Inter-University Research Group - The Laboratory for Resilience Research

The group is led by Dr. Shelly Engdau of the University of Haifa and in collaboration with the Nevet Greenhouse of Context-Informed Research and Training. Master’s students are invited to apply to this joint research group that will focus on the connection between risk and resilience in the context of child protection, resilience-informed practices, and social workers from minority populations.

Students who join the research group will receive guidance from professors and doctoral students specializing in the research of different communities, mentoring, the opportunity to meet lecturers and students through the group, and the use of the laboratory facilities in both universities. To apply, students can email their resumes to Dr. Engdau: SENGDAU@UNIV.HAIFA.AC.IL

Research Team: Dr. Shelly Engdau in collaboration with the Nevet Greenhouse

 

The Practice of Knowledge from Experience

This is a collaborative research and learning team with Dr. Orna Shemer, the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute for Applied Research and other interested parties from the field. To strengthen the integration of 'knowledge from experience' or ‘life knowledge’ in the field and in academia, the learning and research group will research and develop the practices of professionals through a ‘knowledge from experience’ design.

The research will invite critical thinking and the development of actionable knowledge through participatory approaches while working with different communities and contexts, such as people living in poverty, people with disabilities and their families, and more.

Research Team: Dr. Orna Shemer and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute

 

Psycho-biotechnology

Action Research Accompanying the Applied Development in Sha’ar HaNegev  

The research team invites a student to join the research incubator and the applied development centered in Sha’ar HaNegev. This research incubator is a network of partnerships between academia and the field that aims to train a new generation of leading professionals towards an identity that comprises of both a professional and a researcher facet. The incubator is currently piloting several applied developments accompanied by participatory action research. These developments focus on the integration of psychology and biotechnology with the aim of providing monitoring, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of trauma among educators, parents, children and adolescents living in the context of an ongoing security threat.

Research Team: Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier, Dr. Yan Serdtse and Mr. Haim Fleischman

 

Evaluation of the Vesta Tzaga Center

The research team invites a student to join in evaluating the unique model of this center. The Vesta Tzaga Center treats populations from minority groups with a context- and culture-informed approach. Preference will be given to students from the Ethiopian community.

Research Team: Prof. Yochai Nadan, Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier, and the Vesta Tzaga Center director Ms. Yishito Shmuel

 

Asylum Seeker Communities

This team researches communities of asylum seekers throughout the country. The study focuses on child-parent relationships as well as the identity, community and educational aspects of asylum seekers and those who come in contact with them. Students are invited to research various topics related to the communities of asylum seekers in the country from a context-informed perspective and among different groups of participants, such as parents, kindergarten teachers, children and cultural mediators.

Research Team: Prof. Edith Blit-Cohen and Dr. Iris Tzadok

 

Parents’ and Professionals’ Perceptions of Risk and Protection in the Ultra-Orthodox Community 

This research group examines perceptions of risk and child protection in ultra-Orthodox communities. So far, the group has interviewed ultra-Orthodox fathers, mothers, children, families seeking welfare services, and male social workers who work with the community. This year, we want to expand to other perspectives in the ultra-Orthodox population in the field of risk and child protection (for example, female professionals working with the community). Priority will be given to female master’s students from the ultra-Orthodox community.

Research Team: Prof. Yochai Nadan, Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier and doctoral student Rivki Keesing

 

Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Risk and Protective Behaviors

A research group led by Prof. Maya Benish-Weisman that examines the effect of parent-child relationships on the mental health and adjustment of parents and adolescents. As part of the study, data will be collected from families using online questionnaires. Students who speak Hebrew, Arabic and Russian and who feel comfortable with quantitative analysis methods are invited (guidance will be given in statistics).

Research Team: Prof. Maya Benish-Weisman

 

Home and Houselessness

This research group is led by Dr. Hadass Moore and focuses on how home and houselessness is experienced by different population groups. The research group is involved in various qualitative and quantitative studies that deal with the various dimensions of the concept of home and lack of one. This is done while accounting for the influence of special contexts, such as gender, origin, nationality, religion, level of religiosity, etc., and of nested contexts, such as the school context for houseless students, houselessness nested within a community or a district and so on.

Research Team: Dr. Hadass Moore

 

First Generation in Higher Education

This research group is setting out this year to evaluate the Hebrew University’s "First in Academia" program. Preference will be given to first-generation university students.

Research Team: Dr. Efrat Lusky-Weisrose, Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier, Dr. Hadass Moore, Dr. Orna Shemer, Prof. Shalhevet Attar and Dr. Yan Serdtse

Context-Informed Therapy: Qualitative Research on the Experiences of Patients and Therapists

This research group focuses on psychotherapy and psychosocial treatment (personal, couple and family) that take place in unique contexts, such as unique cultural, religious, socio-economic, gender, language and online contexts. This research strives to explore the experiences and meanings given to the therapeutic process by the patients and the therapists.

Research Team: Prof. Orya Tishby, Prof. Yochay Nadan 

Researching the University Multicultural Kindergarten

This group is researching the multicultural kindergarten based at the Hebrew university. The group had looked so far at aspects of community perceptions of children, parents, kindergarten staff and university members as well as multicultural and diversity perceptions. Other studies from this group, are related to children’s agency and children’s reaction to COVID -19.

Currently the group plans to compare our findings regarding community aspects with other kindergartens based in different academic organizations. We are looking for partnerships with other researchers interested in this topic from Israel and abroad.

Research Team:  Prof. Heidi Keller, Prof, Edit Blit-Cohen, Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier, Or Alter, Hadar Yahav, Maysa Zahra, Bat Chen Mualem.

 

Family Group Conference Model for Families with Children at Risk

A Family Group Conference (FGC) is a model based process used for reaching a joint decision between families (including their childrens), professionals, and community members regarding the concerns that exist towards the children at risk . This process is led by a trained coordinator, who over a period of a few weeks accompanies the family and the people from the community who support them, in order to come together to build an intervention plan to improve the well-being of children and reduce risk. This model, carried out in several countries, is currently run as a pilot in Israel in several cities as a possible alternative to "decision committees" for children at risk. The pilot is currently being implemented with families from diverse cultural groups (e.g. Ultra orthodox, immigrants) and is led by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, JDC-Ashalim and the Ministry of Immigration and Integration. The pilot itself is carried out by Mosaica.
This research group is conducting a longitudinal evaluation study of mixed methods by interviewing parents, children, social workers, coordinators and supportive members from the community. In addition to understanding aspects of FGC practice, we also explore perceptions of risk and protection within cultural context and the relationship between the diverse communities and the welfare systems.

Research team: Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier, Dr. Orna Shemer, Dr. Yasmin Abud-Halabi, Yan Serdtse, Liraz Mizrahi-Levy, Gilat Biton, Vered Cohen, Hodaya Benitah, Mayan Omer, Ahlam Abokirn, Netanya Mischel, Ahmad Drawshy, Fatima Abusara.

For more information: Dr. Orna Shemer: ORNASHEMER4@GMAIL.COM

 

Attachment in Large Families

The goal of the attachment research group is to describe and understand relational networks in families from different cultural groups. Attachment theory and research is based on the family model within the Western middle class. This model is applied to families worldwide but does not adequately capture their developmental dynamics. In Israel the study specifically focuses on families with many children, such as Ultra-Orthodox Jewish families, Christian and Muslim Arab families and families from Ethiopian origin. We try to assess the subjective representations of relationships of the family members with a multimethod approach.

Research Team: Prof. Heidi Keller, Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier, Dr. Yochay Nadan, Hannah Bartl

For more information: HANNAH.BARTL@YAHOO.COM