West Rogers Park – The shock waves generated by the accidental death of a small child last Sunday were felt by the entire community. Almost immediately, Chai Lifeline’s Project CHAI, part of of the Bellows Family National Crisis Intervention Program, was on hand to offer emotional and professional support to educators, parents, friends, and the family itself.
A Monday evening video-teleconference with Dr. Norman Blumenthal, director of Chai Lifeline’s department of crisis intervention and bereavement services, and Zahava Farbman, LSCW, Project CHAI coordinator, enabled the administration and educational staff of the Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov Elementary School, where the child had been enrolled in kindergarten, to prepare for the inevitable grief and questions of students. Speaking from New York, Dr. Blumenthal and Mrs. Farbman provided a framework for children’s reactions to the news and offered the educators suggestions for helping children at each grade level. Five mental health professionals were on hand to address the teachers following the Project CHAI presentation.
“This is one of the times we’re grateful that this technology exists,” remarked Rabbi Shlomo Crandall, Chai Lifeline’s Midwest region director. “The schools were able to take advantage of their expertise and experience without delay.”
Project CHAI materials that offered tips for talking to children about tragedy and death were among the package of materials sent to parents by the school on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, tragedy has repercussions for students in several schools. Dr. Blumenthal flew to Chicago on Tuesday to meet with the administration and staff of Yeshiva Tiferet Tzvi. The psychologist, together with Rav Dovid Zucker, rosh kollel of the Chicago Community Kollel, spoke to more than 60 parents from both schools at a special Wednesday evening presentation. Educators from several community schools also attended the session.
“The Bellows Family National Crisis Intervention Program empowers families and communities to respond effectively when crisis, trauma, or tragedy impacts our children,” stated Rabbi Simcha Scholar, Chai Lifeline’s executive vice president. “Working together with educators and community leaders, Project CHAI’s professionals and paraprofessionals can help explain the inexplicable to children and provide a milieu for expressing their feelings and assimilating very sad events into their lives. It is a critically important job for which we wish there was no need, and we are grateful to the Bellows family for facilitating the program.”
For more information about Project CHAI and other Chai Lifeline programs in the Midwest, visit www.chailifeline.org/midwest or call 847 763-1818.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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2 Responses
Rachmono yatzil oisom mikol tzoroh. The Chicago Ortghodox community has the ultimate achdus that should exist in Klal Yisroel. This is a tragedy that permeated the entire community with grief. BH that there are institutions such as Chai Lifeline that immediately offered the help and comfort needed. We should all see at the end of this year a complete end to all the tzoros of Klal Yisroel everywhere and a beginning for the New Year of only brochos and simchos everywhere.
For theprof1:
Tragedies always unite communities. Even the most shtarke litvak was a chassid Thanksgiving weekend watching the Mumbai story unfold. The true judge of a community is do they LIVE B’Achdus, not if they DIE B’Achdus. When every Jew is valued and no one feels they are SO special that they can be rodef after others that’s when Achdus permeates a city and can be admired as a model city. Think about it, and have a Gut Yur!