yadid la chinuch
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Mission Statement
Yadid LaChinuch (Hebrew for ‘Friends of Education’) was established in 2007 and operates in three worlds: the world of education, the world of retirement and old age and the world of volunteering. The organization works to revolutionize the education system by assimilating an organizational culture in which retirees are integrated as a fundamental and routine component of the education system, bringing about a concept of educational innovation that sees the older adult as an essential part of the community – educational, social and within the school system. The organization’s specialty is the recruitment, activation, and cultivation of older adult volunteers in the education system, as educational teaching support, from within the framework of the national project led by the Ministry of Education. The organization is a social community based on the values of human dignity, solidarity, tolerance, and equality that harnesses older adult volunteers’ knowledge, life experience, and insights gained through their professional and personal lives to integrate it into schools as support for the teaching staff. The organization’s vision is to replicate this innovative model across the country so that every school can be an educational-social space, one in which an intergenerational society can bond and both benefit and contribute. An independent study of our work by BDO Israel, concluded that in terms of SROI, every ILS invested in our model yields about ILS 10. For our activities, our association won the President’s Award and the Zusman Award for Excellence in Social Services.
About This Cause
Throughout the years, Yadid LaChinuch has provided solutions for two main problems: a. The gap between the goals of the education system and its actual resources. One teacher, large classrooms, and a large amount of material to cover do not allow for every child to make the most of his/her classes. The modern education system (as many other systems currently in society) inadvertently keeps older adults outside of its framework. Yet, the more diverse and extensive the adult manpower within the schools, the more comprehensive and complete the learning experience will be for the students. Including older adults in the education system provides a solution to the need for manpower, but the benefit is much greater. Students in need for assistance are matched with an older adult who encourages and believes in their abilities. These interactions contribute to teachers in their daily tasks, while at the same time contributing to students in strengthening their sense of competence, developing critical thinking, time management, and developing interpersonal skills, among other benefits. b. The lack of a civic infrastructure that provides significant public activities for older adults. Today, the main activities offered to older adults are mostly ‘passive’ where the retiree is a passive observer/participant who only gets to sit back and enjoy. However, activities where older adults can actively utilize their knowledge and life experience are – at the national level – negligible. This lack places retirees on a slippery slope that can lead to illness, depression, loneliness, and the like. We are amid a revolution where people are retiring in good health and with a life span of two and sometimes three more decades. These people have a wealth of knowledge, skills, and life experience; they are retiring with great vitality and a youthful spirit. For them, Yadid LaChinuch has created a framework of social belonging, continuous learning, and meaningful pursuits around common interests, promoting a culture of volunteering in the education system that can be replicated and serve as the school model of the future. The Yadid LaChinuch model works on two distinctive activity channels: • Within the framework of the education system – Yadid LaChinuch works to locate son-to-retire older adults and/or those already in retirement and offers them an attractive volunteer activity in a professional and vibrant environment. These older adults go through an orderly absorption process and receive ongoing guidance. After responding positively, they are placed in the schools to provide accompaniment, mentoring and assistance to students alongside the educational staff. The activity is accompanied by professional evaluations. In every locality where Yadid LaChinuch operates, the activities are coordinated by an older adult volunteer, usually with significant experience in the education system who leads a local group of volunteers. These volunteers donate their time to the students – at least one day per week at the schools throughout the school year. The volunteers are integrated according to their areas of interests and skills in coordination with the school administration and the local coordinator. They do not replace teachers but work alongside them for the benefit of students in the fields of enrichment, personal support, and academic assistance as well as in libraries and other school frameworks. • As part of the local group – Each volunteer is integrated into the local Yadid LaChinuch group closest to its place of residence which convenes throughout the year according to the annual enrichment and learning program for additional hours beyond those spent volunteering. This activity meets the volunteer’s need for a social belonging framework around the shared values of giving, it encourages continuous learning and peer discussion, provides professional training, develops, and strengthens social ties, and enables the enjoyment of leisure activities that support their volunteerism, increasing the retirees’ quality of life. Yadid LaChinuch activities enrich the everyday life of older adults as they in turn enrich everyday life for students and teachers. Pouring their knowledge and experience into the schools while bringing forth their great capacity to listen, their sense of peace, empathy, and tolerance, creates a safer and more harmonious space for everyone. It also puts into practice the Social and Emotional Learning approach (SEL) which has been a recent focus of the Ministry of Education. In addition, our activities promote two other important goals: changing public view of senior citizens by facilitating intergenerational encounters to encourage respect for senior citizens, and encouraging volunteerism - students, parents, educational staff, principals, and the various municipal agencies are all exposed to the challenges and satisfactions of volunteer activities. Support for Yadid LaChinuch directly benefits the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis – older adults, school staff, male and female students, all throughout the country. There is no school that could not benefit from the life experience of older adults throughout the educational process, and there is no older adult who cannot benefit from devoting several hours per week to bringing his life experience to the aid of students and teachers.