Help These Special Needs Kids, live with dignity

My name is Mina Josselsohn, and I live in Jerusalem with my family. I am a mother of seven children, and by profession, I work with at-risk youth — helping them find their footing when they struggle in school and in life. It is work I care about deeply. But long before it became my profession, it became my personal journey.

My family has grown in beautiful and varied directions. My older children have become independent young adults one is serving in the army, another is studying at yeshiva, and another is pursuing a degree in architecture. My younger children are just starting out, beginning school and kindergarten, full of energy and curiosity. And in the middle of it all are my twin daughters Talia and Tamar who are 20, whose journey has shaped our family, and my life's mission, more than anything else.

Talia and Tamar were born in 2005, premature, and struggling from the start with serious health issues. Within their first year, we began to notice their development wasn't following the same path as other children. We soon learned they had autism and significant mental disabilities. They would need care not occasional care, not part-time care, but care around the clock, for the rest of their lives.

Running on Empty

What most people don't see from the outside is this: families like mine aren't only raising a special needs child. We're also raising the rest of our children through kindergarten, through school, through the army, through yeshiva, through university all while holding together a household, managing work and finances, and giving Talia and Tamar the round-the-clock attention they need.

There is no room left to rest, to think, to breathe. And without that breath, it becomes nearly impossible to sustain the strength this journey demands, year after year.

Relying on outside support becomes critical but most available services, sponsored through the health system, are stretched thin and overburdened, able to offer only limited help. Beyond that, the true cost of caring for a special needs child far exceeds what state support provides. And in Israel, that gap has only widened the cost of living has soared since COVID, and further still amid the recent wars and missile barrages, leaving families like mine stretched further than ever before.

Take Part In The Mitzvah Of Giving

Not Enough Support
In Israel

Israel does not currently have enough organizations offering a truly consistent, comprehensive solution for families like mine. Some help in small, valuable ways a few hours here, a program there but almost none provide the sustained, high-level, around-the-clock care that children like Talia and Tamar need as they grow into adulthood. At the same time, countless compassionate volunteers want to give their time and love to these children but have nowhere to bring that generosity. The willingness exists. The infrastructure does not.

This is the gap I have lived inside for 20years and it is the gap facing thousands of families across Israel.

The Solution: A Home Built on Partnership

Recently, we've been blessed to partner with an extraordinary organization that has spent the last 20 years successfully running a dedicated home for boys. Building on that proven foundation, we are now joining forces to open a dedicated home for girls a home for Talia and Tamar, and for other special needs children and young adults whose families carry the same weight and burden I have carried.

Every gem who calls this home their own will receive not just personal care, but the highest level of personal care. In its first stage, the home will operate out of a rented space, allowing us to begin this vital work without delay. As we grow with your partnership our goal is to move toward a permanent residence built specifically for the long-term needs of our children, embracing 12 families under one roof.

And once this home runs smoothly, we won't stop there. We will have the capacity to repeat this model and multiply our impact bringing this same standard of care to families across Israel.

The home will offer:

24/7 One-on-One Care

For our most complex and extreme cases, care cannot pause — not for a moment, not overnight, not ever. That's why select residents will receive dedicated, one-on-one support around the clock, with a trained caregiver present at every hour of the day and night. This isn't shift work in the traditional sense it's a continuous, personal relationship between caregiver and child, built on trust, familiarity, and consistency. From the quiet hours before dawn to the unpredictable moments that can arise without warning, these precious souls will never be alone, never unsupported, and never left to navigate a difficult moment without someone who knows them by their side.

Overlooking this chance to contribute is easy

Hydrotherapy Suite

For special needs kids and adults alike, water has a unique way of easing what solid ground cannot. Our warm-water Jacuzzi and Hydrotherapy Suite offers a gentle, buoyant space where muscle tension melts away, mobility is supported, and the whole body can simply relax. The warmth and weightlessness of water often bring a rare sense of calm to bodies that carry so much tension throughout the day.

Beyond relaxation, structured hydrotherapy sessions guided by trained therapists support physical development, coordination, and strength for those with complex needs, all while feeling less like therapy and more like comfort. For many of our gems, time in the water becomes a favorite part of the day: playful, soothing, and deeply healing all at once.

👉 Your gift helps bring the healing power of water into daily life for special needs kids and adults.

