In Israel, more than 1.2 million children are defined as at-risk. Most of which are born into poverty, raised in stress, and lack the emotional safety every child deserves.
Heartbeats is Keren Hayesod-UIA’s early intervention program supporting children aged 0–3 and their parents through the most critical years of life. The idea behind the program is that when we support families early, we prevent crisis later.
The earlier the intervention, the greater the impact. Heartbeats pairs trained mentors with at-risk families for 18 months – providing in-home guidance, parenting tools, emotional support, and help accessing critical services. It’s not just about helping a child. It’s about building a stable family unit from the ground up. Children build cognitive, emotional, and social foundations before they turn three. Heartbeats ensures those foundations are strong, especially where risk is high.
Mentors visit families weekly, offering emotional support and practical help tailored to each situation. They help parents bond with their babies, navigate trauma, and develop confidence as caregivers. The program is personalised, consistent, and relationship-driven. One mentor might guide a new mother through the basics of feeding and routine whereas another might support a father struggling with his own childhood trauma. Whatever the need, our Heartbeats mentors show up for these families.
Alongside in-home visits, Heartbeats brings families together. Community workshops, expert sessions, group playtime and shared celebrations help parents connect, learn, and feel less alone. The program is active in [16] locations across Israel’s periphery – places where social services are stretched and help is hard to find. For many families, Heartbeats is the only stable support system they have.
Each Heartbeats mentor supports 15 families. Beyond that, mentors work with early childhood professionals to impact over 100 additional families annually. It’s a scalable model designed for systemic change, reaching families before a crisis takes hold. The goal is simple: that each child in the program will need fewer interventions as they grow, because the support came early enough to change their story.
The war has only deepened the crisis for young families. In towns under fire, parents must decide whether it’s safe to shower or sleep through the night. One mother told us she’s slept in her bra for nearly a year in case she needs to grab her baby and run. Parents face panic attacks at every siren. Children are regressing emotionally and physically. For families underfire, Heartbeats has become a lifeline.
Some families fled from hotel to hotel for months. Others sheltered in stairwells through rocket attacks, with no safe room to retreat to. Throughout it all, mentors kept showing up – through phone calls, doorstep visits, even sending paint and supplies to help mothers reconnect with their own skills.
Bottomline – Heartbeats has proven again and again that the program doesn’t stop in a crisis. It is there to hold families together when everything else falls apart.
Heartbeats is one of the few programs in Israel offering early childhood emotional intervention at this scale. It works because it reaches families early, walks alongside them consistently, and helps build resilience in children when it matters most.
families participate in Heartbeats
locations across Israel’s periphery
of families also receive welfare assistance
of parents experienced trauma in their own childhood
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