to our building, no one cleaned the front garden and stairs. Everything was dirty and messy. Today it’s much better.

The model is tightly restricted to the Wolfson-Kinamon-Jerusalem streets, with all the population: community events, presentations, kabalat Shabbat, event s, cleaning up. We set up a community shelter with cultural events, open moadon, social games, Hebrew for adults

There are 180 kids in the classes. 300 in the school (from first to sixth grade)

 

We walk around the school and visit the activities:

(1)   “Penguins” – toddlers, 20 kids, run by Meital and Sapir. Sport, singing, dancing, two hours, every 30 minutes something new. Right now having a snack. Then singing.

(2)   “MasterChef” for 1^st to 3^rd graders, right now having soup, which they learned about as part of the activity. Einav is the madricha, English major at Oranim.

(3)   There's a busload of older kids and their parents going to the Festigal in Haifa. Each person pays 5 NIS for the subsidized ticket; we provided snacks and the bus. Local businessman subsidized the ti ckets. I said hello, they were thrilled to chat (but thrilled to leave on time, too)

(4)   Theater group with Adi and Ortal from the artists’ garin. 5 girls, they see Moran all the time in the neighborhood, all grew up here. Naomi: what do we do here: relaxation exercises, drama, presentations, movement. Rivka: we learn so much here, we did a show for the younger kids, but we also get the chance to talk here about other things, about politics, life, culture. There's such a warm feeling for us here, they care about us and what we feel and think. It helps me in school as well. My horizons have opened wider here. Adi and Ortal aren’t just teachers, they’ve done so much in the community, everyone loves them, they’ve put on a show for the community, “Servant of Two Masters” (by Goldoni). Tzviah (in pink) – we’re talking today about our relations with Arabs and the price tag concept, we’re trying to understand what we feel and why  [amazing openness to discussion and grappling with difficult concepts], we’re discussing it through the concept of the stranger and the other, someone different from me, we’re preparing a show about it. [this was really impressive – I was expectin g a political discussion but they're doing this through theater and moral concepts]. Adi explains that the girls are increasingly volunteering, getting involved in the community, helping in other roles.

(5)   Sujud is leading a Zumba class. She's from Yafiya (near Natzrat)

Career Alternatives [“Chen”] Haifa

Career Alternatives is working with some of the finest Haredi seminaries in Israel to train their young women to enter professions that are more gainful and in higher demand than the over-saturated field of teacher education. Career Alternatives ensures that these young women will be able to contribute significantly to their future families while remaining true to their Haredi values.  By working with the top seminaries, TEVET seeks to help quietly stimulate cross-sector change in women's employment, as other seminaries look to adopt more gainful and diverse career training. 

ELISHEVA is the teacher; the girls will leave here in two years with full preparation, it’s an incubator that helps them think and initiate. She shows some examples of projects:

E-book viewer in E-pub format. It’s an ‘electronic college’ for religious texts, normally in pdf format (which doesn’t allow interactive use). This was a project designed by 7 girls, it’s very exciting – they had to figure out text format from right to left, new fonts, nikud, footnotes; we’re looking at Megilat Esther. The advantage of E-pub is that it adapts itself to the format of the screen (ipad/tablet, iphone, laptop etc) so the challenge is e.g. with the Gmara how to add the parshanut – they used floating windows.
There’s nothing like this in the religious world and it’ s very exciting. It will change the way religiou s people read texts online; what was funny was they were explaining that the text is essentially a rolling scroll … which is what the original text was, I pointed out (pas-glila), so there was something very positive about the discussion.

Multimedia children’s stories, e.g. to teach road safety. This is a huge issu e in the haredi world. 7 girls worked on this project.

There are 27 girls on computer studies first year, 18 in second year, total 45. All aged 18-20.

ETTI (Tevet coordinator) – the Bet Yaakov structure is very strong in the Haredi world, very well respected, traditionally for training teachers and kindergarten teachers but the income for this is decreasing and less funding. There's a new generation of girls who see work differently and the need to bring income differently. There’s always been a connection with the Joint. We’re focusing on realizing people’s potential. Especially here in the seminars – a girl who studies two years has studied 2600 hours in total. If we don’t get into the curriculum we’ll miss a great opportunity for both the haredi community and Israeli society. It’s not simple.
The Seminar is first and foremost and educational institution for building up the girls as good women, good mothers, good citizens. How to grapple with reality, building a Jewish home with Torah, values, ethics but at the same time realizing that there’s no Torah without flour.

