Meet me at the Crossroads

So I know I've been posting about all of my fun adventures, and I still have many more on which to report, but I also know a lot of you are wondering what I'm doing for my internship experience here.  Let me premise this with the unfortunate reality that I am not "allowed" to do therapy here because the internship is only four months long (we didn't begin until October 15th.  Most of you know that it is not ideal to start developing a relationship with a client that will inevitably be cut short.  Yes, turnover is huge in the social work field, and there is nothing to do to prevent unexpected terminations.  Short-term therapy is a possibility--this is the work I was doing in my position as a functional family therapist prior to coming to Israel--however long-term therapy seems to be the trend here.  In my case, it would be unethical to begin providing treatment knowing I am leaving.  Therefore I've had to be flexible in finding an appropriate internship with duties that will allow me to utilize my strengths as well as help me gain experience in the social work field.  


My internship coordinator, Yonit, set me up with a place called Crossroads www.crossroadsjerusalem.org which works with English-speaking at-risk youth.  The agency has a drop in center where kids can hang out, watch tv, get help with finding a job, receive therapy and/or case management, participate in cooking, art, movie night, and more.  Right now I've been working on helping the center look nicer and making some posters and such.  Here is a picture of the Pinat Chashiva (Thinking Corner) that I put up a few weeks ago.  

Thinking Corner

The blank shapes are meant for the kids to write their thoughts and feelings about loss.  Unfortunately the kids have experienced various losses in their lives, more specifically, there have been kids who were somewhat associated with the center who died of drug overdoses in the recent months.  I'm still working on getting the kids to write things on the board...

My main role at Crossroads is to help put on a Talent Show of sorts.  We're calling it Crossroads Cafe and it's going to be a coffeehouse atmosphere for the kids, community, and supporters.  Many of the kids are really talented and we hope to get enough of them who are willing to share their talent with an audience.  It's been kinda slow though thus far because our vision is still a little unclear and a lot of worries and concerns have been brought up about the reality of something like this actually happening (i.e. getting community sponsors for food, having the kids commit to participating and actually show up, etc.).

In the meantime, I've been trying to get to know some of the kids just by hanging out with them during their afternoons at the center.  This is the time I really enjoy (besides having to deal with cigarette smoke as the kids are allowed to smoke in the center).  One of my first days there a girl began talking to me about alcohol consumption (she was concerned about her habits) and I directed her to appropriate resources that she might find helpful.  Just this week I heard from a kid who was into heroin but realized if he doesn't stop soon he won't have a long future ahead of him.  

Lastly, I am supposed to help out with street outreach at some point, hopefully soon.  On Thursdays and Saturdays the social workers and volunteers go out to the streets of the center city area of Jerusalem (near Ben Yehuda Street) to provide crisis intervention to the kids who hang out in Crack Square (named Crack Square because kids are "cracked out, cracked up" not necessarily on crack).  There is a huge community of English-speaking teens who get caught up in this scene of drinking, drugs, and violence.  Crossroads social workers make themselves visible while getting to know the kids on the streets in hopes that they will eventually make their way to the center to take part in all that Crossroads has to offer.  

I'll keep you all updated on my experience at Crossroads.