Happy New Year 2021

גלויה 2021letter workers_eng

Winter at Tel Aviv After School Centers: Greetings from a Warm Home

There is good news from our clubs in Tel Aviv – the winter is very hot and full of activities!

Contribution of looking through the lens of trauma to work with children at-risk

Yad Rachel Educational & Therapeutic Centers, as a leading organization in treatment of children at-risk and their families in the community, invests much effort in teams training and in establishing partnerships with academic organizations in the field. This year, Yad Rachel and the Haruv Institute are giving a training course to the staff on the subject “Contribution of looking through the lens of trauma to work with children at-risk”.

In this course, the team was exposed to the principles of trauma treatment, its impact and how to cope with its expression. Knowing more about this, is ment to assist the staff intreating children and their family members in Yad Rachel Centers.

Most of the children and youth who come to our After School Centers have experienced traumatic events in the family. These events influenced their development and their relationships with their parents. Today’s studies point to the dramatic implications of childhood trauma on the development of the brain, on mental and physical health, and even on the lifespan.

The “lens” of trauma sees the development of children, parents’ parenting models, and the relationships between the family members, in light of traumatic events that occur in the family. It emphasizes an active approach that includes elements such as direct and specific discussion of the past traumas, linking child difficulties and parenting difficulties to events that have occurred and building a narrative with children concerning the events that happened to them, paying attention to the physical aspects of trauma, building a safe space for children and staying aware of the possibilities of re-traumatization during the therapy.

The course is held by Paula David and Dr. Ronit Sharon. Paula David is is a social worker and a graduate of the psychotherapy course of the Jerusalem Psychoanalytic Society, the director of the Curriculum Division at the Haruv Institute, working in a private clinic, and also as a coordinator of training in Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). Dr. Ronit Sharon – Social Worker, Director of the Talia Center for Children and Parents, lecturer at the Hebrew University.

עמותת יד רחל מרכזים חינוכיים טיפוליים, כגוף מוביל בכל הקשור בטיפול בילדים ומשפחות בסיכון בקהילה, משקיעה רבות בהכשרת הצוותים ובשותפויות עם גופי ידע בתחום. השנה יד רחל ומכון חרוב מעבירים השתלמות לצוות  בנושא “תרומת המבט דרך העדשה של טראומה לעבודה עם ילדים בסיכון”.

בפעילות נחשף הצוות לעקרונות של טיפול בטראומה, השפעתה וכיצד להתמודד עם ביטויה- אשר יסייעו לצוות המועדונית בטיפול בילדים בסיכון.

רוב הילדים ובני הנוער שמגיעים למועדוניות, חוו אירועים טראומטיים במשפחה. אירועים אלה השפיעו על התפתחותם ועל הקשרים שלהם עם הוריהם.  מחקרים של היום מצביעים על השלכות דרמטיות של טראומה בילדות על המוח המתפתח, הבריאות הנפשית והפיזית, ואפילו על תחולת החיים.

ה”עדשה” של טראומה רואה את התפתחות הילדים, ההורות של הורים, והקשרים ביניהם, לאור אירועים טראומטיים שמתרחשים במשפחה. היא מדגישה גישה אקטיבית, הכוללת אלמנטים כגון דיבור ישיר ומפורש על טראומות העבר, קישור קשיי הילד וקשיי הורות לאירועים שקרו ובניית נרטיב עם ילדים על האירועים שקרו להם, תשומת לב לביטויים הגופניים של טראומה, בניית מרחב מוגן לילדים, וערנות לאפשרויות של רה-טראומטיזציה במרחב הטיפולי.

התכנים מוגשים על ידי מרצות המומחות במחום – פולה דוד וד”ר רונית שרון. פולה דוד  היא עובדת סוציאלית ובוגרת קורס הפסיכותרפיה של החברה הפסיכואנליטית בירושלים, מנהלת האגף לתוכניות לימוד, מכון חרוב. בעלת קליניקה פרטית. במסגרת העבודה במכון חרוב, מרכזת את ההכשרה בפסיכותרפיה ילד-הורה (Child-Parent Psychotherapy, CPP). ד”ר רונית שרון  – עובדת סוציאלית, מנהלת מרכז טליה לילדים והורים, מרצה באוניברסיטה העברית.

November – the month of friendship in Yad Rachel

I have a friend, he’s brown like chocolate.
He is so nice to me when I’m really sad.
You’re right, from me he is so different,
But how could I give up on such a good friend?
What a fun is it to have many friends …
(Chana Goldberg)

This month, we dealt with Yad Rachel programs with the subject of friendshi, In addition in Literacy Program we’ve learned concepts of chorus and description.
The children began to accept themselves with their difficulties as a starting point for growing, expressing their feelings without feeling threatened, afraid or ashamed, listening to and seeing and accepting the other.

