Jami’s Children and Young Person’s Service is being renamed in recognition of a significant philanthropic donation from the Dangoor family.
The provision will now be called The Dangoor Children and Young Person’s Service as a gesture of thanks to The Exilarch’s Foundation, established by Sir Naim Dangoor and now led by his sons David, Michael and Elie Dangoor.
The Jami initiative, aimed at increasing the number of children and young people supported by the service over the next five years, will combine professional mental health support, talking therapies, and a more streamlined referral process.
The Dangoor grant will help Jami, part of Jewish Care, respond to the increasing numbers of young people in the community experiencing mental illness and distress. One in five children and young people has a probable mental health disorder and the country’s mental health services are extremely under-resourced.
The current multi-skilled team for the service, comprises social workers, mental health practitioners and mental health support workers. They offer support geared to young people aged 11-18.
It runs as a referrals service for children and young people in the community as well as providing vital support at JCoSS since 2022, and at JFS since April 2023.
Jewish Care chief executive, Daniel Carmel-Brown said: “We are deeply grateful to the Dangoor family for their generous gift, enabling us to reach more children and young people who are living with mental health difficulties. The expansion of this service will make a real difference to many more families at a time when the need for support is growing in our community.”
Louise Kermode, director of community mental health services at Jami, now part of Jewish Care, said: “It is more important than ever for us to provide this specialist service to as many secondary-school-aged children as possible in our community, filling a vital gap between the growing numbers of young people struggling with their mental health and the lack of mental health services currently available to them.
“This expansion marks a critical milestone in our mission to provide accessible, professional mental health services, and we are excited to witness the positive impact it will have on the lives of young people across the community.”
- The Exilarch’s Foundation, dedicated to supporting meaningful causes, was launched in memory of Robert D. S. Dangoor, who died in 2022, to make a lasting, positive impact by supporting children and young people struggling with mental illness.
