Awards
The Prime Minister’s Award for Entrepreneurship and Non-Profit Innovation
The Prime Minister’s Award for Entrepreneurship and Non-Profit Innovation was presented to Prof. Rivka Yahav for her work in developing and implementing an innovative method for early detection and treatment of developmental difficulties in children at risk (such as sensory-motor, verbal, emotional and behavioral difficulties). The treatment project, which began in 2005, operates successfully in kindergartens throughout the country and among all sectors of the population and serves as a model that helps increase awareness of the need for early treatment for children at risk.
Wizo Recognizes “Women Breaking New Ground”
In a ceremony held in Haifa’s Nave Shaanon branch of Wizo, branch chairperson Nitza Sobovitch presented Certificates of Appreciation to Director of the Interdisciplinary Clinical Center (ICC) at Haifa University Prof. Rivka Yahav and to journalist Smadar Perry, a native of Nave Shaanan.
Prof. Yahav spoke about the ICC program for the identification of children at risk in Haifa neighbourhoods, the treatment they receive and parental guidance offered to their parents. Perry, who studied at Tel Hai school in Nave Shaanon, spoke about her meeting with former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and the Late King Hussein of Jordan.
The Recanati-Kop-Chais-Rashi Award for the Entrepreneur Teacher and Social Worker, 2009
The prize was awarded to Prof. Rivka Yahav in 2009 for her innovative project providing for ongoing child development guidance for children 3-6 years of age. The Recaniti-Kop-Chais-Rashi Award was founded by the entrepreneur Leon Recanti and former Director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, Professor Yaakov Kop. They were subsequently joined by Eli Eleluf, CEO of The Rashi Foundation, and the late Stanley Chais, an American businessman who was active in Israel in the area of society and education. The founders of the Award see the area of education and welfare as a key to community and social development in Israel. The Award seeks to encourage the application of work patterns common to entrepreneurs to education and welfare systems by bringing public attention to those who show initiative, both as individuals and as members of the educational and social services systems, in the design of projects that solve immediate problems and pave the way for future change.
Recognized by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, the prize is awarded to social workers in a number of fields within the social work profession who initiated and successfully developed unique approaches in their work and who identified social problems and found solutions to these problems. Their activities not only serve the needs of the local population and use creative modern methods to solve specific problems but also impact the lives of individuals, the community and society.
