Nitzan Onim
- To enable a transition from a parent-dependent life to life on their own with integration into the community and an ability to go out to work in the free market
- To impart skills to improve functioning in society and daily independence
- To impart an occupation with a level of complexity that makes full use of the individuals abilities and allows an opportunity for independent sustenance and work satisfaction
- To locate a suitable occupation which is appropriate for adults with learning disabilities, adaptive difficulties, and functional difficulties
- To complete education in basic subjects necessary for work
The stay at the center lasts for two years in dormitory accommodations, five days a week, during which in-depth learning, as a preparation for life at work, and guidance for better daily functioning are combined. In the evening hours, there is a wide range of social activities that include clubs, parties, and other activities. The purpose of these activities is also to prepare the adults for their integration in the community.
At the center there is place for 21 students. The maximum stay of a student is two years. Most of the students continue at the end of the two years to live in the community.
The in-depth studies are arranged in small groups, which help provide opportunities for individual attention. The courses learned are: reading comprehension, math, the human body, practical writing, sex education, citizenship, occupation preparation, budget, cooking, and more. The studies take place during the day and evening.
The first year of the student's stay at the center is used as a simulation for work life. Activities that help acquire work habits are integrated through all areas of the learning. During this period, the student tests, together with the center staff, his abilities, weaknesses, and expectations as he forms for himself an occupational profile accordingly. At the end of this period, a joint decision is made by the student, his family, and the staff regarding his occupational direction and then begins a search for an appropriate place of employment together with job placement. The students are integrated in regular work places in the open market and are paid according to their performance and integration in the place of work. After their entrance into work, the placement worker and occupation group do an accompanying tracking of the student's progress. In the afternoon hours and evening, the working students continue to participate in obligatory classes and social activities.
The goal is to bring the student to be able to deal with, independently as much as possible, with all aspects of life: buying and personal budget, social behavior, house maintenance, interpersonal communication and relationships with the opposite sex, behavior in leisure and community settings, self organization within a given amount of time, practical writing, preparation for the work day and connection with government and community institutions.
All of these are aspects of life, which a regular adult adapts to them in a natural and independent way, while at the center they are learned in complex lessons, in special work programs, and mainly in group-work.
The treatment-rehabilitation outlook of the center is a holistic conceptualization based on group-work in all of the realms that have been mentioned (occupational-preparation group, budget group, interpersonal communication group, apartment group, etc...). Together with this, there is personal attention and the building of a personal program for each student.
The center director is a rehabilitation psychologist and neuro-psychologist. There is also an occupation coordinator, instruction coordinator, and remedial instruction teachers with extensive experience in work with learning disabilities, social worker, social guide, and a home guide. There are plans to include housing coordinators who are social workers and guides.
- The program lasts two years for each student. The entrance and exit from the program are set according to the individual entrance date.
- The first year is set-aside mainly for becoming familiar with the program, adapting to the new setting, and acquiring cognitive, emotional, and behavioral tools in preparation for independent life in work and the community.
- The studies are during all hours of the day and evening using formal and informal methods.
- Towards the end of the first year or the beginning of the second year the process of job placement begins. With the beginning of work, the students leave large part of the formal learning. The remainder is moved to the evening hours.
1. We treat adults with a life history in which failure and feelings of inferiority and frustration are their dominant experience; therefore, we refrain as much as possible from stressing the weak areas and try as much a possible to emphasize the strong points.
2. The program's students are people with a special difficulty in dealing with cognitive, motory, and social challenges; therefore, most of the work is done in small groups that support the individual and provide him a setting where the individual feels that he belongs and to which he can relate.
3. Responsibility - the responsibility for making decisions and carrying them out is put in great measure, and as much as possible, on the student. This begins with the basic decision to take part in the life of the center, the initial agreement and motivation for the main goals and the finishing with the "little" decisions made all of the time in the daily life of every person.
When the student is ready for going out to work according to the accepted criteria at the center, there is a meeting with the staff, parents, and student where a decision is made regarding the occupational direction, where the desires, inclinations, and goals of the student have a great influence.