All the methodical content was developedbuilt by Yad Rachel’s professional team, a pedagogical coordinator, a training coordinator and an accompanying social worker, in order to ensure that the topics and the methodics meet the needs of the children.

We thank you again for your commitment to helping children to succeed despite the social and economic distress into which they were born and grown up.

Teenage Girls Create Theater -For Making A Change And Promoting Social Discourse

The Etty Hilsom Israeli Youth Theater is a unique project – the first of its kind (founded in cooperation between Israel and France), which offers intensive training in various theater specializations to at-risk youth from all walks of life in Israel. The Theater operates in Anis auditorium in Dalet district of Jaffa. It’s main audience consists of youth at risk, jews, arabs, christians, wigrant Workers and asylum seekers.
Yad Rachel Educational & Therapeutic Centers operates a leading network of programs for children at-risk and their families throughout Israel to provide them with the tools they need to overcome their educational, emotional, and social difficulties, being able to grow up to the best of their abilities, to have a better future, and become contributing adults who integrate successfully into Israeli society.
Why theater? The language of art is a universal nonverbal language that is able to connect different cultures and social groups, to brake socio-economic barriers. It offers a person many different ways of self expression. The complex situation in Israel leads amongst many other problems to elimination of direct ways of communication, weakning of the sense of belonging, exclusion, alienation, interpersonal aggression. Regional escalation raises the level of anxiety in most of us, and even more – in youth and families at risk.
We believe that with the help of this tool, we will be able to bring our girls a change and help them live more satisfying, safe, value-laden, worthy, protected and just life. We chose to focus on a “Warm House” – a Center run by the Yad Rachel Foundation in cooperation with the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality. It is a a unique place that provides a solution for daughters of asylum seekers and migrant workers. They lack legal status in Israel. The girls come from different countries: Eritrea, Sudan, Ghana, Kenya and the Philippines. The group consists of 15 girls, grades 7-9 (ages 13-16). The girls will be exposed to a variety of theater specialties and will be able to specialize in accordance with their inclinations and abilities. They will experience a variety of workshops and classes and will perform at the end of the year in front of parents and guests. In the second stage of the program, the girls will be integrated into the existing theater groups. The activity will take place both at the Warm House itself (at the Rogozin School) and at the theater. The program will be carried out jointly by Yad Rachel’s inter-professional team and the Kol HaNoar Theater, led by Gal Horowitz, the theater’s founder and director, and funded by the Yahel Foundation.

Our kids at FESTIGAL 2017

Oh, what a great holiday was it! Our kids went to the Festigal 2017 concert!

We are so thankful to Tel Aviv Convention Center for the tickets!

You made the holiday for our kids!

Check out our new video!

Our new video! Check it out, like and share!!!

 

The first PANDA group in Bat Yam: learning how to cope with crisises

We have recently opened the first PANDA group in the Yad Rachel Afterschool Center in Bat Yam. The group is dyadic, which means it provides a therapy to 7 parent-child pairs from the group.
PANDA (The name is based on the Hebrew abbreviation of the sentence “Here We’ll learn the ways to cope”) is a new and a very special program, dedicated to self-regulation amongst children. It is based on the latest knowledge in the field of building and strengthening the ability to self-regulation, including techniques of mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral methods and narrative interventions that are applied creatively and playfully.
The first meeting was a preparatory meeting for parents only, next week we will also meet with the children and start working together and learn about new methods of coping with various kinds of crisises.

Year Closing Event in Alon Shvut Center

Yesterday the children and their family members of the Alon After School Center of Yad Rachel in the Alon Shvut community gathered for a festive event to mark the end of the year of joint activity with the parents. The families met at Ammunition Hill and tried some challenging activities in which the parents and the children together coped with climbing to huge heights, walking on ropes and surfing in the omega while helping, encouraging, and especially enjoying together.

After that, Mastershef’s cooking activity took place and the families received a great meal othey nade together.

This activity summarizes a year of joint activity with the parents during which they regularly arrived at the program and received a unique quality time together with their children. We were very excited all year long to see them at the Center and enjoy their cooperation. We were also excited to see the children and parents enjoying the various joint activities.

Purim market at the Maof After School Center

Although Purim is already behind us, it is still not too late to tell you about the unique Purim market that took place at the Maof After School Center that operates within the Ilan Ramon School in Jerusalem.

This is the second year that the children of the club set up a Purim market for all their schoolmates. The kids plan and arrange the market from scraatch all by themselves. They make up stations, prepare the signs and decorations, they promote the market in the weeks before Purim and of course they themselves guide the children at the stations.

We see in this very significant empowerment process for our kids.

With the help of the Purim market, children learn to be responsible, experience a sense of ability and success, learn to persevere, cope with frustrations, and so on. This time, too, the market was a great success.

Well done to the kids and all the respect to the team !!!