In Israel, approximately 345,000 youth are categorized at various levels of risk. As a result of personal circumstances, these children often have severe challenges in addition to behavioural, academic, and social difficulties.
Without WIZO
In Israel, approximately 345,000 youth are categorized at various levels of risk. As a result of personal circumstances, these children often have severe challenges in addition to behavioural, academic, and social difficulties.
With WIZO
WIZO’s five Youth Villages specialize in taking disadvantaged youth, giving them a home and enabling them to learn on par with their peers from normative backgrounds. Each has a unique combination of areas of study and special projects.
Why Do We Need You?
WIZO needs your help to continue maintaining its Youth Villages, home and safety net to thousands of young adults. We need your help to continue providing educational enrichment programs, therapy support and extracurricular activities to help vulnerable Israeli youth to reach their full potential.
“In WIZO, I learned to love and respect myself. I have so much more confidence and have gotten back on track with school. I am finally thinking about my future in a positive way; I look forward to going to the army and I want to become a veterinarian.”
Love what we do?
WIZO provides compassion, direction and success for every youth through Youth Villages, Special Education, Youth Centers and Programs directed at youth at risk. WIZO’s educational frameworks provide the best education, individual attention, and support for all WIZO youths.
WIZO’s main goals for YOUTH are:
- To close the educational gap between disadvantaged children and those from stable homes and ensure that no child falls between the cracks.
- To nurture the natural talents of each youth and guide them in using these talents to build a career and a more promising future.
- To instill a sense of personal and national pride in each youth and create responsible, giving citizens.
To achieve these goals WIZO operates…
Youth Villages: WIZO’s five Youth Villages are home to 5,500 young people, 1,100 of whom live in the school’s dormitories and come from disadvantaged backgrounds. WIZO provides them with housing, meals, and supervision to enable them to attend high school while living in a warm, loving and nurturing environment that is not available to them at home. Read More
WIZO USA sponsors the following YOUTH VILLAGES:
NIR HAEMEK SCHOOL & YOUTH VILLAGE (CO-SPONSORED WITH WIZO ARGENTINA)
Afula
For over nine decades, WIZO Nir HaEmek has been home to hundreds of thousands of children, including some of Israel’s least fortunate young citizens. WIZO provides a warm, supportive, and loving environment for children in need, including a home for children who have none, ensuring they always have a home to live in and a family in which to belong.
Some of the PROGRAMS offered at Nir HaEmek are:
This pioneering initiative is part of the already existing Dairy Farm which now includes a new building and machinery for the elaboration of various cheeses. The objective is to stimulate student participation in creating, and operating a small business. This initiative is offered to students as part of the Agricultural Studies Program. The factory also employs students returning from the army who are unable to return home and are living at Nir HaEmek full-time.
This three-year program is based on both academic study and hands-on, practical experience. Mechanics students can obtain a technological matriculation certificate (high school diploma) and over half continue on to obtain a Practical Engineer certificate in the IDF Ordnance Corps. The students enlist in the IDF with a profession that is always in demand, both during and after their military service. Thus, they are better able to contribute to Israel’s security during their army service, make an honest living and become productive members of society, as adults.
The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Heritage Program enables underprivileged children, who would otherwise not have the opportunity to commemorate this momentous occasion, to celebrate their Bar and Bat Mitzvah. Besides receiving religious instructions, they go on a trip to the Kotel and enjoy a beautiful celebration to culminate this milestone in their Jewish lives.
Aiming to reduce the dropout rate amongst high school students, this program encourages student commitment to learning while providing them with emotional and educational support. Using a holistic educational approach, it includes therapeutic workshops, strengthening self-esteem activities and the chance of experiencing success.
The School offers a range of academic enrichment and remedial education programs for youth who have fallen behind in their studies prior to coming to Nir HaEmek. Students in the Ometz Program receive 2-3 hours of extra tutoring per week in small classes. Many not only reach the required levels of education but often acquire above-average level grades and matriculation exam scores.
