A letter from the Family Club Guide regarding the programme evaluation
Throughout Israel there are 460 Family Clubs, 70 of which are located in the South, and 8 of these Family Clubs are situated in Ashkelon.
The Family Club acts as an independent living unit, a workshop for structured free activities, which provides the child with an opportunity to show personal initiatives.
Essentially, this is a Dropout Prevention Programme, which is geared to assist the children before they fall too far behind in their school work.
The climate of the Family Club is based on a warm, supportive and approving atmosphere, resembling that of home, an intimate setting, which bestows the feeling of security and tranquility.
The Family Clubs are run within the community, ensuring that the children are not detached from their families and natural environment.
15 children go to the Family Clubs, five days a week, six hours a day, eleven months a year, from September until, and including, July. During July the Family Clubs run fun, rich, and relaxing summer activity programmes.
The Family Club staff includes a Coordinator, with an academic education, who works full time (mandatory), a house mother and a soldier who undergoes special training through the framework of the Regular Visitations Department. In the mornings she gives the children private lessons at school and in the afternoons she acts as a third staff member in the Family Club.
The objective of the Family Clubs is to provide the children with behavioural norms, pedagogic and social skills, national, cultural values and general human values.
All of the Family Clubs are attended by a professional supervisor, from the Ministry of Education. The supervisor is responsible for all professional, educational, and therapeutic activities in the Family Club, from A to Z.
The supervisor is an Educational Consultant, who holds a Master's Degree, and has extensive experience working with children. The Family Clubs are also attended by a social worker.
In Ashkelon, Keren Ashkelon runs the Family Clubs and helps with the enrichment of these children. The Ministry of Education's supervisor works closely and intensively with Keren Ashkelon's CEO and team, in order to fulfill the basic needs of the Family Clubs, and much more than that.
The success of the Family Club is measured by the low percentage of drop outs amongst the children who have been absorbed into the Family Clubs (most of the children who are absorbed into the Family Clubs continue until they finish the 6th grade), also by their advancements in their studies, social skills and behaviour, as seen in the Family Clubs, at school and at home.
The children are closely supervised by the Family Clubs, by means of two pedagogic councils during the year, in the presence of the parents, the educators, the school, the truant officer, the social worker and other people who are associated with the children.
The councils are arranged according to the supervisor's instructions, and are managed by the Family Club Guides. In addition, national surveillance is conducted by the Eshed Institute.
