Each one of the 230 children living in Orr Shalom’s Therapeutic Family Group Homes receives the material and emotional resources needed to heal from their traumas and begin to build a brighter future.
Orr Shalom believes that it is critical for children to develop a healthy relationship with their biological families. To this end, many children are able to visit their biological and/or extended families during Passover, Sukkot, the August summer break and Chanukah. However, for some children at any given time, visiting their biological families is simply is not an option, as visiting would put them at risk of emotional and physical abuse. Safe Haven Overnight Camp provides a structured, educationally enriching and therapeutic environment for those children with nowhere to go. Safe Haven is staffed by a team of professionals, as well as an on-call psychologist, guaranteeing the care and supervision the children require.
In this Chanukah’s weeklong session, there will be lots of fun, challenges and excitement for the approximately 35 boys and girls who will take part. From a dog-training session to a laugh seminar, a baking activity (and eating the results) and a trip to a nearby historical park, the kids will be able to enjoy the Chanukah vacation among friends, safe and sound. And a highlight of the camp is always the festive nightly candle lighting of the Chanukia.
Happy Chanukah from Orr Shalom: May the lights of Chanukia illuminate all of our lives!
Beating the Odds: Orr Shalom’s Graduate Program
“Every person must know and understand that within them burns a candle, and each person’s candle is different from that of his friends, and there is no person without a candle.
Every person must know and understand that it is their obligation to work to reveal the light of their candle, for the benefit of many, and to light their candle and make of it a great torch to enlighten the whole world.”
— Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook
Against all Odds, Orr Shalom’s graduate program, aims to nurture, strengthen and empower graduates of out-of-home placement with no family support, to ensure their successful integration into Israeli society. The program strives to promote equal opportunities and freedom of choice that will enable them to realize their personal potential and to become productive and independent citizens who are no longer welfare dependent, and who can break the cycle of dysfunction. The Abraham Gertzman Fund in Detroit is a valued partner in this critical mission.
Orr Shalom for Children & Youth at Risk is Israel’s largest and leading organization in the field of children and youth at-risk. Orr Shalom cares for 1,400 children who were removed from their homes by court order following severe abuse and neglect, providing them with professional help, warm and loving homes, and an opportunity for a better future.
When Orr Shalom’s children turn 18, they have nowhere else to turn: they have no reliable biological family; and the government ends their funding for out-of-home placement.
Against all Odds, a multi-faceted, individually tailored program, serves 100 pre-graduate teens aged 16-18 and 275 graduates ages 18 – 26. The program cultivates empowerment, stability, and healthy economic and social futures, by addressing the challenges facing graduates of out-of-home care. Each graduate is accompanied by a graduate coordinator, available 24/7, who offers practical and emotional support and helps guide the graduate to their personal success. The program’s services provide vital life skills, training, and support through the different stages of integration into society: from preparation for aging-out for teens, support through IDF or National Service, career development and employment preparedness, educational support and financial literacy. Subsidized therapy helps them continue to heal from past traumas and Orr Shalom’s 12 graduate apartments provide safe, subsidized housing solutions and emotional and practical support for 72 graduates at risk.
As we are about to celebrate the holiday of light, the words of Rabbi Kook are even more relevant. One can look at Against all Odds as the path to helping graduates acknowledge and understand the candle that burns within them, that helps them keep their fire burning against all odds, and enables them to shine brightly – for their own benefit, and for generations to come.
And in the words of one of the graduates: “That’s what Orr Shalom did, they gave me values, and they gave me a place where I could dream, and the people who accompanied me, the people who came into my life, really embraced me and each one of us with what we needed, and in the end I was able to spread my wings.”