Executive Director Avital Goel describes Susan's House as a "holistic solution to working with high-risk kids." The project was started six years ago; the realization of a dream for Goes, Eyal Kaplansky and Kaplansky's wife Susan, for whom the project is named.

"[Goel] explains that the teens accepted into this initiative learn the skills they need to complete the various jobs scheduled in the art workshop, enjoy meals prepared by their fellow crew members, earn a salary, and discover how to budget their earnings and save for the future."

The art workshop is the program's heartbeat. Here, the teens learn to create high-end art pieces that are sold at malls and expos. Goel says the creative process helps the teens develop self-esteem and start to believe they can have a better life. Source: Jewish Exponent

Labels: therapy, treatment_programs, troubled_teenagers