AROUND THE CENTER:
Treu-Mart Fellowship Representatives visit Israel For Youth Futures Program
In March, the Jewish Community Federation (JCF) of Cleveland and the Jewish Agency for Israel invited Pat Heilbron, Director of the Treu-Mart Youth Development Fellowship Program at the Mandel Center, and Gerald Ford, an alumnus of the Fellowship Program currently employed by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, to visit Israel and work with staff of the Youth Futures program. This program aims to provide at-risk youth with an equal opportunity to develop their unique skills, both academic and social, and to break out of the cycle of poverty and underachievement. As of March 2008, the program covers 5,800 children and 370 trustees in 28 localities, predominately in the Negev and Galilee. The Mandel Center team worked closely with staff from the Jewish Agency for Israel and the JCF, including Nir Lahav, Director of the Youth Futures Division and a graduate of the Mandel Institute in Jerusalem, Yehuda Katz, Assistant Director of the Youth Futures Division, Oren Baratz, Director of International Operations for the JCF, and Leah Epstein, International Operations Associate for the JCF.
While they spent the majority of their time working with the Youth Futures program in Beit Shean, providing front line youth workers with research, information and strategies for practical application, Heilbron and Ford also spent time conducting workshops. Those sessions included a full-day seminar with the coordinators of all of the Youth Futures sites across the country, a training session for mentors from the Tzahar region, and a meeting with Brigadier General Eli Shermeister, the head of the Israeli Army's Education Corps. The final session was a one-day regional seminar focused on working with families to support youth. The seminar was attended by heads of municipalities, directors of education and social welfare departments, school principals and teachers, counselors, social workers, directors of community centers and the Youth Futures mentors.
The Youth Futures program in Beit Shean City and Regional Council has a strong partnership with the JCF of Cleveland, the Jewish Agency and the local municipalities. The joint Advisory Committee is very involved in everything regarding the planning and implementation of Youth Futures in the region. The Youth Futures program in Beit Shean and the Beit Shean Valley Regional Council addresses the needs of 200 children ages 6-13. Of these children, there are 20 new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union and 10 from Ethiopia.
This is a picture of Tomer surrounded by the youth he mentors. Tomer was one of the mentors the Mandel Center team worked with in Beit Shean.
Comments from the Youth Futures mentors included,
“I take with me the power, authenticity, and the modesty of what was said, and I commit to always strive for a positive environment, particularly in my work with the children.”
“I learned to believe in myself and to understand how to use the power and strength of my fellow group members.”
“When I heard that Pat and Gerald were coming, I knew it would be great, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.”
Both Heilbron and Ford shared that this was as much of a learning experience for them as it was for those they were working with in Israel.
“The country was beautiful but what I will most treasure is the people we met who welcomed us not only into their workplaces, but into their homes” said Heilbron.
For more information about the Treu-Mart Youth Development Fellowship Program, please visit our website.
