2006 was a challenging year for ELI. We witnessed new trends and revealed new types of abuses directed toward children. The war in Lebanon brought with it an additional burden on ELI's staff and volunteers, who spent many hours in underground shelters both during and after the war, dealing with the traumas inflicted on children and their families.
ELI launched several new programs in 2006, and we expanded the scope of other initiatives.
The Hot Line
Hot Line Referrals in 2006
by type of abuse
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In total, 6,539 cases were referred to ELI through the hotline.
49.1% of the victims were boys and 50.9% girls. 42.6% were under the age of five and 60.1% were under
the age of nine.
Interestingly, in 34% of the referrals of sexual abuse, the victims were under the age of five, and in 58.7 % they were under
the age of nine. While this is certainly a shocking number, we believe that it demonstrates an increase in awareness and a
readiness to report abuse which we attribute to ELI's many successful activities in kindergartens and schools over the last two
years. As upsetting as these numbers are, we note that when we empower children and parents, more cases of abuse are uncovered.
The Clinical Unit
3,812 abused children and their family members were treated by ELI's therapists in 2006. This reflects a 10% increase over 2005. ELI noted a new trend, a 42 % increase in the number of sexual abuse cases of children, by children. 60% of these cases occurred between siblings, the other 40% were in schools, residential care facilities and the like.
The therapists in ELI's clinical unit, social workers, psychologists, clinical criminologists, psychiatrists
and others offer the most advanced abuse focused, individual, family and group therapy to children, teenagers and adults. In
2006, some of ELI's therapy was underwritten by the Myra Reinhard and Ted Arison Foundations.
ELI believes that therapeutic interventions in those painful cases of child abuse need to be not only professional, but also
accessible and friendly. ELI developed several principles based on this approach.
a)Waiting list. Despite the pressures of ELI's overworked staff members, ELI is proud to indicate that no child will wait more than 10 days for assistance.
b)The Mobile Therapy Unit: Allows us to be on site immediately in emergency cases. In addition, the mobile therapy unit allows us access to remote regions where other services are not available. In 2006 the MTU served clients on a regular basis in the Jordan Valley, Yehuda Plains, the towns around the Galilee, and Moshavim in the Negev and near Eilat. The operation of the MTU was generously supported by the Edli and Paktor families.
c)The Satellite Therapist Project was designed to enable clients to receive therapy in remote areas as well. Six therapists who live in Israel's periphery, from Be'er Sheva in the south to the Upper Galilee in the north offer therapy to people who live in those more remote areas. In 2005-2006, due to economic pressures, families who live in the center of Israel could no longer afford to bring their children to the clinic in Tel Aviv, even if treatment was offered for free, ELI extended the reach of the satellite program by adding another six therapists in the towns around Tel Aviv thereby making it possible for children and families to get the assistance they need. Office space is lent by the municipalities and local businesses to keep costs as low as possible.
ELI offered treatment to approximately 600 children and family members in their home towns.
The New Immigrant Center
Introduced in 2005 The New Immigrant Help Center for Abused Children was designed to provide counseling, education and therapy for children and families who have recently immigrated to Israel. Over the course of the last year, ELI has succeeded in increasing awareness in the Ethiopian and Russian communities as to the issues around child abuse and we have encouraged 431 families to call the hot line and 252 children and family members to begin therapy. ELI has developed unique techniques and approaches to address cultural issues and the crisis of immigration.
Supporters of The New Immigrant Help Center include Bonim Atid - N.Y. Federation, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and the Harry Kramer Memorial Fund.
Arab Population
Dealing with different cultures was also a major issue in the new office that ELI has officially opened in 2006 in Nazareth. The hot line was launched in Arabic with 9 trained volunteers staffing it. In 2006 the Nazareth office received 76 referrals, 72.4% boys and 27.6% girls, most of the cases were sexual abuse.
Though the office was opened in order to serve the local population in Nazareth, its reputation and professional level on one hand, and the absence of other services for Arab populations on the other, led to referrals from other predominantly Arab villages and towns including those near Be'er Sheva. 60.5% of the case load was from Nazareth and 39.5 % from other locales. In addition to the hot line, and therapeutic intervention, ELI's Outreach and Prevention programs have been translated into Arabic, adapted to suit the different culture, and delivered in the local schools.
