Why El HaLev?
Because We Have Years of Experience in This Field
El HaLev has been operating since 2003 to decrease violence against women and girls with our innovative self-defense programs. We teach girls and women to prevent breaches of emotional and physical boundaries, sexual assault, and other types of interpersonal violence. Our workshops have been running with great success for more than a decade in dozens of schools throughout Israel. Our instructors are the best in the country, highly trained and experienced. Almost 30,000 girls have benefited from our programs. Our curricula are based on many years of research and development in the USA and Europe, adapted for an Israeli audience.
Because We Are Culturally Sensitive
The instructor and curriculum are selected according to the character of the group, with sensitivity to culture and tradition. We evaluate the needs and challenges specific to the environment, and plan a strategy for breaking cultural barriers and developing programs that suit the local community profile.
Because Our Staff Is One-of-a-Kind
El HaLev instructors are trained in the fields of education, psychology, gender, and the martial arts. They draw on their personal experiences of being female, and their understanding of the physical and emotional differences between the sexes, when they teach. Our staff is female because girls and women are more likely to feel comfortable talking about sexual and other types of abuse in an all-female environment. The female instructors also serve as role models, motivating the students and contributing to their sense that they can overcome obstacles and succeed.
Because it works
The El HaLev method focuses on empowerment through a group setting. Our hands-on approach to education in violence prevention brings group members together and helps them discover their own inner power. We take a multidimensional approach to violence as a phenomenon. We offer a curriculum of both physical and emotional skills, with the understanding that physical techniques are not the only solution in complex situations of breached boundaries. Our classes are flexible and include training and practice, since studies show that physical training is very empowering and helps students effectively internalize the material.
Because We Are Professional
We are an established organization that ensures the highest level of professionalism among our staff. Our instructors are always up-to-date on the latest data, and receive regular professional guidance and continued training.
Because We Plant the Seeds of Ongoing Change
Our instructors always work in close cooperation with the teens’ therapeutic and educational staff members. The staff’s professional perspectives and deep familiarity with the needs of each girl help our instructors adapt the program to meet those needs as effectively as possible.
When possible, we recommend that the staff participate in a preparatory workshop where they can acquire tools to work more effectively with the girls before, during, and after El HaLev’s program, as well as develop their personal capabilities in violence prevention. We see our work as planting seeds of ongoing change. Therefore, even if the activity with a certain group is limited in time and scope, the preparation and professional guidance we give the staff who works with those girls on a day-to-day basis makes it possible to further internalize, process, and utilize the skills beyond the scope of the activity itself.
