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Hamifal Educational Children's Homes - Israel

An Educational Family Model

By Avraham Barashi, General Manager

Hamifal Educational Children's Homes (herewith called Hamifal) was founded in 1943 by the late Recha Freier, who gathered poor and abandoned children from the streets, and sent them to kibbutzim for agricultural training.  Thousands of children over the last 60 years have received their training and education from Hamifal, and have become productive contributing members of Israeli society.  Recha Freier received the Israel Prize for her work in 1981.  Today, Hamifal is a nation-wide organization, caring for some 950 boys and girls, aged five to seventeen, in Children's Homes, Family Group Homes, and with foster families throughout Israel.

Three major aspects of the educational family model should be emphasized:

1.         Hamifal developed the family-oriented model of boarding homes as providing the optimal solution for children who are referred to Hamifal from families in severe distress (mentally, economically, socially).

2.         The basis of this model is the ideal family nucleus, which provides the best environment for a child's normal development and adjustment.  This family framework meets the needs of Israel school-age children who must be removed from their homes.

3.         This model offers an improved alternative to the normal boarding school.

The Fundamental Concept of the Educational Family Model

Hamifal Educational Children's Homes combines the concept of residential care with that of a foster family, creating a family group home.  Each family group home consists of a married couple and their natural children, plus 10-12 boys and girls, aged five to seventeen, who are placed with Hamifal.  These children have normal intellectual potential. 

The model shows that it is possible to raise a large number of children in a warm home by creating a suitable educational and therapeutic environment.  The married couple acts as surrogate parents to all of the children.  The husband is employed part-time by Hamifal as an educational counselor, who fulfills the role model of a working father who goes to work in the morning and returns in the afternoon.  The wife is employed full-time by Hamifal as a housemother, awakening the children and preparing their breakfast, and sending them off to schools in the community in which the Children's Home is located.  She waits for their return after school, listens to their stories from school, serves lunch and fulfills the function of a mother to a large number of children.

The "father" returns from work and joins the "mother" in working with the children in the family group.  As a "father", he helps with homework preparation, tutoring in subjects in which the children have difficulty, and in all areas of formal and informal education, such as games, outings and hikes, having  group and individual talks with the children.  When a child lives with a couple who act as educators on a 24-hour basis, it creates a relationship of mutual trust, security, affection and love

Six or more family groups comprise a Children's Home.  The Children's Home employs support staff that includes a manager, psychologist, social worker, teachers who provide tutoring, extra-curricular teachers, administrative, kitchen and maintenance staff.

Outstanding Characteristics

of this Educational Residential Care Model

1.  Educational and Social Re-enforcement

The "parents" follow each child's progress very closely, and check his academic performance and behavior towards his/her peers at school through regular meetings with the child's teachers.  The couple gives each child help with extra tutoring and lessons, according to his/her individual needs in order to close the child's gaps, improve his learning ability and educational level through in-depth education, as well as education towards values, and a supportive social environment.

2.  Assistance By the Therapeutic Staff in the Children's Home

The children are referred to Hamifal because of problems within their biological families, such as violence, substance abuse, mental illness, single parents and orphans.  These problems impact on the child in ways that require professional intervention.  Each child who is placed in one of Hamifal's facilities undergoes testing by the psychologist and social worker to determine the child's specific problems and severity.  This evaluation enables them to plan the type of therapeutic treatment that the child will require, by counseling the couple who act as parents, or by counseling the child individually or in a group.

The new family group is presented to the child as his new home and extended family, however never at the expense of the child's natural family from which he was removed, often against his will.  Hamifal does not wish to alienate the child from his ties to his natural parents, and the social worker works with the child to maintain his connection with his home.  The biological parents are invited to visit the child and the visit is used as an opportunity to meet with them, separately and/or with the child.  The children visit their families every third weekend and during the summer vacation, except in those cases where such visits are impossible or may be harmful to the child.

The staff constantly deals with the problems of the child's personal identity and his/her new life outside of his biological home.  They work to provide the child with opportunities for remedial experiences, by raising the child's sense of personal value and self-esteem.  The social worker plans a long-term treatment program for each child, with the parents of each family group, and for the child's natural family, and reviews and evaluates the child's progress on an on-going basis.

