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Employment and Higher Education

Day Center for Adults

Upon reaching adulthood, people with developmental disabilities require specially tailored day facilities, designed to meet their specific needs. On the one hand, they have outgrown the special education system, which in Israel covers children and adolescents up to the age of 21. On the other, they are unable to participate in the regular work force, like their normative peers. They need accommodating day frameworks, combining rehabilitative care with an opportunity to lead productive lives, to the best of their ability.

                                            

The demand for day centers of this type in Israel is enormous. Thanks to the advocacy of organizations like Amichai and changing government policies, many more people with special needs now live their entire lives in the community, while constantly improving medical care significantly prolongs their life expectancy.  And yet, these burgeoning numbers are served by very few existing day facilities for adults with moderate to severe mental retardation. Inevitably, such centers are all filled to capacity, with waiting lists growing longer every day.

 

The modern Day Center occupying the entire ground floor of Beit Amichai provides comprehensive state-of-the-art, optimized and fully accessible, facilities for up to 50 adults with developmental disabilities of various types and levels. A staff of devoted professionals and volunteers guide and assist their disabled protégés, implementing the MISC approach of mediational intervention to expand their knowledge and maximize their self-esteem and independence. 

 

Amichai's young men and women acquire suitable working skills, producing handicraft items for sale, growing vegetables or shredding documents. In addition, they continually develop physical, cognitive and functional abilities through learning, talks, sports, gardening, cooking and various rehabilitative treatments, including occupational and speech therapies, Augmentative and alternative communication techniques & tools, physiotherapy, art and animal therapies. All these are carried in a range of spacious rooms and convenient areas, specially adapted to their needs and abilities:

 

  • Music Therapy Room, acoustically built and fully equipped with musical instruments of fine quality, enabling music therapy, song and dance and other enjoyable activities.

  • Occupational Therapy Room, designed and equipped for a range of paid occupational activities, such as sorting and assembling plastic parts, making jewelry, shredding documents and other services for external customers. 

Art Therapy Room, offering all needed facilities for artwork and art therapy with different materials: plaster, papier Mache, painting, collages etc.

  • Computer Enrichment Center, providing a unique opportunity for enrichment and cognitive development, using special computer programs, aides and adapted devices.

  • Home Management Facility serving as an all-important hub for therapeutic activities and training in crucial everyday skills.

  • Multi-Purpose Hall, a large modern venue for dining, club activities, gatherings, lectures and events.

  • Rest and Relaxation Area, comprising two comfortable bedrooms for disabled and aging individuals who need a timeout from ongoing activities during the day.

  • Adaptive Care Facilities, including specially adapted bathrooms, showers, toilets, changing beds and carrying hammocks for severely disabled persons.

  • Art Gallery & Café, inviting residents of the neighborhood to relax in the pleasant surroundings, and purchase the artwork created at the Center by adults with special needs.

מרכז יום טיפולי תעסוקתי

Senior Citizens' Employment (MAAS)    

It has become apparent over the last years that senior citizens with mental & developmental disabilities have unique employment needs.         

                               

Amichai, with the support of the municipality of Hod HaSharon, opened a custom planned facility to respond to the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities over age 45, who are no longer fit for labor-intensive activities due to aging related degradation of their mental and physical capabilities.

The guiding line is to combine a variety of employment and recreational activities suitable for aged people and tailored per each of them each individually.

Activities under this capacity are divided into therapeutic/rehabilitative and restorative (restorative art, horticultural therapy, physiotherapy, etc.), recreational and occupational (production of ceramic products, packaging and enclosures). 

In addition, we offer these senior citizens joint activities with the community, according to the Amichai's community inclusion vision, be it meetings with volunteers from Industry, IDF, or voluntary community work with the elderly or with

מע״ש ותיקים

Occupational College

A new and unique vocational higher education program, initiated by Amichai and the Ministry of welfare & Social Services, under the auspices of Yevulim eco farm.  The vocational college offers 2-years, 5 days per week, structured curricula of higher education for young adults, in preparation for independent life and work opportunities, following graduation from high school. College studies held within the framework of an ecological agricultural farm in a small village next to Hod HaSharon.

 

Yevulim farm has been operating since 2011 as a Center for education and training for people with disabilities.  The approach was to build a social business, yielding income in the field of eco-agro and natural recycling, with the aim to employ people with disabilities.

 

Vocational college courses are suitable for adults within the ages of 21-30, interested and capable in participating in rehabilitative oriented educational framework. 

College principles are:

  • Any person has the right to choose to learn, develop, establish and improve the quality of life

  • Each student will be entitled to personal learning path, based on personal capabilities, desires and challenges  

  • The personal studies program is based on a holistic approach and includes cognitive, developmental, social, emotional and functional capabilities of the student.

  • The farm provides a containing and embracing environment for the students' allowing teamwork in close proximity to nature and livestock and plants.

  • Personal process is done as part of a group process support that allows freedom of expression, tolerance and diversity within the group.  ...

מכללה תעסוקתית
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