ישתקוה
Yesh Tikvah giving the gift of hope
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Who Are We Giving Cleveland The Gift Of Hope Our Mission Mindy’s Story Measured Success Financials Looking Forward
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WHO WE ARE
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FOUNDER & DIRECTOR Rabbi Aryeh Leib Joseph Rabbi Joseph is a well 足known community activist in the Cleveland community. He was motivated to found Yesh Tikvah when he saw firsthand how the prohibitive costs of therapy prevented many from getting crucial help they needed. Rabbi Joseph is imbued with a strong sense of mission and is passionate about achieving his goal: to promote emotional stability and health for individuals and families facing mental health challenges. Rabbi Joseph is also trained in and very knowledgeable of the parameters, eligibility criteria, and availability of social service programs and government funding. He actively assists eligible candidates in obtaining Medicaid coverage.
to promote emotional stability and health for individuals and families facing mental health challenges. 5
ADVISOR Dr. Mendel E. Singer PhD MPH
Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, and Vice Chair for Education.
Dr. Singer is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and has served on the faculty since 1995. He is a well published researcher with over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and other federal and national funders. He is an internationally reputed expert with many publications in comparative and cost effectiveness research. Dr. Singer serves on the advisory board for Jewish Family Services’ FamiliesatRisk division, and has been active with their Know Abuse program which educates teens about healthy relationships. Dr. Singer also began the Jewish Community Health Initiative at CWRU to help Jews lead healthier lives. He has been honored by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health for his work with the Jewish community.
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LEGAL COUNSEL Susan Scheutzow
Partner, Kohrman Jackson & Krantz
Susan has practiced health care law for thirty years, and has a wide range of experience with nonprofits and health care. She has authored numerous law review articles and monographs; her published works include “Ohio Health Care Provider Law,� which is used by health law attorneys across the state. Susan is a fellow of the American Health Lawyers Association, and has received numerous recognitions and awards. Susan is very sensitive to the needs of individuals suffering from mental illness, and is a Member of the Board of Hugs 4 Families.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS MRS. SURI GOLDMAN Chair
Mrs. Goldman is the Director of Sales and Marketing at CenStar Energy. She is actively involved in the Cleveland community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, Montefiore, JECC, and Hebrew Academy of Cleveland; she is also a volunteer for Bikur Cholim. Suri is energetic, enthusiastic, and always willing to help for a worthy cause.
MRS. CHAYA GITTY KOHN Treasurer
Mrs. Kohn has been teaching adolescent girls for over twenty years. With her years of experience and insight into the emotional needs of her students and their families, Mrs. Kohn is acutely aware of the vital role played by accessible mental health services. Chaya Gitty volunteers in assisting the senior Jewish population, as well as for Bikur Cholim. However, her paramount accomplishment is being a very involved mother of her nine children.
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RABBI AVI MEYSTEL
Rabbi Meystel is the Director of Development at the American Academy of Facial Aesthetics and is the CEO of StatDDS. He is the Vice President of The Cleveland Torah Center. Avi is very sensitive to the needs of individuals requiring mental health services.
RABBI ELI DESSLER
Rabbi Eli Dessler serves as Financial Director of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland and is responsible for meeting the school’s annual budget. He also is on the Board of the Cleveland Jewish News. Rabbi Dessler’s family is well known for their broadranging activities on behalf of the greater Jewish community in America and abroad; Rabbi Dessler gives unstintingly of his very busy schedule to further Yesh Tikvah’s important cause.
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RABBI BARRY KISLOWICZ ED.D.
Rabbi Barry Kislowicz serves as Head of School at Fuchs Mizrach School in Cleveland, OH, and has worked as a teacher and administrator at the school since 2004. In his position, Rabbi Kislowicz sees firsthand the importance of having a healthy and functioning family units to effectively support the education of future generations.
MRS. MARILYN S. BERGER ED.M., M.A.