Bet Yaakov is the ‘manufacturing factory’ of Haredi society, motivated by the value of education. Partners in Chen include Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Tamat, Seminars, JDC.

There's no model to build here. If your father is a lawyer or a doctor, you can understand and aspire to a career. But here there's no option like that, which is why the role of the employment coordinator is so critical. The girls have no way to think differently.
PNINA is the employment coordinator for Chen. She comes from the community. They couldn’t bring in outsiders like psychologists, advisors etc., because you have to t rain and communicate with people from the inside, there was opposition because of the differences in language and culture. So people like Pnina came to the JDC-Tevet courses and were trained by the best from the outside world, but they themselves are from the Haredi world.

PNINA for the second year we’re working on computer graphics and software engineering, while also adapting the materials to the haredi world. The girls are learning and discovering new skills and capabilities. There are things I can do, and I enjoy, that I didn’t know beforehand. It’s progress. We’re saying to them, come with your values and b uild in the world of employment.

 

There are 21 Bet Yaakov Seminarie s. Chen is in 12 of them. This is the 3rd year in Bet Yaakov Haifa.

Now the girls are learning about interviews, networking, personal marketing, self-confidence. They ran simulations how to do an interview for a job, how to write a resume for the first time. There’s a barrier and they need to do a mental switch, but it’s not opposed to their values. The first year (i.e. third year of program) girls have already found employment in places like Elbit, Rafael, Electric Corporation, and more.

We visit the classrooms, Elisheva is teaching unitask/SQL database management code. There's a huge demand for people with this skill. This is a second year class.

Eliezer is showing one of the final projects for one group of girls – it’s the entire software package for restaurant management, 100 pages, well-designed and extremely professional, with pull-down menus for different food categories (vegetarian/price/calories/needs/etc) working in conjunction with the kitchen, wait-staff and more. Very impressive.

In Ukraine, new funds for survivors brings high—some say unrealistic—expectations

JTA

By Cnaan Liphshiz · September 27, 2012

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Holocaust survivor Larisa Rakovskaya in her Odessa apartment, Sept. 14, 2012. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) -- In her dilapidated apartment, Larisa Rakovskaya examines a stack of unpaid heating bills. Sick and alone, the 86-year-old Holocaust survivor and widow is preparing for another encounter with the cold, her “worst and only fear.”

Rakovskaya says her hope of staying warm this winter lies with a one-time payment of approximately $3,200 that she may receive from Germany via the Claims Conference following Berlin’s recent decision to include victims of Nazi persecution in the former Soviet Union as beneficiaries of the so-called Hardship Fund. Some 80,000 survivors across the former Soviet Union are expected to qualify for the payouts, half of them in Ukraine, where a crumbling welfare system often leaves the old and disabled to live and die in penury.

Rakovskaya says that once she uses the Hardship Fund payment to pay off the few hundred dollars of debt she owes utilities, she wants to visit Israel for the first time.

“I don’t want to renovate, and I don’t need a boiler. My last wish is to see Jerusalem,” she tells JTA.

Marina, her social worker from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, asks Rakovskaya to “be realistic” and use the money for day-to-day living.

The Claims Conference, which negotiated the expansion of the Hardship Fund with Germany, says the money will have “an enormous impact.” The application process starts in November, and eligible claimants are expected to be approved as quickly as eight weeks afterward, according to Claims Conference spokeswoman Hillary Kessler-Godin. Applications will be processed throughout most of 2013.

JDC, which funds Jewish welfare operations in the former Soviet Union known as Heseds, called the new money a “welcome addition” but cautioned that survivors, as well as other Jews in the region, still need ongoing assistance. 