ELI's activities in Nazareth are coordinated by a steering committee which includes representatives from the Ministries of Education, Health, and Welfare, the police, and the local hospitals. This project is supported by the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Foundation, and is currently being considered by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation.
School Outreach and Prevention Program
This very successful program continued in 2006, on a larger scale than ever before. Seventy five thousand children participated in the program in 978 separate activities in schools and Kindergartens from Eilat in the south to the Golan Heights in the north. The United Jewish Endowment Fund of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington D.C. underwrote the delivery of the Outreach and Prevention Program in schools in Beit Shemesh and Yehuda Plains, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh sponsored the program in Carmiel and Misgav.
Steven Spielberg's Righteous Person's Foundation also sponsored the program for a third year, as did two Jewish teen philanthropy initiatives in Northern California.
Among the new programs that were developed in 2006 there is a new play for children in junior high schools, a program which was developed for parents who wish to learn more about prevention and a "story time" for 4-5 year old children, dealing with the issue of secrets.
Training
With the growing awareness about the issue of child abuse, comes growing need for training of professionals. In 2006 3,049 professionals: psychologists, social workers, physicians, attorneys, teachers and judges were exposed to a variety of training activities. In addition to one three day of seminar, conferences and workshops, ELI offered six long term 1-2 year continuing education courses during which experienced professionals learned abuse focused treatment. Following the principle of spreading our activities all over the country, some of the courses were conducted in the periphery of Israel.
Considered world experts on the issue of child abuse and child protection, ELI's staff is regularly invited to train professionals in other countries. In 2006, sponsored by Save the Children, Norway, two of ELI's senior therapists were invited to help train professionals in Ethiopia.
The Emergency Shelter
ELI's emergency shelter located in the heart of Tel Aviv is the place where children are admitted by court order under extreme circumstances when their lives are in danger. This is an extraordinary facility which offers safety and protection, crisis intervention and diagnosis, and gives ELI's therapists the opportunity to develop a long term treatment plan for the children. In 2006, seventy children received services in the shelter.
ELI's shelter is not a residential facility but rather an intensive care unit where children who are admitted in the midst of trauma are protected for several months. They are diagnosed and therapy begins. At the point when children no longer need intensive care and they are ready to leave the shelter, a problem arises. Continuing services are not always available and approximately 50% of the children stay for a longer period then needed (some times up to a year) The solution to this problem is a new program, the "Safe house" which will be implemented in 2007.
The Safe House
When diagnosis in the shelter indicates that there is no hope for rehabilitating a family, and parents lack appropriate parental skills, ELI directs its efforts toward termination of parental rights and adoption. There are cases however, where there is hope to rehabilitate a family, but only with appropriate treatment and sufficient time. Even though the child cannot go home immediately, staying in the shelter for an extended period of time is destructive for the child and it may prevent another child from getting in.
The Safe House is a continuing service. It will be located near the shelter, and it will serve as a more appropriate facility for extended stays. Unlike the traditional shelter, in the Safe house, the abused children's parents will visit and stay for several hours each day. The parents will spend time with their children, interact with them under supervision, and they too will benefit from psychological treatment, family therapy and training in parental skills. Instead of being a symbol for destruction of a family as a shelter might be, the Safe house will become the first emergency shelter in Israel which would serve as a bridge for the family and a symbol of opportunity, and mending of the broken bonds.
The Viterbi Family Foundation is the pioneer funder of the Safe house program.
Internet Safety Program
The second new program which will be launched in 2007 is an Internet Safety program. Unfortunately, while it is wonderful tool for many things, the internet has opened our homes and exposed our children to a new threat. Recent studies have shown that one in five children is solicited on-line by sexual predators. Furthermore, one out of every thirty three children is seriously affected. ELI will protect these innocent children by initiating legislation that would declare on line predatory behavior a crime, and by empowering appropriate government and law enforcement agencies to enforce the new legislation. In addition, ELI will conduct an advocacy campaign to alert the public at large to this grave threat. ELI will also educate and inform children and their parents as to the potential dangers involved with using the internet. This project will be governed by a steering committee representing the Knesset, Ministry of Justice, and the Police as well as the media and high-tech industry. Parts of the project will be administered by teenagers themselves through student councils in their schools and youth movements.
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