Many of Nir HaEmek’s dormitory students have been in trouble with the authorities. In response, the School has developed a unique program designed to support these students in becoming responsible adults and community members. The students participate in a series of seminars offered by professional police officers. Additionally, each student has the support of a counselor, a house mother and a tutor that assists them with homework and who acts as liaison between teachers, the school and the students. The students who participate in the Cadets Program are considered to be an elite group and they proudly wear their uniforms at school offering inspiration for others to join the program to get their lives back on track.
Youth from troubled backgrounds gain the confidence needed to maximize their talents and their personal development through dance. Activities from this program facilitate the student’s exploration of his/her musical and dancing abilities and improve student’s self-confidence and self-image.
The Therapeutic Horseback Riding Center serves the mentally or physically disabled in the surrounding communities of the north of Israel.
Nir HaEmek students studying biology participate in this intensive program involving experimental maturation of plants, flowers, vegetables, and fruits. The program focuses on ongoing experiments specifically pertaining to water studies and best conditions in a climate-controlled hothouse. A recent project, conducted under the sponsorship of various Israeli agricultural companies, tested the application of organic fertilizers. The findings of the study and the primary research conducted have been widely used by the sponsoring companies as best practices. “Going Green” campaigns are being offered in school projects.
NACHLAT YEHUDA SCHOOL & YOUTH VILLAGE (CO-SPONSORED WITH WIZO SWITZERLAND)
Rishon LeZion
Founded in 1922 as an agricultural training farm for young adults, the School serves as a safety net for over 400 at-risk youth, 230 of whom live in the dormitories, in a residential educational framework. Students come from low socio-economic backgrounds and unstable families, and a big percentage are new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Many struggles with social and educational challenges and most suffer from emotional and behavioural issues. Nachlat Yehuda continues to be one of the leading educational institutions in farm and agricultural education in Israel. Focusing on Jewish and Zionist values, love of the land and the environment, the School measures success in ways far beyond academic achievement and good grades.
Some of the PROGRAMS offered at Nachlat Yehuda are:
The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Heritage Program enables underprivileged children, who would otherwise not have the opportunity to commemorate this momentous occasion, to celebrate their Bar and Bat Mitzvah. Besides receiving religious instructions, they go on a trip to the Kotel and enjoy a beautiful celebration to culminate this milestone in their Jewish lives.
The first of its kind in Israel and founded in 2015, the program incorporates theoretical classroom studies and additional academic tutoring. The over 70 students from grades 10-12 participating in it receive additional training in the community at the local Rishon LeZion fire department. A Firefighting and Rescue Services training certificate will provide the youth with meaningful opportunities during their IDF service, and advanced standing should they wish to further their studies afterwards. “The program instils in these young people confidence and pride, which is so critical for these young people, especially considering that many of them come from very difficult family situations,” Doron Shabi, who heads the program, explained. For more information: http://www.wizo.org/wizo-news/news/wizo-nachlat-yehuda-firefighters-graduation-2018.html
Designed for middle and high school students who struggle with learning disorders and behavioral disabilities, MAHUT gives vulnerable teens hope and the possibility to become successful professionals, transforming them into exemplary members of Israeli society. With the help of a groups of professionals, these young adults receive help with their class assignments and review what they learned during the day.
This program allows young adults struggling with emotional and social issues to develop their talents in a positive and constructive way, focusing on life skills and day-to-day behaviors through the study of scripts, learning new music and performing publicly.
Its main goal is to expose youth to the industrial world, helping them foster responsibility, develop positive work ethics and an ability to identify with the modern industrial world. The classes focus on teaching technological studies in a creative and motivating way, and providing students with an enriching hands-on approach to studying.
Among the most popular activities at Nachlat Yehuda are the invaluable physical education/sports programs. In addition to the physical benefits of training and competition to improve health, sports often provide the optimum experience for building personal character, developing leadership, competitive, social skills and learning how to be a team player. Nachlat is constantly improving its physical education programming, which involves maintaining/purchasing equipment and being able to offer activities to all youth interested in sports. The main programs are challenging biking, bodybuilding, pre-IDF physical preparation, competitive team sports, martial arts, soccer and basketball.