Marilyn S. Berger is a Psychology Assistant who has worked in a private practice in clinical psychology practice for the last twenty five years. She does individual therapeutic work with children, divorce mediation and psycho足educational evaluations. Mrs. Berger holds degrees from Princeton, Rutgers and Cleveland State Universities. Under the auspices of the Orthodox Mental Health Professionals of Cleveland, Mrs. Berger recently organized a five session training seminar for the Orthodox Rabbinate on issues related to mental health. Marilyn is highly respected in the community for her professionalism and devotion to the welfare of her clients and their families. She has played a pivotal role in the founding and development of Yesh Tikvah.
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ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF MISS LEAH PALLANT
Leah Pallant is the current Administrator of Yesh Tikvah’s day to day functions. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2012 and has spent her time postÂgraduation building a solid social service background. Her experience ranges from a volunteer placement centering on food security with the AmeriCorps VISTA program to her current work around health care access in the greater Cleveland community. She is well versed in Medicaid, Marketplace, and private insurance enrollment and subscriber advocacy. Her work with refugee and immigrant populations through the Community Health Center system in Cleveland has helped her to fully appreciate the necessity of culturally appropriate and financially accessible mental health services. She has been recognized by the White House, the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers, and a national Affordable Care Act assister organization for her outstanding and tireless work around health insurance access.
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Giving Cleveland The Gift Of Hope
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Dear friends, It is with great pleasure we would like to share with you the accomplishments of Yesh Tikvah in its first annual report. Although Yesh Tikvah was founded in the 2012 and began providing funds for therapy services in 2013, the organization remained a subdivision of Matan Bseyser for its first two years. In June 2014 Yesh Tikvah incorporated, and we received our 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in August of 2014. This is therefore the first annual report as an entity of our own, and we are very excited to share Yesh Tikvah’s accomplishments with you. We also wish to take this opportunity to thank you and our entire community for the overwhelming support in fulfilling our dream and creating Yesh Tikvah Âa lifesaving fund! Enjoy the read,
AL Joseph Director
Suri Goldman Board Chair
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Yesh Tikvah is committed to subsidizing mental health counseling and treatment for individuals who are unable to pay for these services.
MISSION 14
Yesh Tikvah provides funding to individuals in the community with discretion, dignity, and fiduciary responsibility.
HISTORY Yesh Tikvah was founded in 2012 by Rabbi AL Joseph. Rabbi Joseph became aware of the increasingly prevalent of individuals whose mental health needs were being neglected due to lack of adequate funding. Upon extensive consultation with rabbinical figures, communal leaders, and mental health professionals,
YESH TIKVAH WAS FORMED.
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Mindy’s Story Mindy was 23 years old and a victim of abuse, she was suffering from trauma and anxiety, and having trouble getting along with her family. “I spend $600 a month on
make make strides in her personal
therapy, $40 a month on my gym
growth, and after completing her
membership and $60 on my phone
therapy wrote the following in a
bill. I also volunteer at ”kids in
thank you email.
silence” so some of money goes towards taking out the kids in the family that I work with. I’m also involved with some girls in the neighborhood so whenever I take them out I use my own money.” “Also anything I would need, shoes clothing and stuff like that, I get with my own money as my parents are not in a position to help with that right now.” Yesh Tikvah approved her for 18 sessions and paid 75% of the cost of each session. Mindy was able to
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“Yesh Tikvah has helped me tremendously because it helped me be able to afford the therapy that I needed very badly.” “Since I didn’t have to pay in full for therapy, it also allowed me to save money so that I can move out of my house and continue to take steps towards my personnel growth and development. “I am extremely appreciative to Yesh Tikvah for helping me out, before this I was really very stuck and didn’t have anyone else to
Yaakov & Elena “We were living in the beautiful city of Denver when my husband got notice that he would be out of a job in six months.
