If this were the opening scene in an old-fashioned Western, a sign would be swinging in the wind at the entrance to the Wing of Love wildlife park and hostel for delinquent boys with the words "Last Chance" emblazoned on it. In the absence of Wing of Love, the 14- to18-year-old boys living there, all of whom have criminal records, would almost certainly be doomed to a life spent in and out of jail.
Located in Kibbutz Kfar Menahem in south central Israel, the place is an animal sanctuary with a social mission. As a boarding facility, Wing of Love is a 24-hour-a-day project, with home visits once in two weeks strongly encouraged. At the park, the boys work with mostly protected species of fowl such as the spectacular Asian pheasant, and share their home with ibexes, oryxes and other indigenous animals.
Teenagers from Wing of Love wildlife park build a shelter for the deer in the park.
(Photo courtesy Wing of Love)
While all the teenagers are there by court order, the Wing of Love framework is "open" as opposed to "locked" and after a three-month trial period they can choose to stay put or try a different court-approved option. Those who manage to stay for a year usually want to stay on, says spokeswoman Michele Klein, stressing that the main goals of Wing of Love are to teach the boys how to successfully integrate into the workplace, how to work efficiently and well and to take pride in what they do.
"The boys are under our wing - one wing - because they are also supposed to develop their own wing," explains Klein. "They are participating in the process that will allow them to fly the rest of the way on two wings. And this place is meant to be a garden of love for people and animals, where the boys bond with the animals and each other based on respect and love."
Director Boaz Miller believes that "the fact that the boys want to stay in our framework coupled with the waiting list of boys seeking acceptance to Wing of Love confirms that our work has a good reputation among the referral services."
Therapy with added value
The park's most recent achievement is that it won a new government tender, which staff members and volunteers alike see as a vote of confidence in their work. All available beds in the hostel are filled.
"This year, the Welfare Ministry put out four new tenders for therapeutic frameworks that have added value - a special program that can enrich the boys and increase the likelihood of getting them adjusted back into society as productive citizens. We won, with our animal-assisted education program, and so from the first of January we can increase from our present take-in of 16 boys to 24," Klein relates with pride.
"Of the 16 boys currently in our framework, eight are from families originally from Ethiopia. For the first time, we have a Bedouin boy, who greatly contributes to our community. We are working on making the necessary changes to accommodate a further eight boys, who are already waiting for a place," she continues. These teens are new immigrants from Yemen and the FSU.
In anticipation of the new arrivals the boys, together with their counselors, have painted and cleaned up the hostel, organized the yard, and decorated the front of the house with a mosaic of colored glass and stones. Thanks to a donation by the electric parts company H.Y. Group, the residents now enjoy a large LCD TV screen and a new washing machine.
While until recently there was only one teacher from the Education Ministry to help the boys with literacy, numeracy and general knowledge, "the school in our park has grown and now has four teachers working energetically and enthusiastically. The school has gained status and all the boys take part in classes and, to our joy, some are working hard to take their bagrut [matriculation] exams," Klein reports.
There is also an animal-assisted therapist and a full-time social worker who meets with each of the boys for an hour a week. Counselors work in shifts at the house in the evenings and on weekends. Some of them retain their connection as mentors even after their charges have moved on.
And of course, the boys spend a lot of time working in the park, either with the animals or doing maintenance work, which ranges from building and maintaining equipment to special projects, such as learning about the needs and habits of quails and preparing new living quarters for them.
Saved from delinquency
In an effort to make the venture self-sustaining, the trustees are trying out various business, community outreach and fundraising ideas. When the park is open to the public at specific times during the year, the residents have an opportunity to help lead workshops and tours, sell snacks and handle animals. There is an Adopt-an-Animal program for local and foreign donors.
In another new development, "The Welfare Ministry is also giving us extra support in the form of regular psychological supervision, from a very professional and experienced psychologist, which seriously strengthens our therapeutic framework. That's a real breakthrough," says Klein. Wing of Love is also in the early stages of developing a business skills program to better equip "graduates" to make their way in the world.
A counselor at the park makes time for a session with one of the boys.
(Photo courtesy Wing of Love)
One of the trustees' priorities for 2011 is developing the business side of the park to create more income for the organization as well as more management opportunities for the boys who live there.
Miller previously ran the boarding facility of the Israel Arts and Science Academy (IASA) in Jerusalem. After five years of nurturing the crème de la crème of Israel's high school students, he felt that he had contributed his utmost to the effort, that things were running smoothly, and that it was time to turn his talents to the other end of the spectrum.
His initial idea was to convert the kibbutz park into a place where adolescents with special needs could learn how to function as full-fledged members of the workforce. Upon taking over the run-down wildlife park from the kibbutz in 2003, he implemented his idea with a special-needs high school in nearby Ness Ziona.
But he soon realized that the group most in need of help is juvenile delinquents and young offenders. And since about 90 percent of these are male and the dearth of suitable frameworks for them means that most drop out and become repeat offenders, doomed to a life of delinquency, Miller felt that he had found his new focus.
Unconditional love
While he has made significant strides since 2005, when he and his staff started the operation with six boys, the annual budget of about NIS 1.4 million only goes partway to meeting all the needs. Still, Miller is optimistic.
"Our motto and our vision is love, unconditional love," says Miller, shortly after spending four hours with a combat soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, who a couple of years earlier was one of his charges at the park.
Due to their criminal records, the teens who come to Wing of Love usually aren't eligible to serve in the army, and generally aren't interested in serving. However, the particular soldier who came to reconnect with Boaz is an example of how some young men can be "turned around," as Klein puts it.
Boaz recounts that today the soldier sees the park as a place where he will always be welcome, revealing that the young man wanted to discuss the challenges he surmounted at Wing of Love that allowed him to get where he is today. For most of his young life, anyone who knew him thought it more likely that he would serve time in prison, rather than serving his country. Miller shares another story to illustrate his philosophy of "unconditional love in action."
"One of the boys was with us for a year, and then on one of his visits home he broke the law. When we found out we called the authorities and he was imprisoned. But when he begged to come back to us, we did everything in our power to have him released back to us and we succeeded. We had to teach him that he isn't above the law, and that if he hurts people and breaks the law we will obey the law. But we also showed him that we will do everything in our power to help him to come back and get his act together."
Miller is overflowing with stories about his charges: "We have a Bedouin boy here for the first time and we're very excited about that. We always hoped to see coexistence in action here as well. It hasn't been easy. The boys we have here aren't from the most open-minded, tolerant sectors of Israeli society," he says.
"They were hard on him [the Bedouin boy] and he ran away a few times, but in the end, he came back and he earned their respect. He fits in now."
Miller describes the program's threshold as very high. “We can't give up. We have to believe in these boys because most of them don't believe in themselves,” he explains.
"I believe that love conquers all. If these boys have known any kind of love, it was always conditional. We give them unconditional love and we focus on their strengths, on the positive.
"If we can give them works skills; teach them about caring and compassion; teach them to support each other and to be part of the mainstream, not always on the margins; improve their self-esteem - if we manage to do that, our work will be done."