3.  The Child's Integration into the Community

The family model of the Children's Home is expressed also in the integration of the child in the community within the formal and informal educational system.  Just as a child living in his biological home goes to school in the neighboring community, a child growing up in a Children's Home also attends a regular school in the community.

There is no doubt that attending school outside of the Children's Home develops an open-mindedness in comparison with the narrow-mindedness often found in boarding schools.  The fact that Hamifal's children attend regular local schools, and meet children outside their family group and their Children's Home, exposes them to new attitudes and ideas, which enriches their experiences.  In addition, in the afternoons, they are able to choose from a variety of extra-curricular activities, such as sports, cultural and creative activities held at the local community center.  This helps develop the child's ability to choose, to set priorities, and make decisions for himself.  This is in contrast to his natural family, which functions marginally, and not able to provide for his social and cultural needs.

The Advantages of the Educational Family Model 

(Compared with Boarding Schools)

The advantages of the educational family model are apparent during the placement and absorption of the child in the Children's Home and within the family group that is found to be most suitable for him.  Each of Hamifal's eight Homes and eight Family Group Homes is slightly different from each other.  They have unique characteristics, which are expressed in the way they are run.

When the child lives with other children of different ages in a family setting, he can experience the normalcy of a healthy family unit, which is lacking for these children from distressed homes.  The child can develop relationships with children of different ages, like brothers and sisters in a family.

The small group of ten to twelve children, who live together with a couple who act as counselors, twenty-four hours a day form a cohesive and intimate unit.  This makes it possible to provide optimal care to both the individual child according to his special needs and to the group as a whole, like in a family.

Hamifal aims to provide an opportunity for each boy and girl to realize his potential, to achieve success, to take responsibility within his group home, and to develop his special talents.  The couple acting as "parents" accompany the child from a young age and learn to understand the child's problems in-depth.  Children usually live in the family group home throughout their elementary school years, an average of five to eight years.  This strengthens the relationship between the counselor "parents" and the children, and provides a basis for the child to develop a role model of a caring father and mother.  All of this is different from regular boarding schools in which the children are organized into large groups of children of the same age, where there is a regular turnover of counselors, who work in shifts, and generally do not live with the children.  In boarding schools, the child does not have any individual person to whom to turn or who is responsible for him.

We are convinced that in order to have the maximum influence on the child's healthy development, when it is necessary to remove him from his own home, it must be done at as young an age as possible.  If the home provides a physical or emotional risk for the child, then remaining in it continues to expose him to damaging influences, and postponing removing the child from such a home can cause irreparable damage.

Additional Characteristics and Fundamentals

of Hamifal Educational Children's Homes

The small groups and the organization of the Children's Home, which are relatively small, enables the manager, together with his educational and therapeutic staff, to identify problems.  The psychological and social work staff, which are part of each Children's Home, ensures consultation between the therapeutic and the educational staff on a regular basis.

Hamifal's Children's Homes have developed close relationships with the local communities in which they are located, such as the local municipality, the community center, schools, clubs, and cultural institutions.  They often have a "Friends of Hamifal's Children's Home" group, consisting of a group of people who volunteer their time on behalf of the Home.

The Children's Homes are open to outsiders and maintain regular contact with the parents of the children or family members, and visits are encouraged.  The social worker of the Children's Home works with the municipal social worker for mutual follow-up regarding the placement and stay of the child within the Children's Home.

Conclusion

We firmly believe that Hamifal's model offers the best opportunity for the child's rehabilitation, re-training and treatment, which will cause him to be a better citizen, who will contribute to his community in the future.

It is not possible to conclude without pointing out some of Hamifal's problems in implementing this model.  The severest problem is finding educated and experienced couples to undertake this demanding educational and therapeutic work with children, who are able to withstand Hamifal's rigorous selection process.  The full-time investment by the counselor couple creates burnout after six or seven years or work, something that is not unique to Hamifal.  The budget is inadequate for the proper maintenance of each child.  There is a lack of suitable buildings for Children's Homes in Hamifal's educational family model.

Hamifal Educational Children's Homes firmly believes that it is important to invest our resources in providing for these children while they are young, and works actively with the welfare authorities and educational system.  It is much easier to influence their development during their elementary years, and more difficult as they become older.  Early intervention will also ensure a higher percentage of success.

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