Anat Horowitz, Valley Communities Outreach and Support Project Coordinator, Haifa Rape Crisis Center
Dear SNEC Partners,
I would like to share with you details of my recent meeting with Jewish Family Service professionals from the SNEC communities and social workers from Afula's and Gilboa's social services departments. The meeting took place in June at the SNEC supported Women to Women Center in Afula as part of the P2K P2G Social Workers Professional Exchange Program. The goal of the meeting was to present and discuss prevention, awareness raising and innovative services that the Haifa Rape Crisis Center offers in the Valley communities.
The meeting began with an acquaintance making activity, in order to provide a comfortable platform for dialogue on the "loaded" subject of child sex abuse. We watched together a short film which brought up the relevant issues of the sexual abuse of children, including professional dilemmas and myths about what is sexual abuse and what are its repercussions.
The discussion that involved was emotional and fascinating and strengthened my feeling about the importance of such meetings, the importance of multi-cultural discussions and the sharing of information that has formed in the different professional communities.
The group feeling was one of safety and confidence that allowed various participants to openly discuss specific cases from their professional experience in a working atmosphere of advice and consultation. I felt that all the participants left the meeting with a feeling of learning and interest and perhaps with the thought that this is just the beginning.
I enjoyed the meeting very much and left with a feeling of deep professional and personal satisfaction. It was an honor to participate in such a meeting and I want to thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity.
I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, a year of continued partnership and meaningful activity.
Sincerely, Anat Horowitz
Rosh Hashana Message from Dr. Shira Sanders, resource coordinator, Haifa Rape Crisis Center 16.10.2011
Dear SNEC friends,
Shalom. I am writing this letter to you after having returned from my trip to the SNEC communities. My trip was sponsored by the Jewish Federations of Central Massachusetts (Worcester, MA), Greater New Bedford (MA), Eastern Fairfield County (Bridgeport, CT.) and Western Massachusetts (Springfield, MA) I would like to sincerely thank the sponsoring federations for their financial support, and each of the federations for making time to meet with me. In addition I would like to thank Howard Borer, the executive director of the Jewish Federations of Central Massachusetts for initiating, organizing and. making all the arrangements for my visit. I was very excited about meeting with as many SNEC members as possible and my only regret is that I was not able to visit every SNEC community because of limited time.
The past few years have been financially difficult for the Haifa Rape Crisis Center (HRCC), but through it all, due to your loyal on-going support, the SNEC funded "Valley Communities Outreach and Support Project" continues to grow each year. The project's goal is to support survivors of sexual violence, prevent sexual violence and train professionals on the subject of sexual violence in the SNEC/Jewish Agency Partnership 2000 2Gether Valley area. Between January and July 2011, the HRCC volunteers received 60 "first-time" and 164 "repeat calls" to our 24 hour a day hotline from the Valley communities. We met with 14 survivors in one-on-one support meetings, and accompanied three survivors to criminal justice process meetings (hospital, police, DA's office or courts). We facilitated 197 workshops with 1050 youth and youth at risk participants. In addition, we trained 139 professional in 32 workshops.
The SNEC funded support group for Valley survivors of sexual violence finished meeting in March and in the coming weeks we will be opening a new area support group in the SNEC supported Women to Women Center in Afula. It is important to note that in the last year the only support groups the HRCC was able to open were in the Valley area, because they were the only support groups for which we received full funding. (All support groups are offered free of charge to group participants).
Our success is your success. The project continues to grow and reach as many survivors and others as possible because of your partnership. We could not do it without you. Thank you.
On behalf of the HRCC volunteers, staff and board of directors, I would like to wish all of our SNEC partners a happy and healthy New Year - one of equality and mutual respect. I hope in two days Gilad Shalit will come home to his family and it will be the end of his nightmare and the return to a life full of health, happiness and safety.
Best Wishes, Shira Sanders (hrccfund@netvision.net.il)