Krembo Wings Youth Movement – paving the way for well-being and inclusive socio-educational opportunities for all

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Description

Intro

Krembo Wings is a unique socio-educational youth movement founded in 2002 aimed at creating social change with its participants – youth with and without disabilities, who lead together. Krembo Wings has developed a replicable and successful branch model, implemented across Israel, and even globally. Today it numbers 6,000 members in 66 branches --- a colorful mosaic of youth hailing from every corner of Israeli society; kids with/without disabilities, religious and secular, Arab, Bedouin, Druze, Christian and Jewish, kids from the periphery and kids from urban centers socializing, learning, creating community with a meaningful place for everyone among otherwise unlikely partners.

Objective of the practice

In the spirit of the transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set forth by the UN, Krembo Wings has embarked on creating a scalable infrastructure in Israel for concrete inclusion and integration. These concepts have various applications with regards to people with disabilities. One of these is the right to belong. Krembo Wings employs this concept in all its spheres of activity – starting with our articulation of a multifaceted ideology of integration, the definition of practices to adapt the environment, educational methodology, conduct, guidance and support structure typical to a youth movement in a manner which can meet the special needs of the individual, and enable the member to be an active and significant partner in the integration process. 
Krembo Wings provides weekly social activities for young people with all types of mental/physical disabilities (ranging from mild to severe) together with their able-bodied peers. Krembo Wings welcomes young people with and without disabilities aged 7 to 22 from all cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. 
Our main purpose is to enable every child living with any type of motor, cognitive or sensory disability to fulfil their right to belong, by taking part in enjoyable social and value-driven interactions with diverse peers. Doing so promotes their well-being and extends inclusive learning opportunities to all in Israeli society. 
At Krembo Wings, we stand behind our conviction that all children, regardless of their background or abilities, deserve a social life, enriching activities to develop their social skills, and the opportunity to learn and make friends. Our activities advance the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in community life and break down the systemic barriers which sustain the social isolation of such individuals. We enable our members with/without disabilities, to embrace and experience inclusion as a right for all, equipping them with tools to advance this right within the broader society. 
Our program also develops the leadership skills of youth without disabilities, who volunteer as youth counselors, while promoting social responsibility, equality, and diversity. Krembo Wings teaches our youth counselors the skills necessary to provide enriching and empowering activities for children with disabilities while shaping them into young people who value acceptance and inclusion, and who live and love to help others. 
We have needed to overcome financial and operational constraints, as well as scaling at a pace that allows for growth while nurturing the budding chapters. Skilled team leaders, generous governmental and private donors and mostly dedicated counselors, members and their supportive families are the reason Krembo Wings has succeeded and continues to grow. 
Goals: 
1. Provide an accepting environment for children and youth with disabilities which develops their social skills and physical abilities, fosters social interaction and affords socio-educational development. 
2. Develop the leadership skills of able-bodied youth counselors while promoting the values of social action, diversity and inclusion 
3. Contribute towards a more tolerant and inclusive society in Israel through community campaigns and outreach

Partners

Approximately 190,000 children and youth with disabilities in Israel. Partners include: local municipalities, Ministries of Welfare and Education, National Insurance Institute. At least half our budget comes from private donations and charitable foundations – from Israel and abroad.
“At Krembo Wings I can really be myself. I feel that everyone sees me without my wheelchair, without my disability, without the label "disabilities". Over the past three years, my life has changed completely. From a very lonely child who was ashamed of being different to someone with many friends who isn’t ashamed of being different.”

Implementation of the Project/Activity

We have incorporated inclusion into every facet of our activities; from our uniforms designed for children with motoric challenges, to our “activity explanation minutes” when each counselor explains the activity at the cognitive level of his/her partner, to the educational concept that guides our counselor training. We are putting the child, as an autonomous and able human being, first. Each member with disabilities is paired with two counselors for the duration of the activity year. Our counselors participate in a comprehensive training program which provides them with the skills necessary to work with their special member in a way which empowers and enables their full participation in activities. Our training program also provides the opportunity for our counselors to gain leadership skills, group management skills, and tools to handle crises and challenging situations.

The weekly activity sessions last for three hours after school, open to any child with any disability, and are designed to give participants a chance to have fun, make friends, and grow in confidence. Weekly branch activities include group games, arts/crafts, music, and much more. Krembo Wings sessions allow members to expand their social skills and develop self-confidence. Activities are varied and adapted to appropriate age-ranges and abilities, and importance is placed on allowing members to make their own decisions during group games, which affords them some autonomy and independence, something they rarely experience and that most people take for granted. We provide specially-adapted transportation to and from branch activities for each member with disabilities, so that no child is denied the chance to take part simply because he/she cannot reach the activities. A professional caregiver is also present to perform hygienic tasks as needed (assist with washroom visits etc.). Our participants also have the opportunity to attend our annual inclusive family summer camp each year in August. During the three-day camp our members and counselors participate in special activities, day trips, and outings, and parents and siblings have the opportunity to attend events designed specifically for them. It is often the only chance these children and their families have to go on vacation, and often the only opportunity that family members can meet and bond with other families in a position similar to their own. Krembo Wings also serve the able-bodied youth of the community. Many of our youth counselors accompanying the youth with special needs each week come from disadvantaged homes and are classified as youth at risk. They find a refuge and a sense of purpose at Krembo Wings. Our branches create a community hub, and provide them with a loving and inclusive environment and a group of peers that accept them with open arms. Throughout the course of their counselor training and hands-on experiences in our branches, these youth gain confidence and leadership skills, improve their performance in school, improve their relationships with their families, find ambition to go on to do national voluntary service or army training, and gain a post-secondary education.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

The children with disabilities that are Krembo Wings members finally find a loving and accepting community. Everyone awaits the weekly meetings with great anticipation. There is no better indication that these children are partaking socio-educational activities that are greatly improving their overall well being.Questionnaires completed by our youth counselors in 2015 showed that through our activities they feel that they are better citizens who are contributing to their community: 89% said that being active in Krembo Wings developed their will to go on to take on meaningful positions in the army; 70% said that their involvement in Krembo Wings inspired them to volunteer in other programs in the community; 82% said that being active in Krembo Wings made them better and more loving and sensitive individuals to their family and friends; and 90% said that as a result of being active in Krembo Wings, they were stronger emotionally and more confident individuals. The families of and professionals working with our counselors all attest that the youth who volunteer as Krembo Wings counselors display qualities of confidence, maturity, and responsibility – qualities which they developed since they started volunteering at Krembo Wings and which were not present before. Their behavior with their siblings and parents is transformed and we have also been informed by teachers of our youth counselors that their grades and high-school attendance has improved since they started volunteering at Krembo Wings. A recent study commissioned by Krembo Wings and conducted by the ERI Institute evaluated the impact of the movement’s educational model among a representative sample of counselors and their parents. In addition, it also distributed a questionnaire for parents of members with disabilities. Our measurable outcomes include participation in weekly social activities developing members’ social skills, physical abilities, and self-esteem. Caregivers of our members with disabilities enjoy much-needed respite and gain valuable time to spend on themselves and on other members of their families, while knowing that their children with disabilities are well cared-for. Youth counselors develop leadership skills while gaining the values of social awareness, voluntarism, and diversity. Counselors also take part in Krembo Wings’ comprehensive training program throughout the year which educates them on working with individuals with disabilities and gaining leadership skills. Each branch participates in community events throughout the year, creating familiarity within the community with our special youth movement and its special participants, reducing stigmas associated with children with disabilities and promoting their participation in community life. The broader community benefits by having its teenaged able-bodied youth taking part in enriching and educational extracurricular activities that strengthened their sense of self-worth and ambition for their future.

Enabling factors and constraints

Krembo Wings was started with the generous help of a local municipality, and that has been the model of the other branches as well. Without the local municipalities who assist in recruitment, staff, offering venues for branch activities and subsidizing the specialized transportation of each member to and from their homes, Krembo Wings would not have been able to expand. Public support has also been a huge factor in the success of this special youth movement. Due to the public recognition of the enormous unmet need to extend equal opportunities to children with and without disabilities, the government of Israel has also been extremely helpful in supporting our cause and paving the road to growth. A belief in our children and their capabilities has also been a reason for success. The innovative thinking that children are capable of including and accepting those whom are different than themselves, and empowering them to lead this unique mentoring model has been a breakthrough.

