Youth-At-Risk in Israel
UJC 2009 Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission

The intensity of living under the constant threat of terror attacks presents a challenge for all Israelis, but no group is more vulnerable to trauma than the nation’s youth-at-risk. Living in communities without resources, coming from families struggling to break the cycle of poverty, these children fall into patterns of underachievement and despair.

Who are Israel’s youth-at-risk? Of the 2.3 million children and youth growing up in Israel, an estimated 350,000 are considered to be “at risk,” with most coming from poor, immigrant families.

• About 10,000 Israeli youths have been removed from their homes.
• A report by Elem, a group that helps youth in distress, found that nearly half of youth who loiter late at night were new immigrants teens, almost a quarter of them Ethiopian.
• According to the Israel Anti-Drug Authority, the typical drug-using Israeli teenager is male, a new immigrant, lives in a big city, drinks alcoholic beverages and suffers from anxiety and depression. In addition, his parents likely do not live together and the parent he lives with is likely to be unemployed.

Emotional and Physical Abuse
In Israel’s at-risk community, as in vulnerable populations all over the world, one risk factor often leads to another – for example, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse can lead to lifelong battles with self-esteem, which make it more difficult to thrive scholastically and socially.

• About 8 percent of Israeli children suffer from abuse or neglect.
• In 2008, Israeli child welfare officers investigated 8,716 cases of child abuse, a rise of 12 percent over the previous year.
• 8.5 percent of Israeli children struggle with special needs. These children are at least five times more likely to experience violence or neglect than their peers.
• According to a 2009 Ministry of Welfare and Social Services report, some 40,000 cases of child abuse are reported each year; child welfare officers follow up on roughly one-fourth of those reports.
• Some 2,000 children were hospitalized due to domestic abuse during 2008.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction
With little appropriate supervision at home and no constructive community activities in which to participate, these children look to peer groups for nurturing. This often leads to drug and alcohol abuse.

• A 2005 study showed that Israeli youth who were physically and psychologically exposed to terrorism consumed more alcohol than those who didn’t.
• Israel has seen a 20 percent increase in drug-related crimes involving minors, as well as an increase in violent incidents in schools.
• About 300,000 Israelis use drugs; 70,000 are between the ages of 12-18, representing about 11 percent of all youth in this age group.

High-school Dropouts
While investing in educational excellence is one way out of poverty and abuse, many youth-at-risk are unable to thrive in traditional educational institutions.

• According to Ministry of Education statistics, 24,500 9th-12th graders drop out of school every year.
• Seven percent of students in the Jewish sector and 17.5 percent in the Israeli-Arab sector do not complete high-school. The percentage of dropouts is highest among minorities, new immigrants, and the Ultra-Orthodox.
  

Teen homelessness
Youth-at-risk who do not get assistance in dealing with the extreme stress they encounter daily often find themselves in untenable home situations, which often leads to homelessness.

• There was a 5 percent rise in 2007 in the number of youths either homeless or wandering the streets late at night.
• More than 25 percent of homeless youth in 2007 were girls, compared to 15 percent in 2004. A huge percentage of homeless girls are drawn into the sex industry.
• Thirty-seven percent homeless teens helped last year by Elem were under 16.

 
Poverty
As the recession progresses, the number of youths-at-risk appears to be growing. The most dramatic rise has occurred in Israel’s periphery: the Negev and Galilee.

• About 40 percent of Israeli children live below the poverty line.
• One-fifth of Israeli families currently live below the poverty line.
• According to statistics gathered by the Ethiopian National project, more than 70 percent of Ethiopian families in Israel live below the poverty line and some 40 percent of working-age families have no breadwinner.

How We’re Helping
Dealing effectively with the situation requires a multi-faceted approach: therapy and emotional support, remedial assistance, and incentives to combat communal and family poverty. The following are just a few of the many innovative programs:

• Youth villages provide alternate living situations with remedial learning and counseling.
• Jewish Agency programs such as NET@, In the Footsteps of Science, and Atidim provide promote educational excellence among youth-at-risk.
• Jewish Agency Youth Futures connects children-at-risk with mentors.
• Ashalim, a partnership between JDC, the Government of Israel and UJA-Federation of New York, runs a project called ADI that brings therapy and health counseling to young women-at-risk.
• JDC’s Emergency Centers offer hands-on assistance to parents and children in high-risk communities.
• ENP Youth Outreach Centers are alternate safe spaces for urban youth.