As a designated National Crisis Response Center, Shalva has opened the doors of our campus to hundreds of evacuees from Israel’s border communities.
We have welcomed evacuees from the south and north, including a group of over 100 at risk young women and staff evacuees from the town of Carmia, by the Gaza border. Their facility was destroyed, and they continue to reside at Shalva.
Shalva continues to respond the needs of the disability community as we run our Open Doors, Open Hearts program for evacuated youth with disabilities which is providing a framework for their rehabilitative needs while they are far from home. We have also welcomed families who have been evacuated to Jerusalem area hotels to special recreational and support days, giving them the opportunity to get out of their tight hotel rooms and spend quality time as a family, enjoying all our National Center has to offer, and we continue to assess the evolving needs of evacuees and how to best respond.
We recently said goodbye to evacuees from the Naveh community who returned to their homes after spending two months operating their girls’ school in our building and using our spaces for crucial support sessions.
In addition to the tremendous efforts made to provide safety, stability and structure to evacuees, Shalva continues to operate our programs at full capacity, ensuring that over 1,000 daily program participants across all ages continue to receive the highest level of care and maintain a sense of routine.
