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For the First Time in Israel: "Student Exchange" Between Israel and England
Students with Learning, Adaptation, and Functional Disabilities who are in Rehabilitative-Treatment Settings
On Wednesday, the 5th of August, a delegation of students with severe learning, adaptation, and functional disabilities from a welfare project of the Jewish community in England (London and Manchester) arrived in Israel to visit at the Nitzan Onim Center in Kefar Saba.
The residents of the Nitzan Onim Center, established by Nitzan and Bituach Leumi, are young adults with severe learning disabilities (in the areas of reading, writing, spatial orientation, memory, visual perception, mathematics, and more), functional difficulties in day-to-day life, employment, and the community and often have associated chronic illnesses. The residents of the Kefar Saba center will host their fellows from England, who are young Jews aged 16-25 with wide variety of difficulties, illnesses, and handicaps.
The group from England represents the Manchester College. Their studies last three years. At the end of this period, a portion of the young adults move to live in housing within the community, some in London and others in Manchester. The funding in England comes from community groups, local authorities, income support, and from the disability pension of the young adults and also from family donations. In contrast to the success in the area of employment in Israel, only some 10% of the graduates of Manchester College program are employed with a wage in the independent job market, usually by Jewish employers, and the others are employed in volunteer work or work with a very low wage.
Seven students with three accompanying staff members will come to Israel. The visit will last until 12/08/2009.
During the visit there will be combined summer activities including recreation (pool, beach, parties, a trip to Jerusalem), enrichment activities, and learning (for example: workshop on holding tools like a hammer and nail, changing light bulbs at home, etc... a theatre workshop, group singing with the Onim choir, mutual discussions on rehabilitation and life in the community, visiting in the apartments of Nitzan Onim in the community, shared meals and more.
Rachel Regev, the director of Nitzan Onim in Kefar Saba says, "As far as we know, there has never been a "student exchange" of young adults from welfare projects from abroad. Every year we receive referrals from different agencies throughout the world requesting to learn from our successful model. Twenty-one years since the Nitzan Onim Center was established and our greatest achievement is that 90% of our graduates are employed in the free job market with some 200 employers, and the overwhelming majority earning at least minimum wage.
The young adults are accepted by us to a two-year training program where they receive an education that imparts independence and work habits. In addition, we teach them how to go shopping, cook, to clean the house, rules of social behavior, aesthetics and hygiene, rules of discipline, to deal with difficulties and friendships, improve their learning skills (to use a computer, to read, to do math and make a budget, etc.) enrich their knowledge in the field of art and music and guide them to personal, creative expression, and most important - we help them acquire tools to integrate in the work market (accepting authority, being on time, rules of place of work, and most important - helping them work on motivation).
Placement staff accompanies our graduates throughout their absorption in places of work and further on with their independent lives, usually within the framework of residential living centers of Nitzan.
According to Regev, "There isn't a competitor who comes even close to the success of our program. It's not a coincidence that we receive requests to provide information on the concept and design of our program for many welfare agencies throughout the world."
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