From our Chairman - Professor Dan Shnit
Dear Friends and Volunteers,
As the New Year begins we would like to wish you and your families a year of peace, health and success.
Last year brought with it a gloomy reality regarding children in need of residential group placement. On the one hand, continuous cutbacks in governmental subsidies for children in group care, while on the other hand; the deterioration trouble of the economic, social and functional problems of families in need of governmental services are bringing as a result of this situation that children who actually arrived to this residential groups home, their emotional and learning disadvantages have increased. The recent shocking cases of child abuse and murder within their families are an expression of the growing need of many children in similar situations for the warm protection of residential group care.
This continuous negative process places the residential group homes and "Fair Chance for Children - the Council for the Child in Placement" against difficult challenges to fulfill. In order to bridge over the educational and functional gaps among children, "style 2008", living in residential group homes, we have adopted innovative and creative operations ways which will let our involvement to be as diverse and deeper in fields where change is required. Our goal is to grant children at risk the optimal chance to fulfill their inherent potential to become and develop as a normal child. .
The growing numbers of children in residential group homes who have no responsible family backing at all has required us enlarge our legal guardian program. This program offers these children an individual,
long - term relationship with a legal guardian who is a professional social worker. At the same time we have expanded our involvement in our "Rehabilitative Learning" program which offers the children essential learning skills in reading, writing and arithmetic; and enables them to integrate into their community classroom as equals.
Our "Bridge to Independence" project is for group home graduates who have no families they can return to. This program, which we operate with other organizations, has reached a funding crisis. Unfortunately, the State has not acknowledged its civic responsibility to participate in this program. As this letter is being written, young people are being forced to leave the apartments that were rented for them, without any alternative but the streets. Neither our lobby in the Knesset, nor our publicity about this issue have succeeded in gaining the participation of the Welfare Ministry in this program.
Competition for funding from contributors has heightened, and the signs can be found of an oncoming economic depression. In order to help overcome the difficulty in raising funds for children in residential group care, we have translated the help a child needs to the concept of "quality time". For instance, a child who needs rehabilitative learning requires during the year 100 quality hours that costs 36 Shekels an hour. Thus, the cost of a child in the "Rehabilitative Learning" Project reaches 3,600 Shekels a year. We hope that individual contributors, organizations and business enterprises will buy "quality time" for children in residential group care according to the program they prefer and according to their ability to contribute.
In summary, I would like to express my greetings to the new two Board members who have enhanced our organization, Sigal Fischer - Bar On, and Carrie Richter. Both have brought new strength to the Board of "Fair Chance for Children", which volunteers its time, energy and knowledge in order to enhance the welfare of children in residential group care
With best wishes for a Shana Tova -
Good and happy year,
Professor Dan Shnit,
Chairman,
"Fair Chance for Children- the Council for the Child in Placement".
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