Private Bedroom Suites

Every young adult deserves a room that reflects who they are not a shared space, not a clinical setting, but a private sanctuary truly their own. Each resident will have their own private bedroom, complete with a comfortable double bed and personal amenities, designed with the same care, warmth, and attention to detail as any beautifully furnished home. These are not institutional rooms. They are private suites a space to rest, to feel safe, and to simply be.

Too often, society treats special needs young adults as a burden to be managed rather than as individuals deserving of comfort, privacy, and respect. We believe the opposite. Every resident who calls this home their own will be treated like the king or queen they are given a room worthy of their dignity, filled with beauty, comfort, and the quiet luxury of having a space that is entirely theirs. Because true care isn't just about meeting basic needs. It's about honoring the person inside.

👉 Your gift helps give a young adult the privacy, comfort, and dignity of a room truly their own.

Short Term Goals

"Until we raise enough funding to establish permanent, long-term residences for girls, we want to support these families right now. Our goal is to help send their children away during the upcoming chagim Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Chanukah, Sukkot, and Pesach giving them a chance to breathe and recharge after periods of stress within Israel."

👉 Your gift helps give a young adult the privacy, comfort, and dignity of a room truly their own.

Garden Therapy

There is something deeply healing about placing your hands in soil and watching something grow. In a dedicated therapeutic garden on-site, our special souls will plant seeds, tend to flowers, and watch life unfold at its own gentle pace a rhythm many autistic and special needs individuals find profoundly calming. Guided by trained horticultural therapists, garden therapy offers sensory engagement, physical activity, and the quiet, powerful lesson that patience and care create beauty.

But healing doesn't stop at the garden gate. In the warmth of spring and summer, we'll extend this connection to nature even further creating dedicated outdoor spaces away from the walls of the home entirely, where residents can feel open sky above them, grass beneath their feet, and the freedom that only the outdoors can offer. Shaded seating areas, open lawns, and quiet outdoor corners will give our special souls a place to breathe, play, and simply exist outside away from routine, away from walls, immersed instead in sunlight, fresh air, and the wide, gentle world beyond the building. For many, it becomes more than a garden it becomes a place of pride, purpose, and peace.

Share in A Vision To Create a Better Life For Autisim

Private Bath & Shower Suites

Every child deserves a bathroom that feels like a sanctuary, not a clinic. Each resident will have their own private, beautifully designed bath and shower suite safe-proofed with the highest standards of care, yet crafted to feel warm, luxurious, and personal rather than institutional. Soft lighting, calming colors, gentle textures, and thoughtful design will transform a daily routine into a moment of genuine comfort and dignity.

For many of our special souls, sensory experience shapes how safe and at ease they feel in a space so every detail, from water temperature control to non-slip, child-safe surfaces to soothing ambiance, will be considered with intention. This isn't just about hygiene. It's about giving each child a space that is truly their own — one where they can feel calm, cared for, and beautiful, exactly as they are.

👉 Your gift helps create a private space where every child feels safe, dignified, and at home.

Art & Creative Therapy Spaces

For autistic young adults, a paintbrush or a drum can say what words cannot. Inside the home, our Art & Creative Spaces offer residents like Talia and Tamar a language beyond speech — guided by trained music and art therapists who create at their pace, not ours.

Music holds special power here: a steady rhythm can soothe, a familiar tune can spark instant joy. Facilitators sit beside each child or young adult, following their lead, helping them find their own voice.

Overlooking this chance to contribute is easy

Massage & Physiotherapy

For a child whose body carries tension words can't express, healing hands often speak the loudest. Twice a month, a licensed massage and physiotherapy practitioner will visit the home, offering residents dedicated sessions of therapeutic touch and gentle movement.

For many special needs children and young adults, physical touch brings a rare kind of calm — easing muscle tension, supporting circulation, and quieting an overstimulated body. Physiotherapy helps maintain mobility, comfort, and physical wellbeing over time.

Technology & Sensory Experience - For Every Child with Autism Who's Waiting to Be Heard

For a young adult with autism, the world can be overwhelming too loud, too bright, too much. A sensory room offers something priceless: a place to calm the storm, to feel safe in their own skin, to simply be. But comfort is only part of the story. So many of our children have voices that the world isn't equipped to hear voices that need a tablet, an app, a screen to say "I'm hungry," "I love you," or "I'm scared." Technology isn't a luxury here; it's a lifeline to connection, to laughter, to the simple joy of watching a favorite show or communicating a need without frustration or tears. Every donation helps us build sensory rooms that soothe, and provide the computers, tablets, and communication devices that give our children a voice and a way to enjoy the world like any child deserves to. Your generosity doesn't just fund a room or a device. It funds a breakthrough. A moment of connection. A life a little less isolated, and a lot more whole.

