04/10/2026
How Youth Futures Mentors Become Lifelines for Children in Crisis
Israeli children carry Hibuki therapeutic dolls
Our community's support of the annual Campaign for Jewish Needs helps fund Israel's Youth Futures program. The following blog was written by Ruti Shenfeld, CEO of Youth Futures:
A few days ago, when a siren sounded in Ofakim, Daniel, a child supported by the Youth Futures program, ran with his family to the safe room. Like many other children, he was frightened. But right after the door closed, the first thing he did was pick up the phone and call his Youth Futures mentor, who supports him.
“Do you know there are sirens?” he asked her.
It’s a question that sounds almost innocent. But for those who work with children of at-risk families, it reveals something deeper: sometimes, the first person a child thinks of in a moment of fear is actually an adult outside the home.
In Israel, we like to talk about “national resilience” as if it were a trait evenly distributed across the population. But in reality, resilience is a resource, and like other resources, it is distributed unequally.
In relatively stable families, war is a difficult but temporary event. There is a safe home, a more or less stable income, and adults who are able to contain the stress. But for many of the families we meet every day, war does not arrive into a stable reality, it hits a reality that is already stretched to its limit.
In a mapping we conducted just two days after the outbreak of Operation Roaring Lion, among more than 5,000 families in the program, we saw how significant this gap is: some families do not have a safe room at home, others rely on public shelters, and some have no nearby protection at all.
At the same time, nearly four out of ten parents are already reporting significant stress or emotional overwhelm in the very first days of the war. It is clear that the longer the war continues, the more their emotional state will deteriorate. When an adult feels they have no control, it becomes very difficult for them to serve as the emotional anchor for a child.
Therefore, one of the most common mistakes in public discourse during times like these is the abundance of advice directed at parents: “Maintain routines” / “Listen to your children” / “Strengthen their sense of capability” and more …
These are important principles, but they assume that parents have enough emotional resources to apply them during such a complex time. What happens when the parent themselves is afraid? When there is no stable income? When there is no protected space at home? When they themselves have no one to call?
Especially during periods of public fatigue, when the news continues but attention has already worn thin, children in at-risk situations tend to become even less visible. Educational systems operate only partially, social services are overloaded, communities are focused on survival, and these children may fall through the cracks. But here, there is room for a different question, one not necessarily directed at parents. It can be directed at each and every one of us adults: what can *we* do for a child in our environment who needs an anchor?
Our experience working with thousands of families teaches something simple yet profound: sometimes, the greatest difference in a child’s life is not a large program or a new service, but one stable adult. Not a psychologist. Not an expert. Simply an adult who is willing to be there. If you recognize such a child in your environment - a friend of your son or daughter, the girl next door, your niece or nephew, a child who seems a bit more alone, a bit more anxious… sometimes a few simple actions are enough tobecome a small anchor for them within an unstable reality:
1. Show care – send them a message, ask how they are doing, remind them in any way that you are there for them and thinking of them.
2. Normalize and create moments of routine – invite the child to play, cook together, talk, or go for a short walk. Especially, the small things help restore a sense of stability.
3. Pay attention to behavioral changes – sadness, withdrawal, or outbursts of anger are sometimes signs of distress. If something seems unusual, it’s important to involve a professional or educational figure.
4. Try to maintain consistency as much as possible – for many at-risk children, the main challenge is not only the difficulty itself, but the feeling that adults come in and out of their lives. This is why it is important to create continuity in the relationship as much as possible, even after the war ends.
Daniel from Ofakim did not call his Mentor because she can stop the war or the sirens. He called because, amid all the surrounding noise, there is at least one person who symbolizes for him the feeling that he is not alone—his Mentor.
Real resilience is not built on the day a siren sounds; it is built in our everyday lives—in a caring and stable society, with attentive adults who notice the children around them. If each of us manages to be more aware and notice just one more child in distress around us, the impact can be immense, especially in times like these, and hopefully also in times of normalcy.
