About
Alin Beit Noam
Alin Beit Noam (formerly Alin Mossad Abrahams) is a non-profit organization operating since 1941 for the benefit of individuals with disabilities. The organization works to implement processes to change the reality of Israeli society toward people with disabilities: their quality of life, their status, and society’s attitude towards them. The organization’s work is based on the Israeli law for “Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities” (5758-1998).
Most of the organization’s activities are currently concentrated in Kiryat Ono, where the organization provides various services for the participants, who are adults with severe physical and intellectual disabilities. They are provided with a daily rehabilitative occupational and social framework and the opportunity to live fulfilling and enriching lives.
The organization also provides respite care services for daycare center participants and runs supported living services for Beit Noam members.
Along with the services offered to the daycare participants, the organization also provides services for the wider public. Those services include the Net.Haver project (a social media platform tailored for adults with intellectual disabilities), assessments in augmentative and alternative communication and related technologies, lectures and discussions on disability studies, treatments in the daycare rehabilitation pool, and the Beit Noam hall that is rented out for events. The organization offers consultation services for professionals and the general public.
The organization is currently building the Neighborhood of Unlimited Possibilities, a revolutionary neighborhood under construction in the Sharon region that will be a shared home for individuals with and without disabilities.
History
The organization started as a Tel Aviv branch of the Association for Helping Disabled Children that was established in 1941 and ran a clinic for nine hours a week.
By early 1944, the association was running two additional clinics – one in north Tel Aviv and one in Jaffa. However, in the wake of rising tensions between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, the main clinic was closed in November 1947. In 1950, the association was allocated a plot of land to set up a hospital. In early 1954, the association inaugurated the Abrahams Institute – a hospital and clinic for disabled children in south Tel Aviv, at the intersection between Yitshak Elhanan and HaCarmel streets. The Abrahams Institute included thirty beds, an operating room, an outpatient clinic and a treatment and rehabilitation center, mainly for sick children with polio. The institute was run in a partnership between the Tel Aviv Municipality and Alin. The Tel Aviv Municipality financed the ongoing activities, while Alin was responsible for the development budget. Next to the institute was a swimming pool where the children learned to swim. Today, the building is home to the Child Development Center of the Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) and the Audiological Institute.
In 1955, the Tel Aviv Municipality decided to set up a school for children with severe disabilities in addition to the Abrahams Institute. In 1958, Alin signed a collaboration agreement with the global Eda organization to manage and fund the Abrahams Institute. A rotary club also supported the institute. In 1959, the Tekuma school building for children with polio was inaugurated next door to the Abrahams Institute. In the 1960s, over a hundred children studied there. The school is no longer a part of the Alin organization, but it remains a special education school today.
In 1986, the Beit Noam Daycare Center was established as a daycare center for individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities. The daycare center was set up through the initiative of parents and in a collaboration between the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and Alin. The daycare center is named after Mrs. Elga Cegla, who was the chairwoman of the association.
About Us
Our vision of Israel is of a society that grants equality to all persons irrespective of their abilities; a society respectful of human diversity, allowing individuals with physical, intellectual, sensory or emotional impairments the full realization of their human rights and their basic freedoms, equality of opportunity and freedom from any form of discrimination.
Furthermore, we aspire to create a society committed to the full and productive participation of individuals with disabilities on equal footing with others, allowing them to realize their full potential and live their lives with dignity, maximum independence and privacy.
- Removing and preventing barriers (physical, accessibility , as well as societal attitudes) that prevent people with disabilities from full participation in Israeli society and the opportunity to live fulfilling and enriching lives.
- Development, provision and distribution of appropriate services for the needs of people with disabilities, which will allow them to actualize the possibilities open to them.
- Promoting implementation of the social model of disability among professionals, policy makers and the general public.
- Increasing awareness of the inclusive universal design principle among professionals, policy makers and the general public.
- Developing, establishing and operating high quality frameworks and programs in a wide variety of spheres: residential, occupational, rehabilitative, training, leisure, sports and social activities.
- Disseminating and implementing physical and structural models of the inclusive universal design principle through successful operational models, such as the inspirational Elga’s Neighborhood, which can be emulated.
- Initiating and fostering dialogue between people with and without disabilities, with the aim of eliminating stigma, stereotypes, and prejudice, and encouraging inclusion and acceptance.
- Developing, applying and disseminating assistive technology and universal design environments.
- Developing, applying and disseminating treatment methods serving adults with complex physicial, intellectual and communication disabilities.
- Lobbying government bodies to encourage elected officials to advance policies that align with the organization's mission and vision.
