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80 east end Road, N3 2sY020 8346 8560 office@nnls-masorti.org.uknnls-masorti.org.uk

Depaul Nightstop and Lisa’s story

lisa was just 16 years old when her relationship with her adoptive parents became irreconcil-able. With no options and the temperature dropping outside, lisa left home. she said: “I had no money. It was so cold over those first few days.”

lisa was put in touch with Nightstop, who pro-vide emergency accommodation for young people aged 16-25 in the home of a volun-teer host when they have nowhere else to go. Nightstop were able to offer lisa a safe place to sleep.

“When I arrived [at the host’s house] I was ex-hausted, I’d barely slept a wink. We got tea, I had a shower and headed to bed.” having that stability meant she stayed in education: “I was still going to college, studying health and social care. Nightstop would check every morning how everything was.”

Through the care of her hosts and the Night-stop team, lisa was able to stay safe, was of-fered the support she needed and was helped to find a longer-term home of her own. she continues to study social care and hopes to go on to university soon. “Nightstop still checks up on me to make sure everything is alright. I feel really supported.”

Nightstop provided a life-line for lisa: “I wouldn’t have been able to get any food, I wouldn’t have been able to keep warm. I wouldn’t have got this far without them. They adapted to what I needed. I feel a lot safer.”

The alternative is often unsafe or unstable, po-tentially leading to rough sleeping and the risk of violence and abuse. Instead, their host pro-vides a warm place to sleep for the night, an evening meal, somewhere to wash and a lis-tening ear. During the day, young people get a progression coach and access to counselling, while we work with them to find a positive, long-term housing solution.

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With your support, we can be there for every young person, one night at a time.

We’re also looking for more hosts in Barnet. NNls members Ariel and Noga, who nomi-nated Nightstop for this appeal, have been hosting for five years. Nighstop provide com-prehensive training and you simply need to let us know what availability you have and we will match accordingly. If you think you can offer young people a safe place to sleep and would like to find out more, please email: nightstop.london@depaulcharity.org.uk or to talk to Ariel and Noga about their experience, you can contact them on noga_a@hotmail.com

www.depaulcharity.org.ukuK charity No. 802384

lisa’s story is true, however her name and photograph have been changed to protect her privacy.

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In 2019, Jess’s daddy died. she was just nine years old. Jess’s mother was struggling, and they had to move house due to financial dif-ficulties. Jess had lost confidence, wasn’t do-ing well at school, struggled to be social, and eventually decided she didn’t want to go to school.

her mother called the Jewish Bereavement counselling service (JBcs), and we were able to provide them each with their own counsel-lor. A JBcs counsellor went to see Jess with a bag full of toys; plasticine, crayons, glitter glue and books. over the course of a year, Jess drew pictures of her family, a family tree and many other pictures. Through her artwork she showed the counsellor what she was good at, what frightened her, and shared her good and bad memories and her hopes, fears and expectations for the future.

With this support, over time, Jess regained confidence. she began doing better at school and now has a busy social life. Jess’s mother continued counselling for another 12 months until she started to feel stronger and adapt to their changed circumstances.

JBcs was founded 40 years ago. It is the only specialist Jewish bereavement organisation, and is committed to ensuring there is profes-sional, skilled and confidential bereavement counselling for everyone in the Jewish commu-nity who has experienced a death within the family or community such as suicide, murder, accident or illness. It provides counselling in-dividually to children and adults in their home, as well as a number of support groups in con-fidence, with a professional, who is impartial, non-judgemental and has specific expertise.

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children can benefit from the opportunity to speak and play with someone who is skilled in working with them and are given the space to express their feelings. each person in the family has their own counsellor and will get to-gether regularly for family meetings.

The lack of mental health resources within the Nhs means the service is now experienc-ing more demand than ever from bereaved families. To meet that demand, JBcs needs to recruit and train 20 specialist volunteer coun-sellors to work with children and families. Your donation will ensure that support is available to families like Jess’s, when they are in crisis.

www.jbcs.org.ukuK charity No. 1047473

Jewish Bereavement counselling service

My name is sam goodriche. I was born in the uK and made Aliyah as a child. In 2001, aged 18, I enlisted in the IDF as a paratrooper. Dur-ing the second Intifada we were stationed in Nablus – one of the main focuses of resist-ance. While on patrol we were frequently un-der fire from bullets, Molotov cocktails and road-side bombs. our lives were under threat at all times.

I was released in 2004 after three years of service.

soon after I left I began to suffer from flash-backs, nightmares, insomnia, anxiety attacks and long bouts of depression. I knew I needed help but I was worried I was exaggerating the symptoms. I withdrew into myself and moved away from my family and friends, both phys-ically and emotionally. In that way, I lost 10 years of my life.

Ten years later I finally approached a charity who offer professional help to veterans suffer-ing from post-combat symptoms. And during the three years that I was in treatment I discov-ered a number of organisations that offer help to people like me.

This bothered me – if there were so many or-ganisations, why hadn’t I found help sooner? I started to uncover a story of stigma. of vet-erans internalising their experiences. of a lack of information. And more simply, of just how difficult it is to say “I need help”.

That’s why I founded soul Talk. unlike many other services, soul Talk is pro-active. We seek out those who need our help. We’re on 11 uni-versity campuses, through our network of soul Talk Ambassadors. We’re in Dharamsala, in India, where many Israelis travel after leaving the army to “clear their head”. And we’re now in cusco in peru – another popular post-army destination. We meet, listen, talk, advise and, if needed, refer to professionals. sometimes just talking is enough.

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We also speak to lone-soldiers, who come to serve in the IDF from outside Israel, before they begin training. As you may already know, lone soldiers are particularly vulnerable because they don’t have the support of their families being nearby. We help them understand the dangers of not processing their combat expe-riences, and let them know how they can seek help. We share our experiences, answer ques-tions and distribute our contact details for the young recruits to contact us in the future.

With your support, no one needs to lose 10 years in the way that I did.

Thank you. sam

www.soultalk.co.ilIsraeli charity No. 580642049

A photo from one of our sessions on campus

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