ELEM/ Youth in Distress in Israel

Migdalor works with adolescents who find it difficult to integrate into traditional educational institutions.  At the centers youth can work on academic studies, practice athletics or music, and attend a variety of workshops on issues of particular interest to them. The center uses hobbies to provide youth with  the support, equipment, space and time to practice their passion and have a social-therapeutic experience. Youths can enjoy music, photography, chess, therapeutic gardening, athletics and horseback riding and more. These activities provide youth with a nonverbal “language” to express their emotions and to channel negative or destructive energy into positive, creative energy. They serve as innovative and effective tools for working with youth from various cultural groups.

Operating since 2002, Someone to Run With - Mishehu Larutz I'to is a drop-in center that provides emotional support, medical care, medical supplies, hot meals, warm clothing and showers to homeless young adults. Youth receive assistance in contacting community services and in locating temporary living accommodations in hostels or rented apartments. One day a week, the center is open exclusively for young women, so that the specific needs of this population can be addressed. In cases where there is motivation for change, the young adults are offered the opportunity to take part in a long term rehabilitative, therapeutic process.

A national network of youth counseling and information centers. The centers, located across the country, offer group and individual counseling, assistance and support. Operating since 1999, the centers are designed like cafes and enable youth to meet with professionals and volunteers in a relaxed manner, as well as providing opportunities to socialize with their peers. The activities in the centers include group meetings for guidance and support, individual sessions, workshops and volunteer projects.

“A Real Home” is a therapeutic community for young women who were or are victims of sexual violence.  The program encourages them to function in normative frameworks and works to reduce their feelings of shame, guilt and anger.  In addition to group work, these young women receive individual counseling with the staff and volunteers of the center.

The Y-ELEM website allows for youth to receive reliable and valuable information, assistance, individual and group counseling online – all while remaining anonymous. In 2004, ELEM launched the Y-ELEM website, to provide information, counseling and emotional support, from trained professionals, via forum, chatroom, and email. This accessible method adapts to the changing need of tech-dependent clientele. Y-ELEM provides information on many relevant topics, and also offers a platform for original writing by participants as a means of self-empowerment. In this way, Y-ELEM actualizes ELEM’s guiding principles to “be where the youth are” and to establish meaningful relationships with a positive adult role model who can be easily accessible during the complex journey of adolescence.

This project serves youth who live on the streets and are severely neglected and alienated from society. The goal is to reduce the damage that living on the street causes by offering emotional support, medical aid and helping youth exercise their rights.  The program provides assistance to youth six days a week. Services include outreach, building relationships with the homeless and providing basic humanitarian aid, i.e. food, clothing, hot showers, and medical equipment. Those with motivation to change are given the option of participating in long-term rehabilitation.

Trance parties are held primarily without the knowledge or approval of law enforcement officers. Consequently, there is a complete lack of support for youth during and after these events. ELEM fills this void by meeting with youth, identifying those in distress and helping them access appropriate help. Without this critical intervention at these parties, youth who partake in psychedelic drugs could suffer life-changing effects and their behavior could lead to long-term psychiatric hospitalization.

The King’s Way - Derech Hamelech is a vocational training and mentoring program for youth who are referred to ELEM by Youth Probation Services. Youth are assigned a caring adult mentor and are placed in a vocational training program or given a job with a local business in the community. This support provides tools and mentors life skills.

Youth and young adults, aged 12-26, roaming the streets at night, coping with issues of adolescence, instability within the family unit, relations with peers, as well as lack of access or disappointment with institutional therapeutic frameworks, and/or a degree of distrust with the adult world. Under these conditions, the vans staff meet the youth, alongside the dangers that the street creates, such as alcohol use, delinquency, violence and involvement in prostitution. In 2015, over 8,159 teens and young adults received assistance from the ELEM Outreach Vans.