Imagine a place where a young adult with autism doesn't just receive care but feels truly at home. Where waking up each morning means sunlight streaming through wide windows onto a garden view, where independence is designed into every doorway and every fixture, and where dignity isn't an afterthought but the whole point. This is what we're building at Shutafim BaLev: not an institution, but a sanctuary a place as beautiful and welcoming as any five-star retreat, created for the young people who deserve nothing less. Every gift, whether it's a one-time act of kindness or a recurring monthly commitment, brings us closer to giving these precious souls and the families who love them a home built on comfort, safety, and belonging. You have the power to turn this vision into walls, into windows, into a life transformed. Will you help us build it?

Become a Partner In Heart

Chef-Prepared Catering

For special needs children and young adults, food is never just a meal it's medicine, mood, and daily wellbeing all on one plate. In many mainstream care settings, quick, carbohydrate-heavy meals are served for convenience, often leaving residents sluggish, dysregulated, or simply not at their best. We believe these children deserve better.

Inside the home, a professional chef will prepare every meal individually thoughtfully balanced, nutrient-rich, and tailored to each resident's unique dietary needs, sensitivities, and sensory preferences. Because we understand that for special needs kids, a well-rounded plate isn't a luxury it's foundational to how they feel, focus, and thrive each day. Every ingredient is chosen with intention, every meal prepared with care, because true healing starts from the inside out.

Cooking Experiences
& Special Kitchen

For our higher-functioning gems, independence often begins in the simplest places — like a kitchen built just for them. In a specially adapted, accessible space, our special souls will learn to prepare basic meals with their own two hands, guided step by step at their own pace. There's real pride in stirring a pot, slicing a fruit, or plating a dish made with love — and real joy in sitting down to enjoy it. These moments build more than cooking skills; they build confidence, autonomy, and a small, powerful sense of "I can do this."

Day Trips Excursion

What most people don't see from the outside is this: families like mine aren't only raising a special needs child. We're also raising the rest of our children through kindergarten, through school, through the army, through yeshiva, through university all while holding together a household, managing work and finances, and giving Talia and Tamar the round-the-clock attention they need.

There is no room left to rest, to think, to breathe. And without that breath, it becomes nearly impossible to sustain the strength this journey demands, year after year.

Relying on outside support becomes critical but most available services, sponsored through the health system, are stretched thin and overburdened, able to offer only limited help. Beyond that, the true cost of caring for a special needs child far exceeds what state support provides. And in Israel, that gap has only widened the cost of living has soared since COVID, and further still amid the recent wars and missile barrages, leaving families like mine stretched further than ever before.

Family Respite Means (Short Period of Rest for families)
& 5 Star Permanent Care for Special Needs Souls

Families raising a child with special needs carry a kind of quiet exhaustion that's often invisible from the outside. Between therapy appointments, school meetings, medical paperwork, and the constant emotional labor of advocating for their child, even basic needs like a home-cooked meal or a moment to rest can feel like luxuries rather than givens. For families who also have neurotypical children, the balancing act becomes even more delicate — parents often find themselves stretched between the intensive, ongoing care their special needs child requires and the desire to give their other children equal attention, presence, and normalcy. Siblings sometimes grow up learning patience and empathy early, but they can also feel overlooked, even guilty for having needs of their own in a household where so much energy is rightfully devoted elsewhere. None of this diminishes the love these families have for every member of their household — but it does mean that time, energy, and resources are constantly being triaged, often silently, day after day. Recognizing this reality is important: these families don't need to be pitied, but they do deserve support systems, community, and services that lighten the load — so that caring for one child's needs doesn't have to come at the quiet cost of another's, or their own.

Imagine a place where a young adult with autism doesn't just receive care but feels truly at home. Where waking up each morning means sunlight streaming through wide windows onto a garden view, where independence is designed into every doorway and every fixture, and where dignity isn't an afterthought but the whole point. This is what we're building at Shutafim BaLev: not an institution, but a sanctuary a place as beautiful and welcoming as any five-star retreat, created for the young people who deserve nothing less. Every gift, whether it's a one-time act of kindness or a recurring monthly commitment, brings us closer to giving these precious souls and the families who love them a home built on comfort, safety, and belonging. You have the power to turn this vision into walls, into windows, into a life transformed. Will you help us build it?

Become a Partner In Heart