Rakovskaya lives on a $111 monthly government pension in a one-bedroom apartment with her small dog, Chunya. Old newspapers absorb humidity from the broken floor; the brown walls are crumbling. With no hot water, she heats water over an electric stove and then washes over a rusty sink. She has managed to get food and medicine and keep her home heated thanks to support from her local Hesed.

Established in the 1990s, Hesed provides relief, medical services and food to approximately 170,000 Jews in former Soviet countries. JDC’s 2012 budget for welfare and social services in the former Soviet Union comes to $113.5 million. Some of the money comes from the Claims Conference, which funds Hesed programs directed at Holocaust survivors. In 2011, those funds reached approximately $75 million. 

Approximately 7,000 Hesed clients live in Odessa, a city with a Jewish population estimated at 40,000. Ukraine has some 360,000 to 400,000 Jews, according to the European Jewish Congress.

Rakovskaya has experienced far worse living conditions. As a girl she had to live with her mother in the catacombs that run under Odessa’s streets. They went underground after Romanian soldiers occupied the city in 1941 as allies of Nazi Germany. Once home to 200,000 Jews, only about 90,000 remained when the Romanians arrived. Most of them were murdered. 

Thanks to her father’s non-Jewish last name, Rakovskaya and her Jewish mother were able to slip through the roundups.

Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, told JTA that the new Hardship Fund payment is the fruit of 20 years of labor.

During the Cold War, Germany “understandably” resisted compensating victims living behind the Iron Curtain for fear that Soviet regimes would confiscate the money, Schneider said. Since communism collapsed, the Claims Conference has “asked, pushed, pressed, urged and cajoled” Germany to compensate victims living in Eastern Europe just like victims living in the West. 

“I think it’s too late, but we’re happy this is finally happening,” he said. “For a Western,” he said, the $3,200 is “the equivalent of receiving a year’s worth of pension.”

Asher Ostrin, the JDC’s director of activities in the FSU, calls the fund “a welcome addition,” but also says "It will not elevate anyone from extreme poverty to middle-class comfort.”

Many of the Holocaust survivors who will receive the one-time payment from Germany will continue to be aided by Hesed, which has many other clients who are not Holocaust survivors. 

One of the recipients is Svetlana Mursalova, 56. Once a social worker for Hesed, she suffered a crippling hip fracture that rendered her bedridden and unable to work. She says her two children have no interest in her, leaving her to survive on a monthly disability pension of $109.

“Without the help from Hesed, I would need to choose between food and medicines. I would have died,” she told JTA. “My situation is very painful because I always used to look after myself and others. But you have to stay optimistic.”

On her wall is a portrait of her Siamese cat, Marquis, which she describes as her best friend. Mursalova thought about leaving for Israel, she says, but now that she is unable to walk properly, “leaving is even more difficult than staying.”

Ostrin says many poor Jews resist immigrating to Israel for fear of the unfamiliar and a deep attachment to their apartments -- often the only property they managed to keep during and after communism.

Although tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews require JDC charity to get by, a small number of Jews have become wealthy since the collapse of communism. In recent years they have been involved increasingly in charity and in projects that promote a self-sustainable Jewish life here, according to Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.

One example is a Jewish kindergarten with 40 pupils and a long waiting list of parents willing to pay the $500 monthly fee -- approximately double the national average salary. The money keeps the school running, but also helps fund community services and activities ranging from pottery and aerobics lessons for the elderly to basketball tournaments for teenagers.   

Those parents, however, represent “a very thin layer of rich Jews who are unable to tend to the serious needs of the elderly and poor,” Dolinsky says. “Without the generous support of American Jewry, we would face a humanitarian disaster.”

Dolinsky says the new funds secured by the Claims Conference “will not change anything on the fundamental level, but they are important for the recipients and as a form of belated justice.”

Better Together Ashkelon

Better Together improves services for children and youth in disadvantaged communities such as development towns on Israel's periphery and poor inner city neighborhoods, by maximizing local resources and forging partnerships between residents and service providers.  It improves existing services and creates new programs, ac companying children from birth to 18, morning till night, school to home. The program focuses include early childhood development and academic assistance and enrichment activities, while engaging parents, teachers and community leaders in strengthening communities.

