Success stories

I was a very active man, working in a garage doing the most complex jobs for about 24 years.

 One day, in addition to the many physical challenges I face, such as chronic arthritis and herniated discs for which I am being treated in a pain clinic, I had a mental breakdown. I didn't want to live anymore, and I had more and more suicide attempts.

After three months of hospitalization and another nine months of day hospitalization, I arrived at the Shvim factory. On the first day I left, intending to leave and apparently attempt suicide again as soon as I got home.

The factory manager caught me and talked to me, thanks to that I gave the place another chance and today, a year and a half later, I am a successful supervisor. Leading the most complex projects, opening and closing the factory and preparing the work for the employees.

As I tell this, I wonder what it looked like to the team when, a week after the start, I walked into the factory manager's office and said I wanted to be a guide. A few months later, a course opened at the Haifa Consumer Service Provider Initiative Center, and I attended it.

Slowly, I took on more and more responsibility at the factory, complex jobs such as renewing water meters, assembling vests, and more.

 I was able to discover that while I help others, I become stronger and begin to get closer to who I was before the collapse.

Today I am responsible for the factory's projects and will be taking a forklift course. During my work at the factory, I met the rehabilitation coordinator who helped me not only cope with the factory but also with the challenges at home. Once the pressure at home decreased due to a change in my behavior, I began to improve greatly in terms of health and be more successful.

One of the biggest challenges for Arabs suffering from mental illness is the stigma, and this is the main difficulty for me and other patients, and it is the main reason why they do not receive the treatment and assistance offered to them.

A. was hospitalized at the age of 16, diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. He spent about 20 years in hospitals. He began working in the sheltered factory about 4 years ago. Before that, he had never worked. As he progressed in his work at the factory, he later joined the housing unit.

During his time at the factory, he acquired soft skills, created social connections within the work environment, and adapted to a regular workday. Over the past year, a process of employment guidance began in order to find work in the open market. A few months ago, he began working at a carton manufacturing factory under the guidance of an employment coordinator. A. initially experienced difficulties in integrating into the work: finding ways to get to the factory, physical and mental difficulties. Under the close guidance, we addressed every difficulty and thought together about solutions. Today, A. says that he is very satisfied with the work and that it gives him meaning and self-confidence.

My name is Tami, I am 39 years old, married + 3 children.

In 2014, following a crisis I experienced, I came to Shavim and was integrated into a variety of jobs in the sheltered factory.

After about 3 months, as part of the IYL project, I joined and worked for about a year at Concept Pharmaceuticals.

During this period, I was prepared to work in the free market and was hired as an assistant in a kindergarten, where I worked for about 3 years.

After I expressed interest in changing my field of study, I met with Nathan, the placement coordinator, and we began thinking about additional fields in which I could integrate.

 Nathan recommended a job for me in the field of satisfaction surveys at a survey company called MIS, where I worked as a surveyor in a call center for about a year and a half.

 Due to a medical problem, I had to resign from this job.

I continued to meet with Nathan and he suggested that I apply the experience I had gained in the field of surveys and being a contestant and integrate as a team member at the Shvim KPAS as an instructor and a supervisor in training and managing contestants at a survey center established at the factory.

I really liked and enjoyed working as a mentor to contestants, and in fact, for me it was a complete circle.

After the survey project ended, I had to finish my work on equal terms.

During the meetings with Nathan, I shared with him that I really liked working with people with special needs and I was interested in my next job having similar characteristics.

Nathan searched for and found a position as a counselor in a sheltered facility run by the Ministry of Social Affairs for people with special needs.

I've been working there for about two months as a counselor, and I really enjoy my work and my integration there.

Great thanks and appreciation to the team at Bishvim who helped and continues to help me realize my abilities.

peace,

Until a year and a half ago, I worked at a factory worth about 8 months.

The beginning there was very difficult for me.

I told Yael, the coordinator at the factory, that I was unable to work at all.

They took me into consideration and allowed me to come to the factory twice a week, 3 hours a day.

The warm attitude, appreciation, support, and encouragement from the team did their job and helped me progress, and later I was able to work 5 days a week.

Throughout this period, I acquired a lot of knowledge on the job and even joined the electrical department.

I have no words to describe the team's enormous investment in all areas, even beyond work matters.

During this period, I was prepared to work in the free market and later I was accepted and hired to work in an electronic circuit manufacturing factory as a circuit assembler.

I am satisfied and highly valued by my superiors at work.

Even after working in the free market for a year, I would come to the Equals once a week on Fridays and continue to receive the support and encouragement that were so important to me.

Today, I continue to receive employment guidance from the placement coordinator and am very satisfied with it.

The warm treatment I receive from him, the help, support, encouragement, and interest in my well-being help me greatly to succeed at work.

I wish the Shvim team all the best in the world, blessings and success in all your endeavors.

May you continue to do your important and commendable work of helping more candidates successfully integrate into work in the free market.

