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How Your Dollars Help
JDC Ashalim:
Helping Israel’s Children Cope with Trauma: JDC Ashalim
In the two and a half years since the start of the
current intifada, the entire population of Israel has endured the
direct and indirect effects of living in a state of prolonged stress
due to regularly occurring violence. Children have been recognized
as being the most emotionally vulnerable and the most likely to
be severely damaged by this chronic exposure to trauma and stress.
Because of your contribution to THE ASSOCIATED annual
campaign, the Joint Distribution Committee Ashalim program has boosted
Israel’s capacity to offer crisis intervention and post-trauma support.
The program provides new tools for dealing with the overwhelming
caseload facing Israel’s social services. Crisis therapy, crisis
hotline, counseling for immigrants and workshops for troubled youth
are just a few examples.
The trauma services being implemented involve all
areas of human services, including health, education and social
welfare, but of particular interest will be those programs that
bridge the traditional borders between these service areas by providing
comprehensive responses to complex problems. Some of the new initiatives
include:
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Expansion of a Special
Crisis Hotline for parents of young children.
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Helping the Helpers:
programs to engage, train and provide ongoing assistance to
volunteer helpers.
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Support for immigrant
populations, particularly elderly immigrants from the former
Soviet Union and families from Ethiopia.
-
A Friend for the Family:
volunteer support for families of children with special needs.
It is our hope that through these programs we can provide a human
service system that will consist of professionals who are more knowledgeable
and better able to respond to the critical challenged now facing
Israeli society.
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