On October 7th, a series of devastating terrorist attacks shook Israel to its core, leaving a lasting impact on the country. While the Swords of Iron War rages on, the SFI Group is focusing its efforts on how best to rehabilitate and restore Israeli society after the conflict ends.
That will be used to support victims, rehabilitate the Gaza envelope, boost the home front, and jumpstart socioeconomic activity that was harmed by the war. The organization is also collaborating with local authorities, social and public sectors, to gather and analyze data to help map the needs and challenges of affected residents and underprivileged populations.
To address the most pressing issues facing Israeli society, including early childhood development, mental health, underprivileged populations, and business resilience. As Israel begins to focus on the post-war period, the SFI Group's expertise in developing cross-sector partnerships and blended finance models will be invaluable. Working with the government, private sector, and philanthropic partners, SFI will develop and operate results-based projects to ensure efficacy and enable its partners in the field to address the challenges they face.
The SFI Group is committed to building a stronger and more resilient Israel
Among the many populations that have been, are currently, and will be harmed in the future by this war, children and youth are especially vulnerable. The crisis being experienced by the children of Israel, particularly those from the Gaza envelope, the south, and the north is immeasurably devastating, particularly following displacement from homes and the grief of losing parents, relatives, and friends. Supporting resilience among children is an essential and urgent component of the rehabilitation programs that we must demand.
SFI runs early childhood programs and has developed social projects to identify and address developmental delays for ages 3-6; to prevent childhood obesity; and to develop language literacy from birth to 3 years old.
Additionally, as part of strengthening the youths’ ability to create resilience and connect different segments of society, SFI currently runs a program in all the high schools in Rahat, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, to increase the number of students who complete four and five matriculation units in math and Hebrew studies.
For years, the country has been working with a variety of tools to treat post-trauma, especially among soldiers. Studies have proven that employment is a significant and critical aspect that affects one’s well-being and ability to contend with traumatic situations.
Right now, aiding civilians and soldiers experiencing PTSD is essential for rehabilitating those injured in this war and reducing the damage.
SFI is a founding organization of the Social Finance Global Network, which has run a program for post-traumatic soldiers in the United States. The program focused on achieving employment results by assisting with Individual Placement and Support, i.e., IPS supported employment, which has been found to be very effective with the RCT (randomized controlled tests) method, the most advanced method for proving statistical effectiveness.
Using the IPS approach as part of the rehabilitation for post trauma patients will enable increased resilience among this population, with the goal of ensuring their optimal integration within Israeli society.
At present, there are many elderly people who are home and afraid to go outside, in the shadow of war, and their daily routine has changed. This is true for the elderly population throughout the country, and particular for those from the conflict zones.
The SFI Group successfully developed and ran a project to alleviate loneliness among the elderly during the Covid-19 pandemic with impressive results. SFI implemented successful practices of a model that was used by our British partner in SFI’s Global Network. The project succeeded in achieving significant improvement in the levels of loneliness among the elderly, with the effect maintained over time, and with the level of loneliness measured in relation to a validated international measure. The cost of a lonely elderly person is between 38-61 thousand shekels per person, depending on gender and age. In Israel, there are approximately 308,000 lonely elderly people, so the cost to the economy ranges from 11.7-18.8 billion NIS.
Implementing the practices that have been proven effective in the project can address the challenges of loneliness among the elderly population in Israel. This project is relevant both for the elderly in the conflict zones and those who are afraid of leaving their homes at this time.
Many businesses in Israel are facing numerous challenges in relation to their employees, decreased revenue, and damage to infrastructure and equipment – throughout the entire country and particularly in the Gaza envelope. An optimal economy can aid in the war effort and mainly help the economic strength and resilience of the State of Israel after the war is over.
SFI has developed and established a number of results-based projects in the sphere of employment in recent years, including running three projects for diverse populations. Moreover, as a global network, we can quickly and efficiently implement solutions for times of crisis. Most of our models combine philanthropic funds and social investors with government funds, alongside impact measurement. These models enable us to design economically efficient and flexible solutions.
We are in advanced negotiations with the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office to establish a national rehabilitation fund for businesses, which will provide solutions for the short term and the long term. In the short term, we will want to address the immediate cash flow needs of businesses that have not yet received optimal responses from the country for their unique challenges. Along with these, we want to pool the needs of employers to create a complete package of solutions, which will serve as a “one-stop shop” for employers’ needs and will include guidance and building business plans.
Overnight, the current state of emergency brought up extensive and varied needs for gathering information and data, mapping and assessing the situation, and for data analysis that allows for optimal activity in all spheres. These include monitoring and treating evacuees and victims, addressing at-risk populations, matching volunteers to needs in the field, and more.
Nova, which is part of the SFI Group, has extensive experience in advising and managing data strategies in social and public fields (including welfare, employment, economic development, and more) in order to achieve better social results.
To date, Nova has worked with over 20 local authorities, dozens of non-profits, and a variety of government departments and public bodies on projects ranging from a holistic view of the changes that need to be made so that work can be data-driven to the development of practical and technical solutions (building dashboards, data bases, visualization tools, etc.). Nova also serves as a hub for training and information-sharing in these spheres, with a focus on formulating work routines and team skills in order to successfully implement data-driven work.
The Nova team and the Data.IL community which is operated by SFI Group have mobilized to assist in several ways. Work is being done together with partners from philanthropy, the national digital array (including the Arba HQ for Technology Assistance) the Innovation Authority, the Ministry of Finance, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, and the Prime Minister’s Office:
The current crisis has affected the routine operations of non-profits, some of which are being forced to change their existing projects in order to divert resources to the war effort. Generally, no attention is given to projects that are not related to the current situation. Additionally, economic and organizational difficulties have arisen as a result of this new situation.
Midot (part of the SFI Group) provides consulting and management support for non-profit organizations, both for strategic processes and in building work plans, budgets, and guiding managers. Midot guides the managers and boards of directors of non-profits in a variety of processes. Additionally, they have the knowledge and ability to assist and make adjustments to management tools that are relevant for crisis management.
The SFI Group is a public benefit company bringing an innovative approach to addressing social challenges in Israel. The Group consists of 3 leading social organizations in Israel – Social Finance Israel, the Nova Project, and Midot and is part of a global network of Social Finance organizations with sister organizations in the UK, the United States, the Netherlands, and India. We develop and implement innovative models and tools – outcomes-based models, data, impact measurement, quantitative research, and data-based management that allow us to measure the impact of our work on Israeli society. The SFI Group was established by Sir Ronald Cohen and Yaron Neudorfer in 2013 and is best known for implementing innovative blended finance models that bring together funding from diverse sources – philanthropy, investments, public financing, and more, to solve social challenges, directly integrating the private and social sectors. The Group works with all segments of Israeli society – social, public, and private sectors.