On campus is a working farm, chicken coop, petting zoo, and a new site for the production of organic fertilizer. All students work daily on the farm which is one of the main educational and philosophical aspects of the Village.
There have been singing and dance troupes in the village for over 20 years. The troupes have played on stages throughout Israel and around the world, especially in Jewish communities in order to strengthen their ties with Israel. The troupes also function as therapeutic and educational tools that develop the talents of students and allow them to experience success and improve their social and educational performance.
Schools for Special Education: Include two vocational schools and one technological high school, all of which cater to hundreds of youth with behavioral and emotional problems or who cannot succeed in regular school frameworks. Each school has its own specialized curriculum. Recognizing each child’s individuality, natural abilities, and meeting their special needs, WIZO wants to ensure each child’s emotional well-being, personal development, and educational advancement. WIZO works to enable every student to earn a degree or become skilled in a marketable trade, and to enlist in the IDF or National Service as part of their journey to becoming productive, responsible, independent and contributing citizens.
Youth Centers: WIZO’s Youth Centers and Youth Clubs are where disadvantaged children receive tutoring, guidance, communication/leadership skills, and training in music and the arts that enrich their lives and create talented, confident young men and women. Instead of aimlessly wandering the streets they learn to build a future.
WIZO Florida’s CHERNA MOSKOWITZ YOUTH CENTER
Was created to help more than 600 Israeli families who were forcibly relocated in 2005 from their homes in Gush Kativ. Located in Nitzan, this Youth Center strengthens the families by providing family and parenting sessions and workshops. It offers programs that support women who wish to enter the workforce and open small businesses, in addition to offering many activities for children and youth of all ages.
Programs for Youth at Risk: WIZO’s Youth at Risk Programs include homes for youngsters who have no stable home life, programs of empowerment and guidance for girls, therapies, support groups and more.
Some of the PROGRAMS available for YOUTH AT RISK are:
Under the supervision of a professional coordinator and WIZO volunteers, youth are introduced to science and technology concepts at a high level. Through instruction and hands-on experiences, they create their own models, enabling them to put into practice the scientific principals they have learned, and gain valuable knowledge. They develop the ability to create and follow a project to its end while enjoying the company of other youth in a supportive and friendly atmosphere.
Girls born into families on the social or physical periphery of Israel are often faced with challenges beyond the normal hardships of poverty, neglect and abuse. They also suffer from gender stereotypes of inequality and inferiority which suppress a girl’s natural drive to succeed and destroy her self-confidence. Through the Otzma Tze’irah Program, WIZO works to counter this phenomenon and to empower these girls to believe in themselves and reach their full potential. It consists of seventeen groups of 9th-grade girls-at-risk all across the country and from all populations who receive crucial support to take a hold of their own future while learning how to face social limitations in a safe haven where they can share their feelings and cope with their struggles.
In 18 centers across the country, WIZO’s ‘Warm Home’ for girls –run in collaboration with the Ministry of Welfare or the local Municipality– provides support for 13-18 year-old-girls coming from violent, neglectful, or otherwise dysfunctional homes. Workshops, therapies, recreational activities, hot meals, love, and basic skills coaching all work to rebuild the girls’ self-esteem, emotional damage and abilities. The staff and Program prevent destructive behavior by providing a safe place, role modeling and a positive environment that build up what has been broken down by their negative circumstances. The girls spend from noon until evening hours learning to trust, communicate and rebuild a sense of belonging that is integral to rehabilitation.
Focuses on dealing with stress and crisis-related events – both in emergency situations, and in day-to-day life. The program is based on the understanding of emotional processes related to crisis and its processing and seeks to strengthen adaptive coping strategies.
Aims to instill notions of persistence, consistency and responsibility to at-risk youth, facilitating personal growth and self-discovery through a gradual, non-competitive, bi-yearly transformation. The program involves four major main principles set out for youth development: personal challenge, volunteerism, developing a hobby/skill, physical activity