In the stage that prepares the student for going out to work, the "real work" begins, in other words: finding a place of employment in which the student can integrate in a job that is appropriate to his abilities and limitations on the one hand, and on the other hand an employer that is ready to accept for work a student who's adaptation will take time. The employer will have to invest in the student a certain amount of effort and patience, however at the end of the process the student will turn into a dedicated and trustworthy employee who fulfills his duties according to the satisfaction of all.
The first stage of integration is not easy, neither for the student nor for the employer. As far as the student, in the first days the excitement is at a high. He is beginning to work and to achieve his goal. After a few days though, he discovers that work life isn't always as he had dreamed. The work is hard, requires daily effort and investment, and the traffic jams and waking up early are tiring. Not everyone around him is cheerful and pleasant and he expected, and he has to deal with comments and criticism about his work. At a certain stage the work becomes a not easy routine.
The employer, as far as he's concerned, who was willing to integrate an adult with learning disabilities into the workplace, also deals with many difficulties. He doesn't always know how much he can demand from the student, he worries about giving direct criticism and at times it seems to him that the difficulties he hoped he would be able to deal with are more than what he expected. His faith that the student can fit in become smaller and smaller.
In this stage, there is a lot of work trying to persuade the employer to lengthen the initial stage of getting acclimated, while giving training to the employer how to give demands to the student and how to give him criticism regarding his behavior and mistakes. The work with the student continues however both in occupation groups, individual conversations, and in group-conversations with the employer where the goal is change in work habits and giving tools to meet the demands of the workplace and job.
In general, after an adjustment period both by the student and the employer, the turning point arrives in which the student begins to reveal his talents and ability to accommodate the demands of the system. At times, after a period of improvement and adaptation, a withdrawal in functioning occurs and then once again with treatment intervention and further training for the employer, the students return to proper functioning with the goal of continued improvement.
Most of the employers report that they are satisfied with the integration of the students in the workplace and are pleased they contributed to the rehabilitation of a Nitzan adult in work. Also the students, for the most part, are satisfied with the work, from their very integration in the free market, and from the paycheck that allows them to live independently.
When finishing the center, the student continues his work in the free market. For those who want and it is found to be appropriate, they continue to live in the community, which serves as an additional stage in their progress toward independent living. In the first two years, in the preparatory apartments, home counselors accompany the students in the apartment 3-4 times a week.
The next stage is satellite housing, which isn't limited by time and this is an advanced stage in the functioning in independent living. The apartments are operated in cooperation with the Rehabilitation Branch of the Office of Work and Welfare.
Up until today, some 150 students have finished the center. In observation over the past 5 years, some 89% of the past participants are working in the free market with an average salary of 3,145 shekels per month (not including those who are working in part time jobs).
The list of employers is numbered at like 80 factories and leading companies in the market such as:
The Teva Company, the Electric Company, Bezek, Nes Systems, Wisotzky, Packer Cement, Hertzeliya Television Studios, Shneider Hospital, Derech Eretz Company, and many others. Graduates of the center work in a wide variety of positions such as: clerks, warehouse workers, medical aides, technical service providers for computer units, and more.
87 graduates who are 89% of total graduates left their parental homes to live in the community at different levels of independence. Both the students and their families view the period of training at the center as a critical turning point in their personal development. It helped transform them from dependent people, who are always in need and are lonely, into productive and effective people who's level of independence is continually rising. Now, they serve as an integral part of society.
1. Directly to Nitzan Onim: (09) 760-1879, 6 Sald Rd., Kefar Saba
2. Nitzan Main Branch, (03) 537-2266, 18 Masger Rd., Tel-Aviv
3. By means of your local Bituach Leumi Branch
4. By means of your local Welfare Office
- Aged 18-25
- Learning Disability is the primary cause and dominant factor in functional difficulty (normal IQ)
- Ability to live in an intensive social setting
- Likely potential to work in free market
- Send us all of the assessment and evaluation information, treatment summaries, reports from schools or treatment centers and also a full psychological evaluation from the present year
- After checking the material, a decision will be made if to invite the applicant to a meeting with the acceptions board - if the decision is negative, all material will be returned
- The acceptions board meets according to need a few times a year
- 10-11 applicants are accepted each year at 3 possible times: October, February, and once every two years in June.
- Fee: 80% of the disability grant
Once a year there is an Open Day where there is an opportunity to become familiar with the program, the staff, the students, and the place. The Open Day takes place usually at the end of November or the beginning of December each year.