Friends of Yemin Orde Announces $6.5 Million Challenge Grant by Marcus Foundation of Atlanta to Help Educate Israel's At-Risk Youth

Online, January 14, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Friends of Yemin Orde is pleased to announce it has received a $6.5 million challenge grant from the Marcus Foundation of Atlanta to expand Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives' (YOEI) outreach to more therapeutic residential communities and schools for at-risk youth in Israel. Beginning January 2013, the Marcus Foundation will provide $1.3 million each year for five years to YOEI on the condition that Friends of Yemin Orde can match the 2:1 challenge grant with $675,000 each year. This is the second such challenge grant awarded to YOEI by the Marcus Foundation. Friends of Yemin Orde is the US fundraising arm for Yemin Orde Youth Village and Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives. YOEI was created in 2006 to spread its successful educational methodology implemented at Yemin Orde Youth Village to other villages and schools in Israel.

YOEI partners with youth villages and schools in Israel where large populations of at-risk children struggle with learning and emotional difficulties. Through YOEI's Educational Institute, educators receive teacher training, workshops and interventions that help apply the Village Way methodology in their schools; thereby, meeting the therapeutic and educational needs of the at-risk children they serve. The ultimate goal of the methodology is to educate youth into becoming functioning heads of households who actively contribute to their community.

"Thanks to the generous partnership of the Marcus Foundation, Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives has made a tremendous impact over the past five years in transforming education for Israeli immigrant and at-risk youth," said Michael Frieze, Chairman, Friends of Yemin Orde. "The first challenge gift of two dollars for every dollar raised by Friends of Yemin Orde has allowed the Village Way educational model and its methodology, as developed at Yemin Orde Youth Village, to reach over 400 educators working with over 2,000 children in five different youth villages, plus a community-based school."

Chaim Peri, founder and visionary behind Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives, says the future looks promising for Israel's vulnerable children in these communities that are embracing a different conceptual way of viewing education for at-risk youth and applying it accordingly.

"Life in these communities is like a large puzzle in which the pieces must fit together. These children require a coherent, consistent educational environment," said Peri. "Thanks to Bernie Marcus and the trustees of the Marcus Foundation, we are elated to think of what we can achieve now for hundreds more children as we look forward to the next five years."

Since 1999, Bernie Marcus, Co-Founder, Home Depot, and the Marcus Foundation have made gifts totaling $14 million dollars for programs at Yemin Orde Youth Village and more recently for Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives. Marcus was astonished at the positive impact Yemin Orde and Peri's Village Way methodology had on traumatized children in Israel.

The Marcus Foundation requires specific benchmarks to evaluate short term and long term success of the YOEI expansion program. Tracking of graduates is a key component of the evaluation. By the end of 2017, YOEI hopes to impact another 15 communities, including 10 high schools and five therapeutic boarding schools.

Philanthropic support provides funding for the training programs and seminars developed at the Derech Kfar (Village Way) Educational Institute and for allocations to specific residential villages and high schools serving at-risk youth so these communities can implement core programs.

Friends of Yemin Orde is the U.S.-based fundraising arm of Yemin Orde Youth Village and YOEI. The youth village provides a home, a safe haven and an education to hundreds of Israel's at-risk youth from around the world; YOEI is an independent entity created to spread the successful educational methodology implemented at Yemin Orde to other villages and schools in Israel. For information, visit www.yeminorde.org, email [email protected] or call 202-237-0286.