The East Jerusalem YMCA Rehabilitation Program was initiated in the year 1989 to extend quality rehabilitative services to the youth who were injured as well as those who have become disabled and traumatized as a result of political violence during the First Palestinian Intifada.
Since its establishment, the Program has been working in the area of mental health and rehabilitation. It has served and is still serving persons with physical disability and traumatized survivors of the conflict such as tortured, displaced and ex-detainees children and youth, their families and communities as well as local and international organizations. Over more than 23 years of extensive experience and development, the Program has gained credibility as being one of the most reliable non-governmental organizations in the sphere of mental health and rehabilitation. It is as well represented in numerous national structures and networks and plays a significant role in relevant national planning, developing strategies and in advocacy.
The beneficiaries which the Program serves diversify and encompass persons with physical disability and traumatized survivors of the conflict such as tortured, displaced, and ex-detainees who are affected by political violence and with whom our intervention has always left a very significant impact in terms of leading them again through a path that eventually leads to living a better future and a more decent life.
The Program's services are provided either by the field workers, who cover the whole areas of West Bank, at the surroundings of the beneficiaries, or at the Program's Referral Center in Beit-Sahour where the beneficiaries are referred to receive the service of vocational assessment.
The holistic approach in rehabilitation provides the beneficiaries with the rehabilitative services needed to help them reach the maximum degree of independence, to accept their disability and become active members in their communities. This includes psychosocial counseling, vocational assessment, training, job placement, self-employment opportunities and adaptations of houses, schools and public facilities.
The Program also works with the families of the traumatized and disabled beneficiaries as well as with the local community to ensure the maximum possible support for these affected people. Furthermore, the Program advocates the rights and cause of people with disability as well as issues related to human rights.
Additionally, through the Training Unit, the Program meets the needs of local governmental and non-governmental organizations to strengthen the social services delivery system for the disadvantaged in Palestine.
Within its endeavor to advocate for the rights of persons with disability, the Program works on reducing poverty and social exclusion of young persons with physical disability within the Palestinian society through enabling young persons with disability, their family members, representatives from CSOs and government service providers to tackle stigma and discrimination and address disability rights of young persons with disability in the West Bank. The Program engages with a wide range of stakeholders towards tackling disability issues at multiple levels across society, and places young people with disability at the forefront of the advocacy campaign.
Furthermore, the Program responds to the arising psychosocial needs of children during and after the second Intifada. In fact, it coordinates the response of psychosocial support across the West Bank and East Jerusalem through 11 psychosocial support teams covering 11 districts of the West Bank.
The Program also helps ex-detainees children and youth who have gone through the process of arrest and imprisonment to overcome the psychosocial impact of this harsh experience as well as to reintegrate into their societies. Through a holistic approach of intervention with these children and youth, they not only receive individual and group counseling sessions, but also they obtain vocational and academic guiding sessions and are engaged in structured ventilation activities through which they are given the opportunity to interact with each other and release some of the stress and anxiety caused by their detention experience in a stimulating and safe environment.
In its endeavor to empower the community, the YMCA - based on its national and social vision- finds itself obliged to perceive people's concerns and needs and thus, to work seriously and responsibly alongside all social sectors, focusing particularly on the marginalized and youth
Main projects:
1. Post-trauma Rehabilitation of the Palestinian Ex-detainee Children in the West Bank Project.
2.Psychosocial Support Teams in West Bank Project.
3.Empowering Disabled Young People to Access their Rights in the West Bank project.
4.Social and Economic Inclusion of Persons with Disability in the Middle East project.
