Creating stimulating environments for young people in residential care: the Israeli youth village 'ecological' model

In many industrialised countries, the use of residential education and care for children and youth at risk has decreased over recent years (Knorth & Van de Ploeg, 1994). There are many reasons for this, however, some are certainly related to the negative stigma attached today to any kind of institutionalised setting. Such programmes are now considered in many European countries as a last resort used only when all other interventions have failed. In addition, the ever-increasing cost of treating a child in a residential care therapeutic programme is encouraging policy makers to look for less expensive solutions, even though their effectiveness has not always been proven (Grupper, 2002).