Shutaf was founded in 2007 by two mothers, Beth Steinberg and Miriam Avraham, each parents to children with special needs, each frustrated by the lack of appropriate and available programs for their kids. ‘We wanted something that wasn’t just babysitting,’ says Beth, mother to Akiva, now 13 years old. ‘Our kids can’t just join activities at the local community center, what are they supposed to do after school and during vacations?’
‘We started with 10 participants in August 2007 and by the following August had more than quadrupled in size,’ reports Miriam, mother to Adina, now 15 years old. ‘Campers were coming from the greater Jerusalem area, from Ma’alei Adumim, Beit Shemesh and Mevaseret as well as locally.’ In the first year alone, Shutaf held camps during the Hanukah and Pesach school vacations as well as a 3-week August program in 2008. ‘We were on our way,’ remarks Beth, ‘ Parents were delighted, kids and teens felt they had a place and what had started off as a small program for our own children had developed into something much bigger and much more important.’
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Shutaf is a year-round, Jerusalem-based, informal-education program for children and teens with special needs. Shutaf is inclusive, committed to a teaching model that welcomes and includes all children – with and without disabilities – regardless of educational, religious and socioeconomic differences. Shutaf is modeling a unique type of co-existence for Israeli children, creating a special place of learning, of core Jewish and social values and happy times together.