Location: Matnas Shapira, Neve Alonim, Ashkelon

BT is in s even locations in the South today. Sivan is the brand-new (this week) BT Ashkelon coordinator. We do a tour of the neighborhood. Shapira is a large neighborhood in the ‘middle’ from a socioeconomic standpoint. 16,000 residents, including many FSU olim, Eth-Isrs, veteran elderly. The stronger younger families move up to Barnea. Elderly and weak stay in Neve Alonim. The streets are fairly clean (the municipality emphasizes street cleaning) but empty and neglected. This is the southernmost area of Ashkelon, which developed north. Vaknin was born here.

Outside the kindergarten it’s nearly all fathers, recognizably Ethiopian or FSU.

David is Matnas Director, he has a good reputation. January 2010 BT came to Ashkelon, there's been less vandalism, more pride in the neighborhood. You can see more energy here, more activity. The school next to the Matnas also improved its infrastructure. (BT doesn’t invest in physical infrastructure but it’s important to encourage and strengthen the local authority to do so; BT focuses on the programmatic and social ele ments).

In the photos: Room 6 is the early ch ildhood room

The moadon room was redesigned by an architect from Hatzeva. It was officially opened last week, though programs have been running since the summer. It’s very comfortable, well-designed chairs, original art, two brand-new computers, good lighting, clean walls.

CHELI is a social work student doing her training here  (black shirt and pink)

RAVIT is the mother in brown

LOREN is her daughter, here for English classes

BELLE is the educational coordinator

MARGALIT is the youth activities coordinator

SIVAN is the BT coordinator

Margalit: the youth activities coordinator has to pull everything together, cooperate, create new opportunities and an informational structure that allows us to know what's happening with each youth, so that no one falls between the chairs. We have Noar B’Aliyah youth movement garin and we integrate the parents into the activities. It was difficult to bring the parents and children together. There are groups for cinema, communications, meeting professionals, sports instructor group, and more.

There are several older madrichim. Margalit is from Jerusalem, decided to live here with her Garin. They finished the army a year ago and settled right here in the neighborhood. We’re creating a continuum of educational service, focused right now on the 9th grade, and will be expanded.

JENNY is an 11th grader, born in Ukraine. Started volunteering in 9th grade. She says that this week there were 100 youth taking part in activities; we’ve undergone a massive change this last year. I’d rather be here than wandering the street. The 11th grade is responsible for activities like the forum, chanuka party, summer camp. Jenny is also an artist – she drew the main mural on the wall of the early childhood room. Wants to go for officer training in the army, has learned about leadership and personal example from the program here. My volunteering here has helped me in life.

BELLE is in charge of the educational center for math and English. 51 kids come to the center, they have 6 teachers (4 from the commune/garin). Loren is here to study English and math, she's very serious, highly motivated.  Belle notes that the center allows us to identify needs and behavioral difficulties not just in the subjects being taught. Loren’s mother takes part.

Loren’s mother loves it because at school there are 40 kids in the English class. Here there are two. Loren is progressing well, she loves it too. It’s my future success, it strengthens me, my grades are improving. Loren’s mom loves that she comes here now from her own free will, she enjoys being here.

DAVID what we have here is boosting the weakest sectors, narrowing the gaps, empowering, improving people’s self-confidence. There are solutions here that you can't get at the schools and people can feel at home here.

CHELI we have 60 families of kids aged 4-6 taking part in enrichment classes, improving parent-child communication; identifying development problems, referring to the right solutions, developing child skills. There are lots of parents especially here who don’t know how to play with their kids, we need to teach the parents, show them how to be caring, patient, understanding, give guidance, but retaining appropriate parental authority. It changes people’s homes and families for the better.

There's a process, but we see change and progress. We’ve often seen parents come with the expectation that they'd drop off the kids in front of the TV. That’s not going to happen here.

There's a program twice a week for kids under age 2. The mothers’ forum meets around problems, challenges, need to work through concepts, to speak, to discuss. Empower them with skills. How to move from diapers, how to talk to kids, how to play. What's interesting is that they have the ‘formal’ discussion but we see them continuing the discussion outside. There’s an added extra.

