Tutorial Center at Yiftach
In a magical location along the north shore of the Dead Sea silhouetted by desert mountains lies a safe harbor, the Yiftach Residential Center. With the help of a unique, innovative and supportive framework, the Center has changed, from one extreme to the other, the lives of hundreds of teenage youth. Here, in the Judean desert, they undergo an intense process of self-discovery filling their hearts with renewed hope.
Yiftach is home to 45 teenage boys, grades 10-12 from religious homes, whose existing places of learning in the religious sector (high schools, yeshiva high schools) did not suit them for various reasons. In the absence of a supportive framework, the youngsters felt frustrated and lacked a sense of belonging. And as a consequence of extended periods outside the school framework, more than once, some of these boys found themselves exposed to vagrancy and grave risks.
Yiftach’s main objective is to enable teenage youth at risk to realize their latent potential for successful integration into various life structures. With a personal response suited to the needs of each individual, teenagers develop a strong desire and sense of self-competence to integrate into the army or preparatory school, attend college, become part of the work force and lead a fulfilling family life.
The Tutorial Center at Yiftach provides private and group lessons in language, citizenship, mathematics and English for students in grades 10-12. The Center helps the boys close their learning gaps, owed to school-time missed, learning disorders, and other scholastic and emotional impairments.
The Tutorial Center has a staff of 7 teachers and operates from Sunday till Thursday from 9:00-12:30 and 14:00-18:00; on Thursdays till 16:00.
Yiftach provides a real home for these boys at risk helping them cope with a variety of personal and social issues on the road back to society. Through schooling aimed at achieving matriculation, the boys who come to Yiftach obtain new channels of self-expression. Then they are able to rejoin their communities and lead productive well-balanced lives.