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The Kenafayim Arts Rehabilitation Center is a unique rehabilitation-through-art center for qualified artists and adults with high-level artistic abilities who have mental disorders, such as anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome, schizophrenia, and clinical depression. The mental disorders have caused these individuals to become marginalized in society and the program strives to better their lives by providing them with a daily framework and a purpose; helping them fulfill their potential; and increasing their self esteem.

The center operates 5 days a week and each participant attends the program for 4-5 hours each day. Each person is guided in his/her specialty field and supervised by professional artists and instructors. Specialty fields include: music, theater, painting and sculpting, creative writing, and more. Once a week, a class is taught by a guest artist (all guests are major Israeli artists). Participants' artistic creations are displayed to the general public at periodic exhibitions, plays, and musical performances throughout the country. This enables the artists to feel part of normative society and be proud of their abilities, while also raising society's awareness of this population and shattering existing stigmas. While the program puts a major emphasis on developing each individual's artistic abilities, it is important to emphasize that art is used as a tool to help achieve the program's ultimate goal of helping adults with mental disorders rehabilitate, find purpose in their lives, and become empowered by their achievements.

Kenafayim is a registered non-profit organization in Israel that was established in 2004 with the goal of enabling special-needs individuals to be an active part of the community by expressing themselves through various forms of art. The organization transforms these people's lives using their exceptional artistic skills, and improves their place and status in society by making them more independent and enabling them to become productive individuals who contribute to their society instead of remaining dependent and marginalized. Kenafayim gives these people the opportunity to engage in what they are good at. Furthermore, through their art they are able to shatter stereotypes in Israeli society and raise awareness of their condition and inner worlds.

In addition to the Kenafayim Arts Rehabilitation Center, the organization also operates "Silver Spoon", a theater workshop for people with mental disabilities. In this program, individuals with varying degrees of mental retardation rehearse and perform a production called Silver Spoon. The play is performed in mainstream theaters in front of Israeli audiences, thus affording the normative public insight into the special needs sector and enabling them to relate to these people. This original and creative play has received warm reviews throughout the country and was recently invited to perform abroad at Berlin’s “No Limits” Festival.

We are also in the process of expanding the range of our activities to include a digital art course. The course will give participants an additional opportunity to further develop as artists, as well as offer them job options since digital art is a very useful tool in today's world.

Kenafayim's mission is to enable artistically gifted people with special needs, mental issues, and intellectual disabilities to become integrated in society through art and culture. Our unique Arts Rehabilitation Center serves adults with mental disorders who have had previous artistic education and/or are artistically talented. The Center has set three main goals:

1. To provide participants with a daily framework in which they can find meaning in their lives, increase their self images and self esteem, and acquire confidence in their talents and abilities. This is done by emphasizing participants' artistic talents and abilities and enabling them to display their talents at exhibitions, plays, and performances throughout the country which give them a sense of pride and accomplishment.

2. To raise awareness among the general Israeli public regarding individuals with mental disorders, and shatter existing stereotypes and stigmas. This is accomplished through the Israeli public viewing participants' artistic creations and being exposed to their high-level abilities at the various exhibitions, plays, and performances.

3. To enable participants to ultimately integrate into normative society and become financially independent and contributing citizens in the long term. Participants receive modest salaries from the profits of the exhibitions, plays, and performances. In addition, Kenafayim assists participants in finding employment, either as staff for our "Silver Spoon" program that works with individuals with intellectual disabilities, or in external frameworks.

Kenafayim is unique in several ways:

1. We do not focus on one type of disability or one type of art; rather, we use all types of art as tools to rehabilitate individuals will all types of mental and intellectual disabilities. As opposed to other centers or programs which teach simpler and more basic trades, all guides at our center are leading artists in Israel, thereby enabling participants to develop professionally, personally, and mentally.
2. Our organization differs from the common approach of dealing with our target population. Instead of working with people with mental disorders in the "traditional" place of a closed-off environment away from the center of society (like in protected factories, etc.), we help them develop their talents and display their artistic creations to the general public, which helps them increase their self confidence and satisfaction, enables them to come in contact with the public in a calm and supportive environment, and helps them integrate into society.
3. We are unique in that all participants have previous artistic education and/or are exceptionally talented in the arts. Through working on developing their strong talents, they are able to increase their self esteem and confidence in their abilities. We believe that by relating to participants with respect for them and their talents enables participants to view themselves and their artistic creations in a similar way. Instead of focusing on their disability and their failures, they learn to focus on their special talents and strong sides and wake up each morning with a feeling of hope and meaning in their lives.

Approximately 1.5 years ago, Thomas and Hagar joined the Kenafayim Arts Rehabilitation Center. Thomas is a painter and musician who had been living in a hostel and had be unable to keep a job for more than a month. Hagar, a singer, had been going from one hospitalization to the next. Ever since they joined Kenafayim, neither of them has had to be hospitalized, which shows terrific progress. Thomas and Hagar began dating and are now living together. They come to the Center every day to work and perform. Afterwards, Thomas works as a social guide at the hostel he lived at before he joined Kenafayim. They receive guidance from Kenafayim's staff on a regular basis and are expecting a baby in two months.