For six long months Yaakov searched for a job in his field with no luck. He tried to look outside his field, but after completing graduate school and a lot of debt to pay back, he needed something that would be enough to support a family. As the six month deadline approached we made the difficult decision to move back to our hometown on the east coastwe could not afford to pay rent or buy food without his job. I had a great job, but it was not enough to support a family. We had nowhere to live, no jobs, and had to pay for day school tuition for our four children. We were fortunate enough to be able to live with Yaakov’s parents, but with four children and no jobs it was a great strain on his family and ours both financially and emotionally”. “Yaakov spent the next year searching for a job, but as time went on, and he had no mazal, he slipped into a severe, dark depression. I had never seen
him like this. He slept a lot, was antisocial and no one could shake this dark cloud off of him.He was moody and often expressed his desperation in rage against the people around him. He began to lose faith and contemplated ending his life.He thought that maybe I was the problem and considered leaving the marriage. The truth is that we did not have a good marriage, and there was years of fighting and contempt between us. I also had things to work on that contributed to marital difficulty.” “Yaakov also had a lot childhood baggage to deal with and coming back to his hometown brought back a lot of painful memories of abuse. I didn’t know what to do. I called several Rabbis who we knew in Denver who knew my husband well, but, he did not return any of their calls. The situation was getting more and more desperate. I called a local Rabbi/Psychologist, who I
knew since before I was married. He advised me to contact an organization, Yesh Tikvah, who provides grants for mental health counseling if you qualify. Baruch Hashem, we qualified and received a grant to see Dr. Cohen weekly for marital and personal counseling. Dr. Cohen, is known to be the best of the best in his field and the right fit for our family. Yesh Tikvah, if approved, allows clients to choose their own therapist. Although we are still struggling with many issues, after 9 months of therapy my husband and our marriage took a complete turnaround. My husband found a great job in his field, and our family is slowly returning to normal. If we did not receive the grant from Yesh Tikvah, I cannot imagine what my life would be like right now....Yaakov and I are truly grateful and hope that other people will have the opportunity to benefit from the grant”.
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MEASURED SUCCESS In November of 2014 with the input of Dr. Mendel Singer a survey program was implemented to track Yesh Tikvah’s successes. With the implementation of this program, all new clients are asked to complete both entrance and exit surveys with each cycle of therapy in an effort to quantify the effectiveness of the program. Because the survey process is still relatively new and the average therapy cycle can run for the better part of a year, the following figures are based on the responses of 16 clients before therapy begins and 7 clients after.
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Clients were asked to rate their overall mental and emotional health before they start therapy and after at least 3 months of treatment, and significant gains were seen towards better overall mental health after the course of therapy.
Before/After: Overall Emotional/Mental Health 60%
56% 50%
43%
40%
43%
30%
25%
20%
19% 14% 10%
0%
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
VERY GOOD
EXCELLENT
Before After 19
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Clients were also asked about day to day activities and interactions, and then tried to quantify the change in the effect on day-to-day life before and after the cycle of therapy had been completed. Again, despite a limited sample size we were able to see a trend that is greater than the margin of error in terms of measured improvement.
Kept from Usual Daily Activities 45% 40% 35%
36%
30%
20%
29%
29%
25%
21%
21%
43%
7%
15%
14%
10% 5% 0%
ALMOST EVERY DAY
Before After 20
MORE THAN HALF THE TIME
ABOUT HALF THE TIME
LESS THAN HALF THE TIME
RARELY OR NOT AT ALL
Interference with Normal Social Interactions 60% 50%
50% 43%
40%
43%
30%
25%
20%
25% 14%
10%
0%
ALMOST EVERY DAY
MORE THAN HALF THE TIME
ABOUT HALF THE TIME
LESS THAN HALF THE TIME
RARELY OR NOT AT ALL
Before After 21
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Finally, the survey made an attempt to document the general outlook of a given individual before and after their work with a therapist. Two questions were used to attempt to encompass the possibility of change in perspective and overall change in outlook over the course of therapy. clients were asked before and after therapy to quantify their feelings of hopefulness in the future and then, at the end of therapy, clients were asked if they felt their time working with a therapist had changed their minds. Though the numbers representing the hope of a positive future are fairly strong both before and after therapy, our clients unequivocally agree that progress was made during their time working with a provider.
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Hopeful about the Future 60% 50%
50% 43%
40%
43%
30%
25%
20%
25% 14%
10%
0% STRONGLY DISAGREE
DISAGREE
NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE
AGREE
STRONGLY AGREE
Was Progress Made During Funding? 60%
57%
50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% STRONGLY DISAGREE
DISAGREE
NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE
AGREE
STRONGLY AGREE
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FINANCIALS We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our generous donors; with your help we have been able to assist over 30 clients in the past year!
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This translates to over 387 sessions with a therapist, with $33,579.75 of last year’s budget going directly to funding the costs of clients therapy. More so, this represents 30 individuals who are better able to be supportive spouses, understanding parents, and productive members of our community thanks to skills gained through their therapeutic work. Most importantly, Yesh Tikvah did not have to turn away even a single person for lack of funds during the past fiscal year, which represents both a huge triumph and a high bar for the future, as we strive to continue to provide as much help as possible to our community. We have also made many other strides towards greater visibility and accessibility, most notably the creation of a beautiful website, YTforHope.org, which provides an easily accessible snapshot of the Yesh Tikvah’s mission and process. The website also provides a way for potential clients to understand the application process and allows for them to privately reach out for assistance with eligiblity. All forms are now available online, and we are looking forward to creating greater accessibility through online application options. Of course, it should be mentioned again that Yesh Tikvah recieved its 501(c)(3) status in August of 2014, and that determination has opened up a number of opportunities for funding, recognition, and transparency as an official member of the nonprofit world. After just one complete fiscal year the organization has been awarded GuideStar’s Bronze level recognition which acknowledges that Yesh Tikvah is on the road to high level financial transparency and accountability. Yesh Tikvah has also had the opportunity to become a member of the Mental Health and Addiction Advocacy Coalition (MHAC) of Ohio. The MHAC unifies more than 100 Ohio based organizations that serve as vocal advocates for much needed support for those struggling with mental health issues.
Finally, through the great generosity of our donors, Yesh Tikvah has been able to move into a beautiful new office! We have been provided everything from office furniture to printers by our wonderful donors, and are enjoying the productivity that comes from a dedicated space. The small staff of Yesh Tikvah has found it invaluable to have a physical place in which to share ideas, to learn from each other, and support the day to day work that lets us provide timely, discreet, and much needed services to our clients.
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LOOKING FORWARD Yesh Tikvah is looking forward to some
Charedi, and the results quite compellingly
exciting developments in the upcoming year.
demonstrate the need for mental health care
Financially, the goal is to increase funding
among this age group.
through donations by at least 10% in order to continue to expand available services. At the same time, the organization hopes to expand services to youth under 18 as well as creating an Advisory Board of Clinicians to most effectively guide the future use of funds.
about depression, stress, and living up to expectations. High school girls were then asked some additional questions about body image. The results across the board were staggering. From the 43% of girls
The impetus to begin to offer services to
across the board who identified themselves
the 15 to 18 year old age group is a survey
as unhappy with their body image to the
administered in 2010 by Dr. Mendel Singer
nearly 42% of students who identified
Ph.D. MPH, who also runs the Jewish
themselves as bothered by at least one of
Community Health Initiative website. The
the major symptoms of depression during
survey took place over the course of two
the past month at the time the survey was
weeks and at a school in Cleveland. All
administered.
participants self足identified as either Modern or
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Participants were asked a series of questions
These are exactly the kind of thought
During the 20152016 Fiscal Year, Yesh Tikvah
processes and feelings that lead individuals
also plans to expand the scope of the advisory
towards therapy and support services as
services the organization currently receives
adults, and the origins are clearly visible in
by expanding creating an Advisory Board of
one or two in ten of the students surveyed!
Clinicians. Though Yesh Tikva benefits already
Though indeed many individuals will no
from a wide variety of advisors in many
doubt learn healthy coping mechanisms and
different fields, the board will consist of health
problem solving strategies as they age, a
professionals from throughout the Cleveland
quick and early intervention is a fantastic way
health care system, with a focus on the
to help someone succeed! When combined
resources that Cleveland’s renowned hospital
with requests for services for those under 18,
systems have to offer. The resulting group will
this study has made it eminently clear to all
be asked to guide Yesh Tikvah’s use of funds
those involved in Yesh Tikvah’s mission that
to create the largest impact possible on both
expanding services is the logical next step
the individual and community levels.
towards a goal of accessible mental health services for all!
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