Sustainability and replicability

Since our first branch’s establishment in 2002, we have grown exponentially, having tripled in size in only six years from 23 branches in the beginning of 2013 to 66 branches today, with 5 new branches scheduled to open in 2019. Our branches operate all across Israel and provide services to over 6,000 children and youth with and without disabilities from all cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. Our vision is to open a branch in every community across Israel and make our life-changing socio-educational activities accessible for every child with and without disabilities. We also envision opening branches abroad and expanding to other nations. To that extent, we are honoured to have been awarded consultative status with ECOSOC for inclusion and hope to share our know-how with other organizations, also by presenting at international conferences on inclusion and diversity.
The Israeli public continues to be fervent supporters of Krembo Wings, which helps to cement the continued support from government bodies. Our funding sources are highly diverse and will continue to be so. Our activities are funded by: a) an annual participation fee from our participants; b) the local authorities where each branch operates (in many, but not all locations); c) Jewish federations ,private foundations and donors; d) businesses; and e) government sources.

Once a branch has been established in a community, it becomes an integral part of the fabric of that community. Parents, educators, and municipalities see the positive effect that Krembo Wings has on both the youth who participate and the greater community, and applaud us for our contribution and rally around us in fundraising campaigns. We organize fundraisers each year with artists contributing their performances, raise funds online, and run community fundraising campaigns. We will continue to actively fundraise to the above-mentioned sources in order to ensure that our life-changing activities reach more and more children with disabilities and their able-bodied peers across Israel, as well as ensure the sustainability of our youth movement.
In addition, we are working to secure permanent government support for our youth movement. We have submitted an application to the Ministry of Education to identify our youth movement as a “special youth movement” which requires more support than other youth movements – and which receives government funding annually. There are a number of non-profit organizations in Israel which serve individuals with disabilities who receive annual support from the government, and we are confident that we will be able to negotiate this for Krembo Wings as well.

Conclusions

Krembo Wings is an innovative movement making a breakthrough -- unifying children from all strata of our society into a single all-inclusive community based on tolerance, pluralism and equality for all. Our members are children with all abilities, ranging from simple to complex physical and cognitive/communicative difficulties, aged 7 – 22, while their counselors, aged 12 – 18, include youth with and without special needs capable of carrying out the mentoring duties of instruction and support required of counselors. 
Children with disabilities suffer from social isolation. They cannot play outside, join their friends in the playground, or take part in the extracurricular activities that their able-bodied peers do. They often attend special education schools, far from their homes, returning home late in the day. Thus they don’t form friendships with children in their own neighborhoods. Their opportunities for normal social interaction and development end with the school day. This overwhelming and unnatural social isolation is often more difficult to bear than living with the disability itself. Krembo Wings addresses the basic human need to love and be loved, to have friends, and to have a rightful place in one’s community. 
 
Krembo Wings is the only inclusive youth movement in Israel for children and youth with disabilities, providing weekly social activities for young people with all types of mental and physical disabilities together with their able-bodied peers, welcoming youth from all cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds, a unifying force in an otherwise unstable region of the world. 
Our main purpose is to enable every child living with any type of motor, cognitive or sensory disability to take part in enjoyable social interactions between one another and their able-bodied peers — and become part of community life in Israel. 
At Krembo Wings, we stand behind our conviction that all children, regardless of their background or abilities, deserve a social life, enriching activities to develop their social skills, and the opportunity to make friends. 
Our program also develops the leadership skills of youth without disabilities, who volunteer as youth counselors, while promoting social responsibility, equality, and diversity. Krembo Wings teaches our youth counselors – regular teenagers – the skills necessary to provide enriching and empowering activities for children with disabilities while shaping them into young people with values and tolerance, and who live and love to help others. 
 
Given that the nature of our model as inherently replicable, we are able to open in any location as long as we have the initial funding and support from the local municipality. It is our hope that our practice is paving the way for attaining the goals defined by the UN for a better tomorrow where no one is left behind.

Other sources of information

Journal article: Krembo Wings – An Inclusive Model From an Educational Approach to a Professional Approach https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RS2m_PSlGO0gBpzJYWsheam5OA9864OI

Research by the ERI Institute on Krembo Wingshttps://drive.google.com/open?id=14z15V5wQDGE0lIVbSaXAgBzrU76WI0gQ

SDGS & Targets

Goal 4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Deliverables & Timeline

N/A

Resources mobilized

Resources

Financing (in USD)

7177683

Partnership Progress

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Action Network

This initiative does not yet fulfil the SMART criteria.

Timeline

06 May 2002 (start date)

27 February 2019 (date of completion)

Entity

Krembo Wings

SDGs

Region

Asia and Pacific

Geographical coverage

Krembo Wings branches currently number 66 throughout Israel, located in both cities and the periphery, as indicated on the map attached. Five additional branches are scheduled to be opened this year.