David: we’re sending out from here better citizens like Jenny and Victoria. There are quality people here, we can find them and help them. There were those who didn’t speak, we didn’t see or hear them. David tells the story of a 9th grade boy who didn’t speak, wouldn’t look you in the eyes, stammered. Now in 10th grade, takes part here actively, volunteers, smiles, looks you in the eyes, has confidence. It’s because of the learning center and the special attention.

Shemesh Ashkelon

The entire family is responsible for granting children with special needs the critical experience of growing up in a warm and supportive environment that accepts them as a full member of the family. However, often times the family has limited expectations for special needs children and thinks of them as a permanent burden. This attitude threatens to prevent these children from ever fully rehabilitating. JDC developed the Shemesh (the Hebrew word for sun) program in order to provide families with the tools needed to encourage their children to reach their full potential. Shemesh helps break the cycle of disappointment and provides families with a new ray of hope for their special needs children (age birth to six). It spreads the strengths and experiences gained by other families with similar challenges through mentorship, training and community programs.

Location: Merkaz Meyda, 1 Dibolt St. Ashkelon (a shelter building)

Shemesh is a program to empower the parents of children with special needs. It uses more experienced parents as mentors for new SN families

It takes place in three locations: Rosh Ha’ayin, Baka El-Gabiyeh and Ashkelon

Emphases:

Abuse and neglect among SN children is two to four times higher due to communications issues.

Integration in the schools, army, etc is critical, prevent loneliness

Strengthen the families, who often suffer greatly with an SN child. An SN child completely changes the family dynamic and balance. The parents see their child every day; the professionals don’t have that level of commitment, intuition.           

It took 10 years to set up Shemesh. The “kesher” NGO runs the program. The idea is also to have parents on the steering committee and professional committee. The parents have experience, knowledge.

MICHAL [amazing] is the Shemesh National Coordinator. Mother of 4 children, including a set of twins, one – Tomer – with special needs who was born without a functioning kidney. He fought and survived, at the age of 7 had a transplant but until then didn’t develop properly, lost brain and physical capacity, diminished speech and vision.

At the age of 12 Tomer developed lymphoma, pains and other side-effects to the anti-rejection medicine for the kidney. He did dialysis for two years, it was awful, we didn’t see the horizon. All this time he didn’t grow or develop. In 2007 he underwent another kidney transplant, this one caught well, he started to grow. We moved him to special education, he finished 12th grade and wanted to go to the army. Now he’s doing national service in the police. He lives in a special needs apartment, he lives on his own and I'm letting him flourish. I was very depressed when he left at first.

I studied social work. I didn’t want to work as a social worker, I had an MA in organizational management. When the twins were 3.5 I quit my job as a personnel manager because I wanted a sense of purpose in social action. Then I did an MA in social work. I set up a special needs center in Kochav-Yair. I saw an email from the Joint that they were looking for a coordinator for Shemesh, with one line that grabbed my attention, that preference would be given to parents of children with special needs. Within two weeks I was being interviewed and knew I wanted the job. I'm very happy.

The stories are the focus of the program. We want to transmit a positive message to the parents. It doesn’t matter what religion, culture, location – the grappling with this reality is shared.

MAZAL from the Ashkelon Municipality Welfare Department. We built this on the success of the accessible community program, we opened an information center, course for ten activists with special needs.

16 parents are participating. The group was set up quickly – we were surprised how much eagerness there was for this: blind, retardation, deaf.

[Better Together will also build a special needs track emphasizing youth at risk and their parents:

develop services

community forum

training professionals, workshops

Within these we want to develop a special needs track. In Rosh Ha’Ain there is a Better Together and Shemesh]

YAEL is the Shemesh coordinator in Ashkelon. She was the accessible community coordinator for two years; JDC provides the Hosen program for the community, and in the last two years I’ve seen the work of the Joint. I'm a single mother and adopted a child from Russia with special needs four years ago.

The current workshop is amazing.

