THE HOUSE ON ISACOV ST. - AMIT BOARDING HOUSE
THE BEGINNING
US OF ALL PEOPLE
EVENING TIME, URGENT PHONE CALL
Wednesday evening, early summer 1995. The phone rings.
Some calls you never forget. Some calls change your life.
Such was that call.
The Ministry of Social affairs and Social Services asked: “Would you be able to take in 17 kids with developmental disabilities?”
We asked some time to form an answer, to construct a plan, set things up, prepare…
The next day, the phone rings again: “The matter is urgent, we need an answer now.”
We assembled the staff and reached a unanimous decision.
On Sunday we took in 17 kids with light to medium developmental disability, and went on a new path.
Arrival of Beit Gil residents, 1995
THE CIRCUMSTANCES
The 17 kids previously resided in a home established by a parent’s fund, and in the summer of 1995 it was operated by a public fund. A string of circumstances related mainly to the state of the structure where the kids resided led their parents and the company that ran the home to seek a significant change in their setup. The Ministry, deeply obligated to the residents of the programs it supervises and funds, asked to accelerate the process, and once it turned out that the home, which was placed in an industrial area, would be impossible to renovate, they decided to follow emergency procedure and vacate the home immediately.
They called us.
WHY US?
Amit hostel in Ramla, a home for independent adults with light to medium developmental disability, was established in May, 1991, its first residents arriving from more therapeutic environments after a potential has been recognized in them to be incorporated in society. In early summer 1995 ten residents from the hostel went out to live in off-site apartments in a different neighborhood in Ramla, leaving the hostel building with two empty four-bedroom apartments.
The Ministry’s considerations in addressing us of all people are known only to them. It was the two empty apartments and our strong faith in the staff’s capabilities that led us to comply.
Residents entering the hostel, 1996
CLOWNS, JOY AND FRIENDSHIP
ESTABLISHING A HOME OVER ONE WEEKEND
Amit Group Homes’ programs serve as homes for their residents, under the title “a warm, supportive, and promoting home”:
A warm home – a place that is pleasant to live in.
A supportive home – a place that accommodates the resident’s unique needs.
A promoting home – a place that aspires to lead the resident through the path of life.
Summer, 1995. One Wednesday we got asked if we can set ourselves up for 17 young teenagers, and on Thursday we were notified the kids will arrive on Sunday.
How do you build a “warm, supportive and promoting home” in one weekend?
SETTING UP
“Where joy exists, dividers fall.” (Izac Levy)
The short time we had in our procession dictated the manner of setting up and narrowed the task down to two words: joy and friendship. The joy that’s at our roots and friendship because Amit means friend, and this is our way.
Toys in every corner, puppet animals on the new carpets, board games, new photos and lots of colorful decorations appeared; all before the sun has even set on Friday, in the apartments so recently emptied. We looked at the two apartments: the home feels happy, now all that is left is to embrace the new residents with friendship. And to find some beds. We didn’t manage to get 17 of them before the shops closed for the weekends.
Solly Levi, “Amit” founder
HOW TO INVITE RESIDENTS INTO A NEW HOME
The 17 kids didn’t know us.
The staff that knew them did not move with them.
How do we invite them in? how do we convince 17 kids to leave the home they know and arrive in Amit without being given a chance to go through a process of introduction and trust-building?
Again, we leaned on the steady moto: “with joy and friendship.”
On Saturday night we reached the kids’ old home dressed as clowns and equipped with a mobile sound system. We danced together into the night.
With joy we invite, with friendship we lead, with smile and humor we pave the way.
A CLOWN AND A TRUCK ON A SUNDAY
On Sunday morning, while the kids were in school, we loaded their beds and personal equipment onto a truck, and gradually the empty apartments began to feel a bit less empty.
At the end of the school day, we arrived to pick them up, wearing the same clown costume and equipped with the same sound system. Using a cheerful dance of friendship we lead the residents to their new home. Finally, the apartments were as far from empty as possible – they were filled by the laughter of kids.
Raz Levi, “Amit” founder
MESS, TEARS AND A NEW HOME
THE FIRST WEEK
One neighbor complained that his yard was littered with puzzle pieces.
The plumber, arriving for the third time in 24 hours, said he was tired of pulling dice from the drain.
Any puppets who didn’t get fed soup, received an oil color makeover.
Photos we hanged on the wall were repurposed to decorate the floor.
The old residents of the hostel began complaining – the new kids are very cute, but a great disturbance…
In one week, Amit staff received a crash course on the concept “challenging behavior”. We had to ask ourselves where to take it from there. Were we wrong in accepting this task? Will we manage to build a new place of joy and friendship? Are we what’s best for the kids?
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, TEARS
The first week is over.
The kids are in school and the staff meets to summarize the events of the week.
The meeting ends with more questions than answers.
The phone rings, it’s the mother of one of the kids. Her son, she says, is used to come home every weekend, “but now,” tears sounding from her throat, “now he is standing here by the school gate, refusing to move, screaming – ‘Amit Ramla! Amit Ramla!’ what should I do?”
“Send him back, we are here.”
Tears of joy wash away all worry about the questions we did not yet have the answers to.
FROM THE APARTMENTS IN RAMLA TO THE BOARDING HOUSE IN LOD
The fact we managed to arouse a feeling of belonging in the kids within such a short time and with such little preparation, lead us to decide to continue to build a home for them in Amit. On the first few weeks of their stay we recognized that their needs cannot be met in the hostel building in Ramla and that it would be better for them to live in a home with a wide, fenced yard, a home suited for their age and the challenges their behavior presented.
Within two months the kids moved to 7, Isacov st., Lod.
Amit Boarding House, Lod opened on September 1995.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AND WHERE THINGS STAND
AMIT BOARDING HOUSE, LOD – DEVELOPING TO FIT THE RESIDENTS’ NEEDS
The house we opened in 1995 was made to support 20 residents. A while later, once our methods were well implemented there, we received a request from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, to expand the facility and receive 20 more residents with challenging behavior. As more residents came in, we continued to invest in more buildings and yard space, and today we house 60 residents in the boarding house.
15 more residents, who used to live in the boarding house, now live in an extension of it on 10 Halimon st., Lod, where they learn the tools they need in order to move to an open facility.
Our youngest residents in Lod are now 30, and the kids who arrived in 1995 are now in their thirties…
FROM THE BOARDING HOUSE IN LOD BACK TO THE HOSTEL IN RAMLA
The circle is now complete.
The boarding house raised, taught and prepared the residents to pass through the extension on Halimon st. out to the open hostel in Ramla.
In their childhood and youth, they were enchained by a perception, naively instilled in them by their environment, that their challenging behavior will never allow them to interact with the rest of society. Now they live in an open home, where they can be trusted with the freedom to come and go as they please, work in the free market and enjoy such services and pleasures as they weren’t enabled to even dream of before – ones that only come to vital members of society. We enabled them to dream, invested in their dreams, and taught them to invest in themselves, until, inevitably, their dreams came to them.
WHERE THINGS STAND
Things don’t stand around here. They are always in movement.
Kids who arrived with zero preparation in 1995 are now adults living functional adult lives in Amit. Days of uncertainty and dilemma gave birth to an organized and established education method. “Cases” of “professional material” became personal life stories, continuing to be lived today.
Things don’t stand around here because Amit is a home for life.
Life is movement on a spectrum.
A spectrum of experiences.
A movement of expansion.
Amit is ever expanding.