"Bringing Dad Home" Initiative >>
By Your Side Association ("Letzidchem") in cooperation with the Harbor of Grace Balancing Village, USA
They fought for us on the front lines – now we are fighting to bring them truly home.
Hundreds of fathers and reserve combatants returning from battle carry invisible wounds that threaten to tear their lives and families apart.
By Your Side association, in a unique partnership with the US National Wellness Center for first responders and law enforcement - Harbor of Grace, is giving them a second chance at life. Within 30 days of focused treatment – we return fathers to their children.
The Invisible Crisis – Fathers on the Front Lines of Battle and Home
When our combatants return from the front lines, their real war is just beginning. The heavy burden of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and combat trauma seeps into their daily routine, severely damaging their occupational functioning, relationships, and parental abilities.
Without immediate intervention, the wounds of war turn into severe family crises:
▪️ Functional and Family Collapse: Immense tension, flashbacks, and chronic insomnia often lead to severe conflicts, high-conflict divorce, and painful parental alienation.
▪️Loneliness and Helplessness: Men tend to hide their distress due to shame and fear of judgment – only about 20% of men who are affected seek official institutional help.
Lifesaving Necessity & The Solution – "Bridge of Hope" Project for
Rehabilitating Combatants and Fathers
The suicide rate among men in Israel is 500% higher than the rate among woman, and it skyrockets to 7.5 times higher among divorced men aged 25-64 compared to those who are married. For those suffering from post-trauma, the risk is dramatically higher. They were there for us during our darkest moments.
We cannot leave them alone now!
The Solution – "Bridge of Hope" Project
'By Your Side' Association ("Letzidchem") association has created a unique and unprecedented model: locating, preparing, and sending fathers and reserve combatants suffering from severe trauma for a month of intensive, life-changing treatment at the Harbor of Grace National Law Enforcement & First Responder Wellness Center in Maryland, USA.
This is not just another therapeutic project, but a comprehensive three-stage rehabilitation track (Wrap-around Care) that ensures a soft landing and therapeutic continuity in Israel:
▪️ Stage A - Screening and Intake (Screening): Locating the most suitable candidates from those applying to 'By Your Side' and performing rigorous clinical intake by expert social workers.
▪️ Stage B - Pre-Departure Preparation (Pre-Departure): 5 to 12 therapeutic sessions for mental preparation, expectation alignment, and mediation with the family and employer to stabilize the home environment ahead of the journey.
▪️Stage C - Post-Treatment Reintegration in Israel (Post-Treatment Reintegration): Upon the combatant's return to Israel, they immediately enter a local therapeutic "continuity program" at Letsidchem to prevent regression and ensure long-term stability.
Why a Month Abroad?
The Clinical Advantage of Detachment and Anonymity
The decision to send patients to another country for about a month is a well-established and carefully planned clinical strategy:
▪️Complete Detachment from Triggers: The patient completely disconnects from daily stressors – family crises, financial difficulties, security tensions in Israel, and functional struggles. This detachment allows the mind and body to perform a "Reset" in a sterile and safe space.
▪️A Space of Complete Anonymity: Outside the country's borders, without fear of social or professional stigma, patients can let down their guard completely and speak openly about their most complex experiences.
▪️Universal Human Experience: Meeting peers from different backgrounds (security personnel, police officers, and firefighters from the US) demonstrates to the patient that their suffering and symptoms are human, helping to normalize this trans-national experience and reducing feelings of shame and isolation.
Meet the Balancing Village – Harbor of Grace, Maryland
The Harbor of Grace center (located in Havre de Grace, Maryland) is one of the leading treatment centers in the US. The facility is managed and approved by the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) – and is one of only four centers in the US to receive this rigorous recognition.
The Uniqueness of the Therapeutic Village:
▪️ Leadership with Deep Cultural Understanding: The center was founded by first responders and is staffed by a team with many years of combined experience in the worlds of security and rescue. They understand exactly the background the combatants come from.
▪️ Intensive Therapeutic Routine: The daily schedule is rich and balanced – morning meditation and discussion, focused group therapies, small group work based on the 12-Step model (acceptance and release), advanced EMDR therapy for trauma, and lectures on relationships and
family.
▪️Addressing Unique Needs of Israeli Combatants: The village features a special combatants' group to process combat experiences, and the facility is fully adapted for patients from Israel – including adapted housing, mezuzahs, and kosher food for those who require it.
▪️Body and Soul: Alongside clinical treatment, patients enjoy arts and crafts, music, guided sports training, and quiet green spaces that allow the body to relax and return to physiological balance.
"A Great Will to Live" – Testimony of a Returned Combatant:
"The days leading up to my arrival at the village were days of great darkness. My memory was terrible, my body refused to rest, flashbacks flooded in without warning, and chronic lack of sleep turned me into a zombie... I felt that something was deeply broken inside, and it was hard for me to even speak."
"At the village, I was given a safe and quiet home. The routine restored my balance. In the therapeutic groups, we dared to touch the most complex topics, to talk about our feelings, and to learn to cope with the anger that threatened to erupt. Meeting other combatants in complete anonymity lowered my defenses and showed me that my suffering is human and that I am not alone."
"Week after week, the magic of the village worked. Those who arrived broken and detached discovered that something inside them was coming back to life. My energy returned, the dark and suicidal thoughts simply vanished – and only one great desire remained: to live."
Who We Are? By Your Side, "Letsidchem" Association
The By Your Side ("Letsidchem") association (Registered AMUTA 580594885)
was founded in 2014 and is the leading and only professional-therapeutic organization in Israel specializing in tailored responses for men and
fathers in life crises, trauma, and high-conflict divorce.
▪️Government Partnerships: The association works in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Welfare.
▪️ Multidisciplinary Team: The team includes expert social workers (including reserve mental health officers who served during the 'Iron Swords' war and trauma therapists), psychologists, researches , lawyers, and volunteers.
▪️A Trusted Address for Distress: Every year, over 3,000 fathers and men turn to the association for mental, legal, and community assistance. The association operates a dedicated emergency hotline, support groups, and a supportive community active 24/7.
The Impact of Your Donation – Maximum Resource Leverage:
We are not building a new infrastructure from scratch – we are utilizing an existing, proven, and magnificent infrastructure in the US, which is offered to the association without additional clinical treatment costs.
Your donation is used directly to build the operational and clinical bridge in Israel and to fund the travel costs:
⭐ Only $5,167 (approx. 15,000 ILS) – is the cost of Letsidchem’ wrap-around community and clinical care for one combatant (screening, deep mental preparation, family support, insurance, flights, and a therapeutic continuity plan upon return).
▪️ Our Annual Fundraising Goal: $155,000 – an amount that will allow us to save, rehabilitate, and return approximately 30 fathers and reserve combatants to the track of life in the coming year.
One small donation saves a combatant, rehabilitates an entire family, and strengthens Israeli society as a whole. Please open your hearts – and bring them home from the battlefield, back to the children who are waiting for them.
Sincerely,
Benny Bailey, PhD, Chairperson
Dotan Newman, CEO.
Dan Confino, PhD, Board Member;
Eliezer Koppel, DSW, Facilitator