Intro
Ramat Hadassah is an educational and therapeutic youth village that serves as a home for diverse populations of adolescents who have encountered challenges in their lives; many of which are ongoing, and include symptoms of depression, attention deficit disorders and often also substance abuse. These cases have only increased over the past year due to the effects of Covid-19. Life in Israel places additional challenges on these youth: ingrained racism, divisiveness, violence and more. There is a need to ensure that these Israeli adolescents have the appropriate life skills to cope with the difficulties they face now. Ramat Hadassah Youth Village and the “Bartali Youth in Movement” (NGO), are looking to partner with “Pump For Peace”, and leverage the success of the Bartali Cycling Center at the village over the past 3 years, in order to create Israel’s first “Cycling Youth Village” model, in which the daily curriculum of the majority of the students in the village will include empowering educational cycling programs, alongside the existing academic curriculum. By doing so, we aim to become role-models of a positive change in our community and serve as a source of inspiration for other educational frameworks around Israel. For this purpose, building a Velosolutions Pump Track at the village, will play a huge role, serving as a “cycling hub” in the village that will attract additional students into the program and inspire for them to pick up cycling.
The program description
Over the past 3 years, “Bartali – Youth in Movement” (NGO), has been running an educational outdoor cycling program at Ramat Hadassah Youth Village, dedicated to the empowerment of Ramat Hadassa’s students. This unique multi-year program was founded on the belief that cycling is a powerful tool for engaging youth in a significant educational process and for teaching essential life skills. As part of the program, the students train to participate in challenging multi-day rides and take part in competitions, both of which require a long-term commitment. The program teaches cycling skills, promotes motivation, perseverance and self-discipline and creates a strong sense of team work and social cohesiveness. The program participants are encouraged to maintain a healthy lifestyle, build a positive body image and adapt cycling as a way of life. This program currently includes 40 students of Ramat-Hadassah who experience authentic success on the bike, and leverage it to develop a positive development horizon for themselves.
Background of “Bartali Youth in Movement” (NGO)
Bartali – Youth in Movement is a first of its kind social and educational youth organization, named after “The Righteous Among Nations” Gino Bartali, who risked his life to help save the lives of hundreds of Jewish people he had never met, during WWII. What made Bartali unique was the rare combination of being a cycling champion, being modest about his humanitarian efforts, and his belief that “good should be done rather than talked about”. “Bartali – Youth in Movement” aims to create a passion for cycling which is based on Bartali’s characteristics – the love of effort and distances, caring about others, modesty and humility. Promoting its vision of using cycling as a platform for empowering at-risk youth, Bartali – Youth in Movement’ currently runs the program in 5 youth villages around Israel (Ramat Hadassah, Ben Shemen, Kaduri, Alonei Yitzchak, Ayanot) for 200 youth. In each village the target population is chosen in consultation with the educational staff of the village. Youth who fit the target population and who are interested in participating in the program are then invited to participate in a selection process that evaluates not only their physical abilities, but also their willpower, motivation to commit and determination to succeed. Those selected participate in a 9 month program, training between 2-4 times a week. The training consists of advanced Mountain Biking skills including varied terrains such as singletrails, rocky paths, etc. The youth are trained for fitness (distances and speed) and for bike-handling skills focusing on coordination, balance and mental focus. The yearly programs revolve around peak events in which the participants meet and ride with their peers from other youth villages. These multi-day events are a part of the process of development and empowerment. Through these events the youth make a passionate choice to participate, increase their sense of capability, and become part of a larger community. All instructors are hired and supervised by Bartali, allowing us to control the content of the program and choose the participants. We believe that by acting as models for excellence and instilling a passion for cycling in our program participants, we are laying the groundwork for these adolescents to create a personal vision for themselves, expanding their sense of responsibility and capability, and aiding them in developing resilience, perseverance and determination.
Personal story of one of the senior students of the program – Aviv Zeitun (17.5, just finished twelfth grade)
Originally from Beit She’an. Son of an Arab father and a Jewish mother, Aviv arrived at the youth village 6 years ago due to a variety of challenges at home. He arrived with significant educational, social and emotional gaps and In his first year at the youth village he was involved in multiple cases of violence, and conflicts with other students in the village.
His joining to the cycling program served as an anchor for him that enabled him a significant empowerment process over the past 3 years, thanks to which he also underwent a significant change socially and academically. The impact of it is evident: he graduated from high school last month with a good matriculation certificate, his body perception changed and he went from being a chubby and insecure boy to a muscular and upright man. Over the past 2 years he completed a “group leaders” course and advanced qualification training as a professional cycling instructor. Over the past year, he served as a mentor of two younger riders for whom he has served as an authentic role model.