ETTI (in orange): I didn’t think twice. I immediately said yes. There's so little knowledge. I had a girl with Downs Syndrome 30 years ago. I was in complete shock, I didn’t know what to do. They said it was a mongloid. It was my third baby, I had two healthy daughters and now this storm. I ran away from the hospital to my normal life. I couldn’t listen, people thought they could help but I didn’t want to talk to them. I wanted a normal family. I cried for several weeks, I decided to give her up for adoption. There was a social worker who said to me, ok, let’s go see her so you can say goodbye in the hospital. I thought, she’ll be ugly, scary. Ok, fine, let’s say goodbye and that way I can cut off. I was scared when I went in. The nurse took her diaper off and I saw that they hadn’t been treating her well, she had a wound near her diaper. I was angry, my daughter wasn’t being treated right, where’s my commitment as her mother, I should take her home.  Her name is Vered.

The first year wasn’t easy. I didn’t want any contact with other parents. I thought I was different. But slowly I met other parents, we set up a support group, we would meet once a week, things changed. Vered became the focus of the family. We would run from one treatment to the next, the whole family was recruited to this effort. It harmed the other girls (she had another daughter after Vered) – we invested so much in her and neglected somewhat the others. We didn’t really understand how to do this, we made lots of mistakes. I just wanted what was best.

Vered lived with us until she was 27 at home. Now she lives in a hostel, she's very happy. She comes every Shabbat for dinner, all the family gathers together. She has given so much to this family, taught her sisters so much. Thanks to her we’ve developed as a family, we’re a caring, emotional, understanding family thanks to her. The home is open, tolerant, we’re a good family.

ESTHER is the mother of Noa, aged 22 with shituk mochin. Got a phonecall from Yael four months ago about the program. 

Michal: there was a woman on a panel in a Shemesh discussion with two special needs kids, who said that she prays that if God takes her that he’ll also take the kids immediately because they won't succeed in living without her.

Shemesh stages:

Identify and connect to parents of special needs kids, with a little free time. Empower them in the escorts group. 21 meetings, once a week for 5 months every Wednesday evening. It trains them to  escort new special needs famil ies. The emphasis is that the escorts don’t give advice or solutions, rather to respect each family and the stage it’s in, to listen and to understand. The course has a syllabus: active listening, reacting to situations, judgementalism, identity, siblings, family functioning and much more.

During the course, they’re assigned to the families. Each has 3 families.

Yael is a hotline for assistance.

Yael is also trained at the same time

The families go through a process. There’s lasting impact

The program is for three years, the course is for a year. The Welfare Department has 1000 households identified as special needs (out of 40,000 total households in the city).

Merhav Ashkelon

Merhav aims to ensure that elementary school children from underprivileged communities are adequately prepared for junior high school. It does this by focusing on students, staff and city decision-makers. In schools, Merhav establishes cooperation between educational, psychological and welfare services. Through teacher training and supplemental resources, the school day is extended and in-school counseling, academic support and parent-child activities are made available. On a city level, Merhav places the needs of at-risk students firmly on the agenda.

Location: Harel School, Shai Agnon St. Shimshon Neighborhood, Ashkelon

RUT BEN-VALID is the school principal

School is usually open till 1pm. Three times a week they open till 5pm with activities, drama, youth movement. Here they have Noam (Conservatives). The school has won prizes. They have a psychologist once a week, social worker, therapist.

Animal therapy is especially for youth at risk, difficulties, children of drug addicts. Identified by their problems. Snake, hamster, rabbit. They learn to connect, to stroke, to be calm.

MIRI is the coordinator, I’ve seen and heard amazing things here. One boy’s father is in Assaf Harofe Hospital in Ramle, t he neighbors take care of me, he was crying. She explained later that the father is in jail, not hospital. It took four meetings for him to open up. They slowly open and share.

AYAL is holding the rabbit. It’s nice, it’s pleasant. I'm usually on edge (atzbani), I argue. Here I can overcome.

It’s a weak neighborhood. Rut says that since she's been here, “the strong have left and only the weak have remained.”

We go to the ‘lighthouse’ structure to see the gifted students’ ‘planetarium.’ They're learning about stars and the galaxies. They built a nature exhibit last year. Now they’re building a supernova. ZOHAR is the teacher.

We’re watching a dance troupe for girls from first to sixth grade. They work very hard on this, they love appearing.

DITI (Ashalim Merhav coordinator)

The program was developed in 2 003 now works in 30 locations. The pilot was Ashkelon and Afula.

RUT (Principal)

Merhav came in eight years ago. The neighborhood is classed as 8 in the 0-10 socioeconomic neglect scale (i.e. very poor and neglected). Lots of children-at-risk with parents who are unemployed, in jail, taking drugs, single-parents:

45% are single-parents

20% are immigrants

40% are veteran immigrants who didn’t yet adapt

 

We had a problem with violent parents, children were beaten, tough homes. Even violence inside the school, even against teachers. There was a negative atmosphere. We had 220 children. Now we have 450 children. Merhav said to us “dream” and we opened the school till 6pm. The holistic view, everything under one roof, responsibility for the child and also for the family. We can bring the family here to sit with the social worker. Let’s break the paradigm, let’s solve this together. We mapped everything out; all the children here were basically at-risk, not a percentage but all of them. We had to give a solution for all of them. The school became the center, we didn’t send them away. Social worker, psychologist, clothing, hot meal. Every year Rut has a group from France who bring packages of clothes and sneakers.

 

Rut: I was very young, I was 30 years old. There were shouts, screams, threats, violence. I was afraid to come in. They threatened to burn my car and more. We received three years of close escorting from a social worker. The children are no longer wandering the streets at night, little prostitution and drugs. Now we have a framework and activities. They have nothing at home.

We’ve become like a school in the North, we’re one of the top 56 schools in the country, see the movie they did. Everyone wants to send their kids here.  They even change addresses so they're here.

Rut is being promoted to the Education Ministry so she has mixed feelings. We raised people’s sense of pride here, we brought in new flooring. My husband is a doctor in the emergency room. When people want to thank him, to donate something, he suggests they give something to the school: flooring, clothing, furniture. Now the children also look after the school, it’s their home. It’s been a dream fulfilled to show the State we can succeed.

Our graduates are very much in demand in the middle school. This is a Tali school, we have good values.  Tali at first didn’t want to come in here. But now we received an award from them for excellence. The school is elementary for grades 1 through 6. There are still difficulties, it’s still a difficult population. But there's still a lot of pride. The parents now come with programmatic demands, they're proud of the school, it’s a successful model. Not because of the funds but because of the perspective. But you still need money.

There was opposition from the teachers, staying till 6pm. There was a strike, they were angry. But they saw it was successful. At lunch you see how the children are starving, they devour the food because it’s the only real meal they get all day.

The school is very influential now in the neighborhood. We have more parents who are teachers, doctors, police. About 10% are now stronger population, it strengthens us.  But at-risk isn’t just poverty. There was a family where the father was a policeman but the children were beaten. Even without financial problems you can have risk.

Merhav comes straight to the children without filters. The kids were amazed, they'd never been in activities, music, drama, dance. They didn’t know how to play an instrument, to listen to classical music, never been to theater.

We’ve won ten international prizes, the kids have won prizes for art and cinema. You have to believe in them. We became experts in building programs. They come from all over the country to see how our teachers work. We’ve learned how to teach. The kids are learning how to believe in themselves: I can do it, I can present, I can perform.

SHOVAL is one of 8 kids at home, 4 sets o f twins, 6th grade. There’s no father at home. He was violent and abusive. Today they're doing well because the pr ogram can help them. Elementary school is the base, it’s the infrastructure. It shapes the child. Without the activities we’d just be wandering the street, it’s so much nicer now. I can do music and theater; we put on a performance at the end of the last school year. We love the school, it’s like home. I want to be an

actress when I grow up.

[there are two special needs classes in Merhav here]

The parents don’t really have money, but we charge them 2 NIS per activity, so they’ll feel compelled. They also do a lot of fundraising for the school. Shuval received sneakers and clothes and a coat.

Center for Young Adults Be'ersheva

JDC's Centers for Young Adults offer immigrant and disadvantaged young adults the skills and information on which to build productive adult lives.  Services include counseling regarding higher education and vocational training; employment readiness; and life skills, such as financial literacy. Centers help participants make decisions in critical areas spanning army, family, education and employment, easing the youth to adulthood transition and preventing chronic unemployment and poverty later in life.  Community-building and leadership opportunities allow young adults to give back.

