 Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include the HOD of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Roosevelt Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx, Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Hello. Hello, and welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently-abled. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. And on this edition, before we get to our guest, David Wecker, to Dave, all the way from Israel, talking about social work and people with special needs, we would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many others, including the partnership of the Association for the Blind in Vermont, the Division for the Blind in Vermont, and Einstein Hospital, and Montpelier Medical Center of the Bronx, and many other partners and sponsors for Ableton on Air, including Green Mountain Support Services and Washington County Mental Health. We would like to welcome David Wecker, of the Shahar Agency, all the way from Israel, talking about social work and people with special needs. Welcome, David, to Ableton on Air. I'm really proud to be here. Okay. David, why don't you get started? And what's the reason or what is the main mission of your agency? And let's talk about foster care and people with special needs. Yeah, the main mission of my company, we try to help kids when they help kids in foster family and help them to find and get the best from their foster system and to help them to get a new life in a new home. And this is what we're trying to do. Okay, so what is the pros and cons of... Now, obviously different nations have different rules like the United States has different rules and Israel has different rules. What are the pros and cons within foster care and the way things are run in Israel? Like what makes things better in Israel versus the United States? Yeah, then for what I know about the care system in the United States, they pay between $450 to $700 per month depending on the age of the child plus annual clothing of between $300 to $500. In Israel, system pay between $600 to $1,100 per month in both... To the parents for the child? Yeah, just to the parents, yeah. Okay. Of the child, of the kids get... In both of them, the child get the health insurance for free but I think in Israel there are more things that include in it. But the most important factor is that in Israel, because Israel is a welfare society, we don't just give the family money, we support them with a social worker that guide the family how to treat the kids for their development and how to balance between the kids' needs and the family needs, the requirement. We give each kid and his family a full therapy program that's suitable for him, helping to overcome his health tasks and helping to get tools that will help him to grow and become better. We give the kids, for example, an emotional professional therapist tutor that will help him with his homework and be like a big brother for him, parental guidance, therapy, horse riding and more. This way we see that the kids get the best I hope I... What is a welfare society? Can you explain that? Then actually in Israel, when you are in Israel, you get more service by the government but the government gives you more service and you're more protected. When you fall down, you're more protected. Then this is a welfare society. You're more protected when you fall down. So what are you saying that in America they don't protect the kids as much as they do in Israel? Yeah, I think every society making their choice about what's going on. In Israel, they like more focus on things that will give more protection to people. Arlene, go ahead. Did you want to start asking questions? Yes. Do the foster kids get used to the foster parents? What? If they get used to the foster parents? Like what if a child... They adjust to the new parents. Yeah, it's a really good question because some of them really adjust to the new family but some of them not. It's really hard to find the right family for the kid and it's really hard for the family sometimes that you're really excited to get a new kid to their home but sometimes in the reality the kids have a very hard past and it's not so simple for them to be in a new house and then it starts to make things that make the family to feel uncomfortable and then because it's a foster, it's not about they try to... They don't take him forever. Just for one, two years and then sometimes all the family or the kids say that they don't want to continue anymore but most of the time it's work well and the kids get more from it and they feel that they start a new life and we try to help them with that. Now, what services does your agency provide kids with mental health? Mental health conditions? Yeah. Take your time. Yeah, absolutely. Israel has a wide addressing to the problem that people in special needs mentally and physically. We give foster parents who especially need more money and we give them a lot of help with professionals that help them to take out their ability out and give them tools that will help them to be important part of the society. Lawrence, I just talked with you about the first thing. He really helped. So yeah, explain about certain people but yeah, first thing is not here anymore and also they're talking about psychology and psychosocial with Peer J. The difference between the two people and also possibly Freud, not so much Freud but how are those people with the exams that you have to give or help people to get to make sure that the children or the kids are mentally fit to go into a foster family? Can you explain Freud's dean and the other guy? Go ahead. Yeah, then first things believe that, you know... Take your time. Yeah, yeah. Then first things say that there is every kid, even people with special needs, we a lot of time blame the people with special needs about their problems and all these things and we are the society. And what first things say that it's sometimes the society can help, you know, can make a change for people with special needs and he showed in his research and in a lot of... And you mentioned Piaget before, he actually learned from him and he told him you don't write. You think that it's everything about that but people, they are not machine. They are, they can develop, they can develop in a different way and he even have a radical belief that today people start to see it even in research that people can get even more, get over their biologic, how they create. He showed that in a research and he believed that if you will teach people with special needs, sometimes they can get, you know, they can get to things that nobody believes. Why do you think... I'm sorry. Yeah. But why do you think America or other countries blame... You know, because, you know, the reason why the foster care system exists is because some people, you know, when parents, you know, have their children, you know, they might not have the means to take care of the child so that's why the foster situation exists. I mean, why are... Why don't parents, in your opinion, why don't some natural parents want their child and then go ahead? Yeah, then actually it's a really good question. I think most of them really want the child but the obstacle and challenges in life didn't let them to get a child. Some of them have a very bad condition. Some of them have a very, you know, sometimes a mental problem that didn't allow them to take care of the kids and some of them, we see that they didn't give the kids the minimum that, you know, that is like it can help him to be an adult and then we have to act. And I think we try to give this kid and I will go back to your question before. Then we do a... Because of that, what we understand is a lot of kids get a very challenging time in their, you know, in their biological families and what we do, we do a full screening of the whole family before the foster family because we don't want them to go again to families that will not protect them or don't give them what they need or don't give them emotional or what they need. And we check if they have a health problem that can obtain them from taking care on a foster kid. So they get, depending on the age, they get doctors and they get help and all that other stuff. Yeah, sure, sure. But I talk about the foster family before we approve them that they can be a foster family. We do all the screening. We do a long interview with them to see that they understand what they're digging and see if they have the... if they have the strength to take this mission. We do... We go to the home, see that house is approached for the kids needs and we talk with the kids of the foster family to see how they are with the mission and just when we send a report to the inspector that allowed or didn't allow the kids to get into the foster family. This is a whole process that we do. Okay, then why... So in terms of the inspector, he goes into the house and makes sure the house is... is habitable to live in to make sure... Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not just addable for living. It's appropriate for the kids. We want the kids to have a private place for him. You know, we don't like giving him the minimum that's necessary. We try to give him more. Like if you... Like if you are... You know, we try to find a family that can give a kid a better chance. You know, not like the minimal chance. This is part of the thing. Do you want to take a logistical test? Do you guys... Yeah, who tests the kid to see if they're appropriate for the family? The state of Israel? The country of Israel? Yeah, this is the warfare, the social workers that work in every city. They meet with a child. They told us about him. They sent us a report about him and then we need to decide if we as a foster care program we need to decide if the kids and the family can go along together. Okay. So what if the child is not appropriate for the family? What happens then? If it's not free to the family, then most of the time we try to give... If the family is already there, we try to find a way to help the family and the kids to find a way to succeed together and to build a relationship that will help the kid. But some of the time we try to... If we see that it didn't work in any way, some of the time we talk with a kid or we try to find another solution. But this is a really rare situation. Most of the time we succeed with the kids and we talk for both of them. They don't end up in an orphanage. Aviva, I didn't hear you good. They don't end up in an orphanage. Do you make sure that they don't end up in an orphanage or like an institution? Can you say it again? Do you make sure... They don't end up in an orphanage. Do you help make sure that the kids don't end up in an institution? How often do I make sure that the kids get the right treatment? Yeah. They don't end up in an orphanage. Do you know what an orphanage is, David? No, what do you mean by that? Okay, in America... I'm going to try to explain it. In America, there's a place called an orphanage. An orphanage is like an institution. Like, do you people in Israel make sure that kids don't end up in an institution? That they end up with families? No, we kids, in Israel, kids never find themselves in what you mean like... Institution. Yeah. So some of the time, if kids have a very, very... I hope I understand about what place you talk, but if some kid have a very... Like, he needs a really special treatment and he needs a lot of, you know, psychologic and psychiatric and all that kind of professional to be around him, then maybe a foster family is not the right place for him. We see that this is the situation. We're trying to find him a better place to be that will help them to grow to... But yeah, yeah, you know, it happens sometimes. We don't like it, you know, but some kids really need a special, you know, a very something that really fits for them and we try to help them with that. How young is the children you deal with? It can start from even half a year to 21 or sometimes even more. Wow. So you help the kids like after high school? Yeah, yeah, sometimes. Especially kids with special needs, but not just, you know. Some of the time we can take care on kids that they are 19 and we want to help them to get ready to the military or to walk or to find themselves in the... College. Yeah, to find them in the college. Yeah, sometimes we help them. So what are the misconceptions around working in the foster care system? Like the... Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, a lot of people, you know, people think that most foster kids grow by a stranger, but the data show that most of them grow by relatives. It's a lot of time, it's not somebody that is really, you know, don't know them, it's a family, it's a aunt, it's an uncle, it's a grandpa, grandma, you know, and a lot of people think it's just a totally stranger, but most of our families is something that family like that, that something happened, God forbid, and then, you know, we take care and help the family to take care of them. Is... Once you place the kid, are they more scared when they first go into a situation? Yeah, sure, sure, you know, I think, like, you know, it's a really, really scary scenario when kids get to a new house, sometimes you didn't know the new parents, but sometimes, you know, there can be hope there too, you know, for a new life, for a new opportunity, for a normal life for the kids, but yeah, yeah, kids a lot of time are really scared from all this situation and we get to support them, you know, because of that we go with them, we see that everything go well. They get used to it, they get used to the new surroundings. Is there anything, Arlene, is there anything, before we end, is there anything you wanted to add or any more questions, go ahead. I want to know that, does the kid get used to the place or do these kids have problems or can the parents handle their problems? Yeah, what happens if a parent absolutely cannot handle a kid you place? And this is really rare, but we all the time, this is something we need to know and if I think that it's a really good correction, because in Israel, we all every month coming to the kid asking what's going on with him, we as a social worker see what's going on with him, see if he gets some treatment that's helping to grow and if we see that he didn't get this treatment and we see that the family didn't do a good job, sometimes we can decide that the family is not fit to be a foster family and then we will move in for a better family and we all the time check to see there if there is, we know that most of our family will never do something like that, but we can take a chance and we take, we do test for, we check with the kids if somebody abused them or something like that to see that their kid is fully protected from these things. Okay, well, I would like to thank you for joining us on this edition of Ableton On Air. For more information on what you've seen today on Ableton On Air, you can go to www.OrcaMedia.net www.OrcaMedia.net We would like to thank David Wecker, social worker all the way from Israel and from the Shoahar Agency. We would like to thank him for joining us on this edition of Ableton On Air. Again, thank you to our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services and many others including the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired and many others including Einstein Hospital of the Bronx, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx and the Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York and also Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity. Again, thank you, David Wecker. Thank you very much for inviting me and for your wonderful program. Okay. And we hope to have many more people and many more professional people from Israel explaining how in the future explaining how things work there. Again, thank you for joining us on this edition of Ableton On Air. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Arlene Seiler. See you next time. Major sponsors for Ableton On Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community. Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton On Air include Yechad of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Center Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx, Ableton On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton On Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists.