The Personal and Social Services Administration

Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs

The Personal and Social Services Administration is responsible for ensuring the safety, welfare, and rights of individuals, families, children, and youth at risk or in crisis. It operates a comprehensive range of community-based and residential services across Israel.

Target Populations

• Children at Risk
• Children & Youth in Foster Care and adoption
• People suffering Poverty and Social Exclusion
• Victims of Sexual Abuse, Violence or Trauma
• People suffering Bereavement and Loss
• Communities 
• Volunteers

Main Units

• Senior Division for Out-of-Home Frameworks for Children, Youth, and Special Placements
• Senior Division for Families, Children, and Youth in the Community
• Senior Division for Community Resources
• Foster Care Services for Children
• Adoption Services
• MAOR Call Center (Child Protection Hotline)
• Senior Division for "Iron Swords" Emergency Response
• Planning and Budgeting Unit

Senior Division for Out-of-Home Frameworks for Children, Youth, and Special Placements

This division oversees services for at-risk children and youth requiring placement outside their homes, shelters and transitional apartments for battered women and their children, and specialized care facilities for infants and mothers.

Facilities include:

• 16 shelters for battered women (including specialized shelters for Arab, ultra-Orthodox, and mixed populations)
• Transitional apartments for longer-term rehabilitation (for Arab, ultra-Orthodox, and mixed populations)
• Residential care homes for children aged 6-12 with complex emotional, behavioral, or psychiatric needs (classified into Ma'of, Ogen, and Ma'oz profiles)

Senior Division for Families, Children, and Youth in the Community

This division promotes the well-being of vulnerable populations through early detection, prevention, treatment, protection, rehabilitation, and the empowerment of personal and family resilience.

Programs and Services:

• Family counseling centers
• Parental coordination programs
• Parent-child centers
• Workshops for family empowerment
• "Noshmim Larvacha" and "Families Meet Opportunity" programs
• Sexual assault treatment centers for minors and adults
• Employment support programs
• Specialized services for immigrant families
• Material assistance and support services
• Parent-child contact centers
• Assistance for bereaved families (e.g., road accidents)
• Child protection centers (handling sexual abuse, violence, suicide, and homicide cases)
• Services for cult survivors
• Prevention of cyber harm

Residential and Community Services:

• Daycare centers and family homes for at-risk children
• After-school programs and youth centers
• Prevention and treatment of domestic violence in the community
• Inter-ministerial police-social worker programs
• "Bridges" immigrant integration program
• Regional domestic violence and incest prevention committees

Legal and Protective Services:

• Legal guardianship reports for the court (juveniles, mental health cases)
• Emergency shelters and transitional apartments for abused women and children
• Specialized shelters (e.g., "Beit Ella" for sexual assault survivors)
• Emergency foster homes and out-of-home treatment units
• Operation of the National Child Protection Hotline (105)

The National Program for Prevention and Treatment of Domestic Violence

This program coordinates a cross-ministerial effort to address domestic violence in all its forms — physical, sexual, verbal, psychological, economic, and coercive control. It focuses on prevention, detection, enforcement, justice, protection, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Key Initiatives:

• Social workers specializing in child victims
• Social workers addressing elder abuse
• Inter-ministerial professional training
• Expanded 118 Emergency Hotline (24/7, multilingual)
• Expanded “Social Workers in Police Stations” program
• One-Stop Assistance Centers for domestic violence victims
• Integrated services for women involved in prostitution and addiction
• Specialized treatment services for violent men
• "Friendship and Relationships" prevention program in schools, adapted to cultural contexts
• National public awareness campaigns
• Domestic violence monitoring and evaluation system

Senior Division for Community Resources

This division promotes community resilience, volunteering, and citizen rights, including:

Community Social Work

• Programs:
  • Mash'al: Improving life in low-income housing
  • City Without Violence: Crime and violence prevention
  • Ma'avarim: Economic development in rural communities
  • Noshmim Larvacha Centers: Integration of socially excluded populations
  • Mutav Yachdav: Community transformation in areas with at-risk youth
  • Mishpachot Bishvil Hatzmicha: Preventing unnecessary child removals
• Community-building in multicultural, economic, and functional communities (e.g., people with disabilities, single-parent families)

Volunteer Services

• Development of emergency and routine volunteering infrastructure
• National-Civic Service placement for those exempt from military service
• Long-term volunteering frameworks for foreign volunteers
• Participation in the Israeli Volunteering Network (inter-ministerial/civil partnership)
• Coordination of government-wide volunteering policy (per Government Resolution 3190)

SHIL: Citizen Advisory Service - Help Center

SHIL is a service that provides guidance and advice to applicants on issues of rights, obligations, and services available to citizens. The service is provided free of charge and confidentially to each applicant by a team of employees and volunteers at SHIL stations scattered throughout the country in cooperation with local authorities.

Foster Care Services for Children

This service supervises foster care for children removed from their families by court or social service decision, under the Foster Care Law for Children (2016). It provides licensing, placement, and monitoring of foster families for children up to age 21.

Adoption Services

This service is the national authority for adoption procedures, ensuring every child has the right to grow up in a stable and nurturing family.

Services include:

• Domestic and international adoption
• Guidance and legal procedures for adoptive parents
• Counseling for adult adoptees
• Legal procedures related to surrogacy and parenthood orders
• Regulation of parental rights for step-parents or same-sex couples

MAOR Call Center (Child Protection Hotline 105)

MAOR Call Center (Child Protection Hotline 105) is a unique national center for receiving inquiries and reports from the public and providing professional responses regarding harm, violence, and crime against children and youth online. The hotline is staffed by police officers who have undergone specialized training in the field of the National Headquarters' work, and operates an inter-ministerial partnership desk with experts in the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs of the State of Israel invites international counterparts and organizations to engage in dialogue, exchange knowledge, and explore collaboration. Together, we can advance best practices, innovative models, and policies that improve the lives of welfare populations around the world.