by Merridy Gale Kotler, BFA, Montreal Art Educator Specializing In Workshop Development

This summer I was invited to Eilat /Eilot to teach and facilitate the Cultural Identity Doll project that I created for the children of Youth Futures in Beersheva Bnai Shimon.

What is Youth Futures?

Youth Futures is a program that offers personalized intervention with the aim of helping children successfully complete high school and become confident adults.

Youth Futures also seeks to break the cycle of poverty and despair by giving children between the ages of six and thirteen the necessary support, tools and opportunities to secure a more promising and productive future.

A mentor/trustee is assigned to each child and acts as a role model and coach. The children then become role models for their families and their community. The impact is profound.

The Youth Futures program is instrumental in helping secure a better future for these children.

“Art ties to all cultures and genders, as well as prejudice and privilege. Society uses art as a way to bring people together, tear apart prior beliefs, create thinkers, represent a piece of a heritage or culture, as well as aesthetically challenge our brains.” (Gabrielle) (Noel, Jana “Creating Artwork In Response To Issues Of Social Justice)   

As the facilitator/creator of this workshop it thrilled me to once again see the energy and excitement of children from different ethnic backgrounds cross over to both one another and the volunteers through one common denominator, “art.” The psychological impact of creating a life size doll to take home and hold and talk to when in need is another important aspect of the importance of the workshop for the children.

The children were all asked to bring clothes and articles from home that represented their cultural identity. Given the dolls were being sent home with the children we didn’t have to worry about them using their own clothes etc. that are passed on to their siblings and relatives.

Since, the life size dolls were meant to mirror their image it enabled the children to feel comfortable opening themselves up to their peers, share common elements about themselves and their families and identify with one another in a comfortable safe environment.

Furthermore, the projects success was a “multi-city joint effort” in that it brought together two Canadian Partnerships, Montreal and Toronto and two Israeli communities Beersheva Bnai Shimon and Eilat Eilot.

Together the leaders of both communities participated in a P2P project, working together, sharing ideas and helping each other with one common goal, a successful project for the Youth Futures Children. 

We are proud to announce this year the volunteers were soldiers from the IDF. For two days twenty groups of soldiers were sent for both the morning and the afternoon sessions to help with the children. Each soldier reached out and touched a child’s heart and together they worked to create beautiful life-size dolls.

Having the soldiers in the workshop held a deeper meaning for the children, as seeing the soldiers come out and spend time with them showed the humanistic and sensitive side to their men and woman in arms and a deeper respect and understanding was formed as the children participated happily beside their assigned partner.

A project/workshop doesn’t happen on it’s own. It takes the work of many dedicated people to make it successful.

I would like to thank Erga Uliel the Manager of Youth Futures in Eilat, who through dozens of emails, phone calls and careful planning, with an energy level that never faltered, made sure that when the doors opened to begin the doll project everything was ready for the children. It was a pleasure working with her.

I would also like to thank the Trustees who worked incredibly hard in the setup, during the project itself and in the cleanup, so that their children of Youth Futures would have the best summer experience. You are all truly special individuals!

A big thank-you to Liora Bleiberg, from Beersheva Bnai Shimon, IOS Department, who came to me with the idea and helped to make it a reality.

Many thanks go to Hagit Shilo Director of the Partnership Eilat/Eilot who invited me to do this project and helped in every way possible to make it successful. The Doll Project could not have happened without her.

The children who participated in the project worked extremely hard on their Cultural Identity Projects, and for all of us behind the scenes who made it happen for them, it was all worth it to see their smiling faces holding proudly onto their dolls, excited to take them home and share the experience with their family and friends.”

To conclude, I believe it is important for communities and partnerships to branch out and share with one another and I am very proud of our Montreal Jewish Federation, Israel and Overseas Department, and The Jewish Agency For Israel Beer Sheva Bnai Shimon, for stepping up and crossing over for the enrichment and betterment of the children.

This was a truly rewarding experience for all those involved and I am proud to have led this workshop.

by Merridy Gale Kotler, BFA, Montreal Art Educator Specializing In Workshop Development.

Three years ago, I traveled to Israel to work on a project for an artist book with the proceeds from it earmarked for Youth Futures. Knowing my educational background as an art educator specializing in creative art workshops and cultural identity, I was asked if it was possible to facilitate a workshop for the children of Youth Futures while I was there.

From this suggestion a Youth Futures Summer Workshop was born!
Since 2008, I have worked with the manager, Ruthi Shenfeld, and trustees of Youth Futures Beer-Sheva Bnei Shimon, to create exciting cultural identity workshops, and it has turned into an incredible experience for everyone involved.

Furthermore, the three-day workshops that we initiate each summer have developed into a wonderful people-to-people project and its success is felt on many levels.

A) From an overseas volunteer perspective:
For two years young adult volunteers from Montreal Jewish Federation CJA worked with the children and trustees, and even though only a handful spoke Hebrew they were able to communicate and reach out to the children. The children in turn participated happily alongside their assigned partner strengthening the bonds between them.

B) Young Community Leadership participation:
During the three days there are Israeli teens and young adults from Diller and New Leadership groups, who come out to join us in taking part in the workshop and connecting with the children of the community and the overseas volunteers.

C) Community involvement:
Throughout the three days Montreal and Israel committee members, as well as lay people from the community, contribute their time and energy to the success of the program.

For the summer of 2010, I produced and organized a new project outline that would facilitate the Youth Futures Summer Workshop. We decided to create a short movie based on how Youth Futures inspires the children to reach their potential dreams.
Since I also have a background in film, I felt it was an excellent method to teach the students how to use film as a means of communication, and reuse the knowledge to incorporate it into future educational endeavors.

I was fortunate to have the help and support of Adi Cohen, Youth Futures Trustee workshop coordinator, along with Avishag Azenkot, Trustee, who assisted her. Two volunteer lay people from the community, Liora Bleiberg and Miri Arbiv were also instrumental in the success of the workshop since they went into the classroom prior to my arrival to help organize and implement my instructions to the children and the Trustees.

Following many emails, lesson plans, phone conferences, strategic planning and organization, the outline to the film project was put in place.

Upon my arrival to Israel there were three days of intensive workshops with students, Trustees and volunteers. I was extremely proud to see that the students involved took ownership of the film and worked towards the final production even though the last day they were on summer break they still came to finish. Except for the final editing, the children were involved in all aspects of production of the film.

Each of the twenty students who took part in this workshop chose a different area that they wanted to work on. The groups were broken into actors, videographers, music selection, room set-up arrangement and props. The entire group chose the theme for the film, scripted it and directed it.

Kol Hakavod to the children of Youth Futures and their Trustees for such a wonderful Youth Futures film, "Doors To The Future!"

Many thanks also go to Adi Zvieli, photography volunteer, Ayala Ben Shushan for film production, volunteers Shimon Noam Oren (Beer-Sheva) and Arlazar Eliashiv for translation, as well as Jared Curtis and Harry Kotler who spent many hours helping me with the final editing.
After seeing the results of these programs I felt it necessary to share our experiences with the Youth Futures community.

Thank-you Youth Futures Beer-Sheva, for leading the way in workshop programming, community involvement and people-to-people projects.

To conclude, these workshops are made possible by the assistance and support of Partnership 2000, Montreal Jewish Federation, Israel & Overseas Department and The Jewish Agency For Israel, Beer-Sheva, Bnei Shimon region.

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