The children's legal counslling center

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The children's legal counslling center

Introduction

Tens of thousands of children in Israel find themselves without a place to turn to with their daily problems. These problems can be domestic or school violence, questions that they have about drug use or about their work right, and even questions about sexual harassment.

In Israel there are very few organizations offering help to troubled children & youth. Studies of relation to the amount of approaches done by children to these bodies and to their effectiveness reveal that despite their distress these troubled children do not turn to these organizations for help.

Thus, a young boy aware of his distress does not know where to turn to. At times; his distress branches out to several fields (for example: drugs; violence and sex) and there isn’t any one organization that can give him answers to all his needs.

In order to give these children a shoulder to cry on and to tackle their problems at an early stage with initial treatment, the foundation of The children's legal counslling center
was founded. The foundation will strive do all that can be done in order to rise awareness to child and youth rights, and to assist them in fulfilling said rights.

The way the commission operates:

Distress centers:

The foundation will set up emergency centers that will, as much as possible, operate around the clock every day of the year, and will be manned by a qualified staff.

The commission’s staff will include many volunteers that will be taught how to respond to the child and youth seeking help, and what help should be given to them. Additionally, the staff will include trained professionals that will handle extremely difficult cases and assist the volunteers in their work.

Thus, Among the trained professionals there will be found psychologists, social workers & lawyers that will give the necessary response if and when needed.

Further more, the emergency center will seek out children from all over the country & comply with their specific needs whether they come from non religious, religious or Arab sectors of the population.

As mentioned above, the center will house volunteers and staff that will be trained especially for this highly sensitive work. The operators will sit in front of computers containing a country wide data base required for the necessary assistance, including data about hospitals, schools, help centers, authorities etc’. The trained operator will talk to the children seeking help; encourage them to talk to him, guide them through the steps they must now take, and divert them to the suitable places best qualified to handle the problem, according to the child’s whereabouts, age and the urgency of the problem.

The emergency center will include two professional divisions: a social division and a legal division. The social division will examine the child and youth problems and will try to solve them working in accordance with the various authorities. This division will consist of social workers, psychologists and guidance counsels. The legal division will give counseling in cases requiring urgent legal intervention, and to the various activists as to how they should handle themselves in general.

With these activities the commission will attain an important goal: a multi-dimensional yet simple organization suited for dealing with child and youth problems in a way never before seen in Israel, and in a standard of service the most advanced societies are accustomed to.

Further activities:

Support sessions-helping the child by ways of close monitoring: