20 FEATURE
13 JANUARY 2022
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Noa Girls Launches Innovative ‘Clinical Training Programme’ Noa Girls has initiated an innovative ‘Clinical Training Programme’ as part of its commitment to meet the surging demand for its services. Noa provides practical, emotional and therapeutic support for adolescent girls in the Orthodox community, delivering tailored one-toone support to girls via its keyworking, mentoring and therapy programmes, as well as working with girls’ families. Its mission is to empower each girl to harness her innate strength to move forward to overcome the obstacles in her life to live an independent positive and healthy future. Noa’s professional team includes clinical psychologists, counselling psychologists, child and adolescent psychotherapists, social workers, family therapists and volunteer mentors. In April 2021 Noa ran an immensely successful fundraising campaign. As a result of the community’s incredible generosity, Noa was able to clear out its waiting list of 58 girls and take on many additional girls who had since been referred. However, as Noa’s CEO Naomi Lerer explains, the urgent need has not abated.
“Mental health issues have exploded over the past few years, and Covid has not only exacerbated issues, but has brought them further out into the open,” she says. “This has had an enormous impact on our services. Despite everything we were able to do thanks to the fundraiser, our current waiting list stands at over 40 girls.” Noa is committed to providing its girls with the highest levels of wraparound care and support, and to ensuring that they can provide an address for all girls brave enough to seek support. In order to continue to meet the growing needs of the community Noa needs to recruit more staff to join Noa’s team. As well as being suitably qualified, personable and talented, it is essential that Noa staff have a deep understanding and experience of working within the community.
Naomi Lerer explains “when our girls are supported by staff who can really relate to them, they feel truly understood and are able to make meaningful progress”. To this end, Noa’s new Clinical Training
Programme will provide a unique opportunity for women from the community who seek to undertake a qualification in a therapeutic field such as social work or psychotherapy. Noa will offer financial support to the successful applicants for their training, as well as work placements, access to in-house training and clinical supervision. Successful applicants will need to commit to a period of employment at Noa in a clinical role, for a time period commensurate to the funding allocated, where they will benefit from becoming part of a supportive, caring and professional team who are dedicated to the wellbeing of girls. “We know that there is vast untapped talent within the community,” concludes Naomi Lerer, who is also Rebbetzin of Central Synagogue. “Our hope is that the Clinical Training Programme will enable us to recruit more staff and increase our capacity, which will have such a positive impact on the entire community.” For more information or to receive an application pack, please email hr@noagirls. com
Jami Mental Health Awareness Shabbat 2022
The sixth annual Jami Mental Health Awareness Shabbat (MHAS) last weekend saw hundreds of events take place in shuls, schools and organisations across the country. These ranged from interactive education sessions and virtual panel events to dedicated Kabbalat Shabbat
services and personal testimonies. Laurie Rackind, Chief Executive at Jami, said, “I am so proud to be part of a community that embraces the opportunity to challenge stigma, raise awareness and promote conversations around mental health. Living in this climate of constant uncertainty, it is more important than ever to have open conversations about mental health and encourage people to get help when they need it.” The MHAS was held on 7-8 January, coinciding with Shabbat “Bo” during which the weekly Torah portion about the plague of Darkness is read, the description of which has particular resonance with mental illness. This year’s theme was ‘Mental Health in a Changing World’. Recent global crises, including the threat of climate change and living through a pandemic, has impacted on all our mental health and led to increased feelings of anxiety and stress for many people. For those already living with mental illness or caring for someone with mental health
Maccabi GB speaking about mental health before a league game
problems, the past year has been tougher than ever. Over 200 organisations marked this special Shabbat with events including United Synagogue’s dedicated Kabbalat Shabbat on theUS.TV; publishing of collected divrei Torah and thoughts from Rabbis and cantors of the Movement of Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism by The Honeycomb Project; and Masorti’s Senior Rabbi, Jonathan Wittenberg in conversation with Jami chief executive Laurie Rackind at a special Kabbalat Shabbat Zoom. Jami delivered a programme of events including sessions for young adults on climate change and mental health; men and mental health; impact of increased reliance on digital technology on
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wellbeing; and youth mental health in collaboration with Beyond. RSY-Netzer marked the Shabbat with a memorial tea and havdallah in memory of Zach Klement, an important member of RSY-Netzer and mental wellbeing advocate; while Maccabi GB continued to support Jami’s MHAS through the “One Minute for Mental Health” initiative, whereby players paused for one minute before kick-off to think about how to openly encourage conversation around mental health. Ashley Lerner, CEO of Maccabi GB shared, “Highlighting positive mental health is incredibly important and we are pleased that through our Affiliated Football Leagues, we could assist reaching as wide an audience as possible”.
