Ilan's social clubs

The young group - This Program provides a meeting place for physically disabled and non disabled youth between the ages 10-21 , interacting as peers in social, cultural and educational activities. The program has been operating with great success since its inception in 1990. Throughout the year, the non-disabled youth act as volunteer counselors and help their disabled friends in various social after-school activities. This provides an opportunity for the ILAN youth to interact socially with non-disabled youth of their age, and to develop relationships based on mutual respect. Apart from the regular weekly activities, lectures and parties are organized, as well as trips and summer camps on holidays. Thus, the program functions like any other regular Youth Social Clubs. It offers the disabled youth a chance to step outside their regular environment, to travel and broaden their horizons. It increases the participants' self confidence and self esteem, thus improving their psychological well being. This program strengthens the disabled persons' self confidence and esteem and promotes positive social interactions. Description of the Adult group program "Different interest": "Different interest" serves as social framework for handicapped adults above age 21, in which they can enlarge their social circle, meet new friends of their age, both disabled and not, and benefit from the social support of an adapted framework. The regular activity takes place once every two weeks. The meetings open with various activities in small groups, and afterwards there is a workshop with a guest artist or lecturer. In addition to the regular encounter, special activities are organized – special programs for special events and Jewish holidays, two long tours during the year and more outdoors activities. Objectives of the encounter "Different interest": The strong demand for the creation of a separate group for the adults derives from the fact that while the disable youngsters leave the school framework, they remain with important unfulfilled emotional needs. They miss the feeling of belonging to a framework mainly because at their age there is only a partial answer to their needs for going out to work, to study, etc. An additional objective of the encounter, beyond the supply of a social circle, is to refer to subjects that bother young adults whether they are disabled or not, on the theoretical level as well as on the practical level. Therefore the guiding line for the subjects to be discussed in the encounters is relative to "life skills" as: finding a job, residence, independence, social communication, relationship with a partner, etc.