Building Mental Resilience and Preventing Risk Behaviors Among Youth

Building Mental Resilience and Preventing Risk Behaviors Among Youth
The program deals in developing ways to prevent violence in youth movements and in educational intervention tools to prevent smoking, drug and alcohol use and additional risk behaviors. The program accompanies a team of youth movement coordinators and provides a unique response to every youth movement according to its needs and challenges. Program participation is viewed as a central and important pillar in addressing and contending with the complex challenge of preventing dangerous and endangering behaviors.

Fighting for Life – Preventing Road Accidents: collaboration between the CYMI and the National Road Safety Authority.
Protecting human life as of the utmost importance to the youth movements, and accordingly they act to increase road safety and to prevent toad accidents. As part of their joint activity each youth movement appointed coordinators responsible for this activity area. The youth movements’ representatives participated in training and information activity conducted by the National Road Safety Authority, followed by activities on this issue conducted by the youth movements. In this program the youth movements engage in varied forms of information, education and integration activities in order to increase road safety and prevent road accidents.
A developing program of the CYMI, the youth movements, the Ministry of Education (Psychological Counseling Service and the Society and Youth Administration), the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel and additional entities.
The CYMI, together with the youth movements, is developing knowledge areas, discourse and tools to prevent and contend with sexual violence and abuse. The tools include training conducted for position holders in the youth movements to familiarize them with the topic and teach them how to contend with the issue. In these trainings the coordinators and senior age-group counselors learn how to deal with sexual abuse complaints brought to their attention. This topic is addressed with the assistance of professional entities, and not as a regular intra-youth movement activity. The CYMI assists the youth movements and refers them to the needed professional and treatment entities.

Gatekeepers - Detection and Guidance Tools for Suicide Prevention Coordinators:
A joint program of the CYMI and the Ministry of Health (Suicide Prevention Unit). The coordinators, Shnat Sherut (Service Year) participants and youth movement counselors are trained as Gatekeepers who learn how to detect and guide children and youth in the youth movements who are in danger of committing suicide. The program began in 2016, and by 2020 more than 4000 Gatekeepers were trained. An evaluation study conducted by the Service Prevention Unit accompanies the program.
In partnership with the Lung Ambition Alliance as part of an international initiative to prevent smoking which is one of the leading causes of death.
The Council of Youth Movements in Israel develops and promotes smoking prevention as an awareness raising program, in addition to prevention programs in the youth movements and in the communities in which they operate.