Location: Startup Center, 16 Hashalom St. Beer Sheva

Contact Person: Yiffat Hillel, CYA southern coordinator,

Amitzur, Yohann, Director of Parliament

There were 8 CYAs in the South. In the last year we opened three new ones: Eilat, Rahat and Mitzpe Ramon.

Eilat: 50% of the population is young (same as Rahat), and it has the highest percentage of single-parent women in the country, low salaries. 65% earn minimum wage. Eilat receives half a million young people every year, mostly for the hotel/tourism industry. There’s real need to open a Center there. It’s located at the High-Max between the two halves of the city. There’s a lot of motivation to work, the team is very positive, the Eilat mayor is very supportive and there’s huge potential. There was a concept to open a Center in Akaba, maybe to go international.

The Negev suffers from negative migration, a lot of quality young people are leaving.

It takes on average 6-7 years for a Beduin to finish a BA. Lots of dropouts. Lots of obstacles.

The guiding logic is local because that’s the emphasis of the municipalities. But we’re also developing a regional perspective, for education and employment. Regional employment is critical because it also serves the Centers. The Directors work also intuitively because they know what’s important, they create cooperation opportunities.

Examples:

Industrial zones are regional, not local.

The IDF training bases are moving South; the Southern mayors can't deal with this challenge on their own: absorbing families, finding employment for spouses, creating social/communal agendas.

The cities are small, no bigger than 20,000 each in the South. It’s not the mass numbers in the Center even if the geographic size is bigger.

There’s some great culture even though people don’t really think about culture in the South – there’s a great theater group in Dimona, but someone from Beersheva won't go to Dimona for the theater. They’ll go to Tel Aviv. You need to create a feeling of belonging. Only Dimonaim go to the Dimona theater.

The training bases (Ba’hdim) will have fully moved South by 2018. There is a GOI decision to set up 10 new towns in the South. It’s not clear who will benefit or suffer from this. There's no planning. The CYAs are therefore critical in this discussion and the Parliaments are the focus. The Arad Parliament invited the 10-Town plan to a discussion, and other community leaders participated. It empowered the youth, and gave them positive community activist roles.

How do you solve employment problems:

on an individual level – training, courses, referrals

interaction with the local authority, bringing companies and employers

both the above with additional value, creating a venue for synergy

CYA is grappling with the employment issue:

There's a municipal employment forum in Beersheva, trying to find solutions. There's a supply of jobs but not enough demand because lots of those who finish university don’t even look for a job, they just assume there aren’t any.

Entrepeneurship

Emphasize the community aspect and not just the employment. Social engagement on a deep and meaningful level will help you find a job better when you live here and have roots.

Cooperating with the municipality and employers on placement. There's actually a good supply of jobs but a poor image, as if it’s harder than reality. Be’ersheva isn’t seen by most people as a place in which you can succeed. It’s starting to change but very slowly. The university here is a bubble, so when you finish studying you won't have been very involved in the city life. If during your studies you lived in the good neighborhoods (Chet, Tet) you’re much more likely to stay. But if you lived in Gimel or Daled you won't. In the good neighborhoods, you’ll see good infrastructure, education, community. According to the research, only one in ten of students who come to Be’ersheva to study will even contemplate staying. Of them, 80% are already from the Negev.

We meet with the Parliament taskforce discussing the new proposed civilian airport at Nevatim. They had a public meeting with 200 participants, put forward an agenda. The top concern here is jobs; the claim is that a regional airport will create 10,000 jobs. We turned to the mayors, created a lobbying focus, we did a campaign “let the Negev take off.” The emphasis was to put employment at the focus of the discussion on the airport. We don’t have any political strength or experience but we have an opportunity to talk from the heart and the head, people listen. We have tools in the Parliament. Creating an infrastructure, speaking with the mayors, employers, Knesset and GOI representatives. 

There's nowhere else where we can do this. [You can see the enthusiasm, the self-respect, the positive image]