Mordechai

Here is Mordechai’s story as told by Rabbi Daniel Drandoff MFT, Clinical Director:

Mordechai lives with his mother and younger sister. A kind neighbor in-formed Mordechai’s mother of the great services MYEF provides for single parent children. When Mordechai joined My Extended Family he was struggling at school. Not academically but behaviorally. There was just nothing he wouldn’t say or do to make his friends laugh. Mordechai started attending the weekly programs with dinner and homework help and I began mentoring him privately every week.

Late one night Mordechai’s mother called me in a panic. Through her tears she tells me Mordechai was kicked out of Yeshiva! He pulled the king of all pranks and there was nothing she could do to get him back in. The Principal had enough!

Still crying she expressed her fears for Mordechai’s future. How will Mor-dechai lead a fulfilling life with a family of his own? Single parent kids are at a much higher risk of leaving the Derech than their peers from multi parent homes. And now without a school at only 11 years old.

The next morning I scheduled a meeting with the principal. I out-lined the progress that Mordechai has had through our group programming and mentoring sessions. We discussed boundaries and together we met with Mordechai to set ground rules. It took three meetings but they re-enrolled Mordechai for this year!

During our sessions together I helped Mordechai see who he really is as an individual and why he developed his persona of class clown. Together we set goals and plans to help Mordechai read-just to school and succeed.

During our sessions together I helped Mordechai see who he really is as an individual and why he developed his persona of class clown. Together we set goals and plans to help Mordechai read-just to school and succeed.