{"id":2204,"date":"2019-02-10T14:05:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T12:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2019-02-10T14:01:53","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T12:01:53","slug":"its-not-just-about-the-children-helping-parents-be-better-parents-and-individuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/en\/2019\/02\/10\/its-not-just-about-the-children-helping-parents-be-better-parents-and-individuals\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not Just About the Children: Helping Parents Be Better Parents and Individuals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Conversation with a\nNegba Parent<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advancing the wellbeing of children and youth is Negba\u2019s core mission,\nand parents are integral partners in Negba\u2019s care for their children.  But\nthe parents themselves possess individual needs, and these must not be overlooked.  Michal is one example of how a parent grew\nimmensely- alongside her children- as a result of Negba\u2019s targeted projects for\nparents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI originally approached Negba for help with one of my kids,\u201d said Michal,\na single mother of three daughters.  \u201cOver\nthe years Negba not only helped all of my children by putting them on a path to\nsucceed, but it gave me so much personally, and helped me succeed in being a\nparent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living in an impoverished Beersheva neighborhood, Michal works extremely\nhard to provide for her family. \nUnemployment is anathema to her – though she\u2019s been eligible to file for\nit in the past – feeling it is wrong to live on taxpayers\u2019 expense if one can\nwork.  Whenever she needed to, Michal\npounded the pavement until she found a job. \nShe currently holds two of them; one as a restaurant kitchen worker, and\nanother as a caregiver for seniors.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Michal\u2019s long work hours until midnight which led her to approach\nNegba, seeking an after-school framework to shelter her children from the neighborhood\u2019s\nunpleasant elements.  And since she\ndidn\u2019t have the time or the ability to help her daughters with their homework,\nshe also sought academic assistance for them.  Looking back almost eight years now, Michal\nreflects that it was one of the best decisions she ever made.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first daughter who attended Negba is now 18, working at a bank,\ntaking a course there to advance, and plans to continue there after her army service,\u201d\nsaid Michal.  \u201cShe got so much emotional\nsupport from Negba, and built up her self-confidence, which she had little of\nbefore.  She learned to accept herself as\nshe was, to make mistakes, and to fix them and move forward.  She always tells me that without Negba, she\nhas no idea where she\u2019d be today.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michal\u2019s second daughter, almost 17, also gained much help bolstering her\nself-esteem at Negba, and grew from the academic assistance.  \u201cNegba inspired her to learn, such as in the\nmath program, when she saw that she was succeeding, and even doing better than\nher peers,\u201d recalled Michal.  \u201cIt gave\nher a push that if she didn\u2019t learn, she wouldn\u2019t obtain a meaningful job or advance\nmuch in life.  She realized that if she\nis persistent, she can succeed.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michal\u2019s third and youngest daughter, 11, possesses learning difficulties\nand has been benefitting from Negba\u2019s academic enrichment for Negba for six\nyears now.  \u201cShe is socially adjusted and\nconfident, but she gets lost in class academically,\u201d remarked Michal.  \u201cThe learning assistance at Negba has been\ncritical to her learning and trying to close gaps at school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps one of the greatest benefits of Michal\u2019s involvement with\nNegba has been her own personal growth, both as an individual, and as a parent.  She has participated in a number of facilitated\nNegba workshops on empowerment, communication, coping with challenges, and\nother topics.  Some were joint sessions for\nparents and children, and others for parents only.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe workshops give me skills in areas that are difficult for me, such as\nin interacting with my children.  I\nlearned how to be really present for my children when I am with them without\ndistractions, and we now have better relationships and spend quality time\ntogether.   I\u2019m a mom who gives so much to my children and I needed to learn how to say\n\u2018no\u2019.  It was very hard at first.  But now I can, and my kids learned it is best\nfor them, too.  Thanks to Negba\u2019s workshops,\nI\u2019m a completely different parent, and person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negba Social Worker Albert Cohen, who has been accompanying Michal and\nher daughters throughout, agreed.  \u201cThe\nmost impactful part was the transformation Michal underwent,\u201d he said.  \u201cThe Negba workshops opened her up to other parenting\nmodels.  She learned how to speak to her\nchildren, and to set limits for the benefit of her entire family.  But she<\/em> made the change.  Negba can only show parents the way.  Parents are ultimately responsible for their\nchildren.  Michal took that\nresponsibility and changed her life and the life of her children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Conversation with a Negba Parent Advancing the wellbeing of children and youth is Negba\u2019s core mission, and parents are integral partners in Negba\u2019s care for their children.  But the parents themselves possess individual needs, and these must not be overlooked.  Michal is one example of how a parent grew… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[80,140,170],"class_list":["post-2204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","tag-beer-sheva","tag-children","tag-parents"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_9595.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9TfAG-zy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2218,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions\/2218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negba.org\/negba2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}