During this period I worked in the field of frameworks. In 2013 I was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital for two weeks due to a suicide attempt, where I received medication and then began to stabilize. After hospitalization, I was referred to the "Shavim" sheltered facility by the social worker who accompanied me.

On my first day at work at the factory during my morning break, I ran away. The next day, the factory manager came to my house and told me, "Come to us, you look talented, help me look for contracting jobs for the factory." Hats off to her.

I arrived at the factory the next day and started working. The team tested what I was good at and let me work on an electrical cable machine. I had to connect the cables to the generators. At that time, I also worked in a gardening factory, I was arranging a garden outside the factory. After that, they offered me a change of position in the factory, giving me the factory maintenance position. I was in the position for three years, learning about the machines on my own. In my past, I was a maintenance person at a hotel in Eilat, so I had the professional background.

Later, the manager called me in for a conversation and suggested that I get a forklift license. I did the license and within a few days I received the license. I also took a safety course at the factory. Later, I also worked as an assistant instructor. Today, I work as a maintenance person, forklift operator, and assistant instructor.

I feel that thanks to the manager I had in the past, she led me to who I am today in the factory. No one would take care of me at first, only her. If I did something right or wrong, she was always with me. I feel at the factory like home. I feel good, not like back then when I didn't eat or drink. I took myself in hand and helped myself. As soon as I got a push, I took it as it should be and moved forward.

Today I have been at the factory for 8 years. I want to thank the factory team for giving me the opportunity to reach my position and turning me into a new person.

At a young age, when I was 23, I entered the Haifa Shavim factory. I arrived in a new world, I met people older than me, I felt a feeling that I can hardly describe.

 As I remember, the factory staff welcomed me, welcomed me, and got to know me.

 At first it was very difficult for me to acclimatize, to get used to a new environment, but slowly I got used to it.
And I overcame the difficulty, and that was thanks to the warm and supportive team.

 At first I worked about 3 days until I got acclimated, and since then I've worked 5 days a week.
I joined the sorting and packaging department and to this day I work in the same department because I enjoy it.
I managed to maintain good relationships with most of the rehabilitators, with whom we maintained a good mutual connection, to the point where we built friendships together.

 Today I believe and know that I have high abilities, and I always receive compliments from the team. I know that I do all the steps with good quality and precision.
Until this moment, I have not found myself in supported employment, even though there have been several attempts to convince me, and every time the rehabilitation plan is built together with the rehabilitation coordinator, the above-mentioned issue comes up and I refuse and reject it. The most important thing for me is to persist in good, quality work, because I feel self-satisfied.
I just enjoy the work, the team, the rehabilitators, the salary, and the treatment I've never received.

 I love you all and hope I can continue my journey in the factory.

When rehabilitation is framed, change occurs.

 From a closed ward in a mental health hospital to the center of Haifa, 3 Atlit Alley Street.

 A. did not reach the level of equals to work.

 She came to start over.

 When she joined a few years ago, she brought with her a complex history of 32 psychiatric hospitalizations , the last of which lasted seven and a half years in a row . She arrived withdrawn and neglected, with significant difficulty in emotional regulation, communication, and daily functioning. Trust in herself and in the systems was almost nonexistent.

 We didn't try to change it quickly, though.

 A stable, clear, and tailored framework was built for her – routine, rhythm, daily and meaningful work.

 And when a difficulty arose, it was treated as a natural part of the process, not as a failure.

 Through human guidance, consistent reinforcement, and adapting tasks to her abilities, her strengths began to be revealed: ability to express herself, accuracy, responsibility, and quality work. A connection was created, trust was built.

 Gradually, A. learned to identify difficult situations, ask for help, use regulation tools, and share – both in struggles and successes.

 Today, A' is calmer, more connected to herself, demonstrates a high level of work, curiosity, and commitment. She is strengthening personal independence, settling into a routine, and taking another significant step – entering the placement process toward integration into the open labor market.

 This is not a story of miracles.

 This is the story of a consistent, professional, and humane rehabilitation process.

 Equally –

 Rehabilitation is built anew every day, through work, connection, and the human perspective.

 February 2026

"S., 28 years old, sought occupational guidance at the Tiberias Shavim Center after his release from day hospitalization.

 At the beginning of the process, his high technical abilities stood out, and as a result, he joined the carpentry business.

 With the close support of the employment coordinator, S. strengthened his self-confidence, developed independence and improved his interpersonal communication skills in the workplace. Over time, out of a desire to advance professionally, he examined options for additional training with the coordinator. He began to gain practical experience in a garage and at the same time was accepted to study automotive engineering.

 "Today, S. has been working at the garage for two years, performing complex duties and is in the midst of his second year of studies, with a broad professional horizon and potential for future promotion."

This is the story of perseverance that met the right support in equals - and opened a door to a new future.

 Hence his future.

"In Shavim there is the hand of God to exist, literally, I am here."