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Yeladim - Fair Chance for Children Young Adults Program

Personal Support for Young Mothers Without Family

“How do you become a mother when you never had one?”
Hadassah, 21, mother of two

Hadassah left a violent home at age 12. She grew up in residential care, moved from place to place, and learned to survive on her own. But nothing prepared her for the moment she held a baby in her arms and had to become the responsible adult – without anyone ever showing her how.

“In the Young Mothers at Risk Program, I met someone who wasn’t afraid of my chaos. She didn’t come to fix me – she simply stayed. It was the first time in my life I felt like I had a mother.”

Hundreds of young mothers in Israel live this reality. Women in their early twenties – graduates of residential care or foster families – trying to raise children while building independent lives, without parents, family, or anyone to reassure them that they’re doing okay.
Many carry deep wounds from violence, abandonment, and neglect. Most live in poverty and isolation, juggling endless bureaucracy alongside the daily struggle to afford rent, food, or emotional care for their children.
And perhaps hardest of all: at the very moment they become mothers, the system often stops seeing them as young adults without family support. Welfare assistance ends, and they are left to face reality alone. Sometimes the pregnancy was unplanned; other times it was the most natural desire in the world – to build a family of their own and give their children a better life than they had.
But when everything collapses, they lack what most of us take for granted: a mother to call.

The Young Mothers at Risk Program was created for exactly this moment – so no young mother must face motherhood alone.

What the Program Includes?

Personal emotional support

ongoing conversations, professional guidance, and emotional care

Parenting skills

setting boundaries, soothing a baby, coping without breaking

Practical assistance

rights realization, housing support, financial guidance, child care

A community of belonging

group meetings, women’s circles, shared holidays and family days

Professional framework

social workers, therapists, parenting guides, and women’s rights experts

At the Heart of the Program: Women Supporting Each Other

Every pairing brings together two women.
One is learning how to be a mother. The other reminds her that she already is.
The young mother, 19-30, a graduate of residential care or foster care without family support, raising a child in an almost impossible reality.
Her companion, a mature, experienced woman who chooses to walk alongside her, not as a judge, but as a partner.
They meet every two weeks. They talk, cry, laugh, go together to the health clinic or the supermarket.
The relationship lasts months, sometimes years.
It’s not therapy – it’s human connection.
About 25% of residential care graduates return to welfare services in adulthood (State Comptroller Report, 2023).
Young Mothers at Risk works to break this cycle, providing dozens of at-risk young mothers with emotional support and practical tools as they navigate the complex journey of parenthood.

 

“Some days I don’t even manage to shower or eat – I’m just constantly holding a baby who won’t stop crying. There’s no one to say, ‘I’m here, take a breath.’
Then she came, not to fix anything, just to sit with me, hold my baby, and ask how I really was.
It was the first time in months that someone asked.”
Alona, 20, mother to a baby boy

The Numbers Tell the Story

  • 90

    %

    mothers

    report increased confidence in their parenting

  • 80

    %

    stabilize their lives

    and avoid renewed involvement with welfare services

  • Many

    continue studying,

    working, and raising their children in safer, more stable environments

Other Program Areas

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