עברית
Wheels of Love: Bike therapy
A Program For Troubled Youth
Once a week… the boys in the hostel of Wing of Love spend their evenings with their qualified cycling teacher, a member of The Israeli Association of Cyclists, repairing old bikes. The boys learn how to repair a puncture, fix the breaks, mend the gears, and get a bike into safe working condition. Sometimes they work on their own, without their teacher; they’ve learned a new skill. After two months, the boys gave the bikes they had mended to a local boarding school for disadvantaged children. They boys received a letter of thanks from the headmaster, which hangs in their hostel still today. For these boys, who reached our hostel through the law courts and the welfare services, it is probably the first time that they are giving, and they are proud; they feel they have done something good for other people. It gives them a feeling of success. And of course, mending a bike is not something that just anyone can do. It’s a useful skill to have.
Once a week… the boys also go out on a bike ride, on the dusty tracks and on all terrains within miles of their hostel. They go in the late afternoon. Sometimes it’s already dark when they return. Sometimes there’s a puncture and they have to push the bike home. When a ride has been particularly hard, sometimes they say they won’t ride again, but the next day they want to join the group outing after all. They feel part of the group when they cycle; they feel accepted. Cycling can be hard work – a challenge - but it can also be exhilarating. The boys come home relaxed after a ride, feeling good. Life in the hostel is happier and easier after a bike ride.
In Israel, we are taking a new road toward rehabilitating disadvantaged adolescents and young offenders. The common goal is to help these children-at-risk become productive members of society, who can earn a living and take part in normal society. We believe our model can work for disadvantaged children ALL OVER THE WORLD.
Bike Therapy
Bike therapy is the use of cycling in a therapeutic setting. It is a new therapeutic field. Bike therapists work with a variety of “clients”, of all ages, in group or individual settings. Clients' problems and disabilities may be emotional, physical, mental or psychological in nature. The tandem bicycle project, for example, run by Etgarim in Israel, includes autistic children and victims of terror. In Mountainside New Jersey, the Children's Specialized Hospital is running a bike therapy study for children and adolescents who cannot walk due to spinal cord injury. And of course Lance Armstrong made the journey out of his terrible cancer all the way to the yellow jersey, on a racing bicycle. In Israel, more than 200 disadvantaged youths are involved in therapeutic cycling programs, sponsored by the One-to-One Charitable Fund (<http://www.one-to-one.org>): There are two groups of Druze youths, one group of Arab youths, one mixed group of Arab and Jewish youths, and several groups of Jewish youths, including some maladjusted Ethiopian and Eastern European immigrant youths. All the 10-17 year-olds in this project are used to failure and antisocial behavior
A bike therapist seeks to establish an interaction - a shared cycling experience - leading to the pursuit of therapeutic goals. These goals are determined by the therapist's understanding of the client's personal needs. A skilled bike therapist is able to use cycling to engage young people and, ultimately, help them towards realizing their potential.
The disadvantaged youths learn to:
- Mend old and broken bikes
- Contribute to society, by renovating bikes for those who are less privileged, for disadvantaged children in a local boarding school and for battered women living in a nearby shelter
- Ride bikes on all terrains
- Develop their muscles, improve their coordination, notice their body reactions – physical as well as emotional, and relax their minds: develop their physical and mental fitness
- Develop social skills by taking part in the cycling community events, becoming team members, and playing host to other bikers, meeting people from different backgrounds who enjoy life
- Develop a sense of responsibility and self-esteem
- Develop leadership skills, by leading a cycling group themselves
- Notice their environment, the open country as well as the urban areas
The job of the bike therapist working with disadvantaged boys:
- Biking skills: An enthusiastic biker who is skilled in biking on all terrains and in bike maintenance
- Leadership skills: Qualified and insured to lead youth in the field; awareness of the situation of each youth in the group; a positive role model for the youths; a patient, supportive, confidence-inspiring, and encouraging personality; good communication skills e.g., ability to make eye contact, listen, understand body language, and be understood
- Teaching skills: Able to teach cycling on all terrains and the skills of bike repair
- Expert knowledge: Knowledgeable about the physiology of biking, muscles, breathing, and first aid
- Counseling and psychological skills: Sensitive to the youths’ abilities, limits, and difficulties; ability to deal in a constructive way with crises and the children’s emotions e.g., their frustrations, anger, hurt feelings etc
- Organizational skills: Able to plan activities in advance, organize equipment and outings, keep records
- Team work: Ability to work with all the other therapists who are working to rehabilitate the youths.
- Personality: Tolerant, patient, attention to detail, flexible and adaptable, emotionally stable, sympathetic and understanding, perceptive, calm
Why does this biking activity help youth at risk, including young offenders, to gain respect for themselves and for society?
- For such youth, the act of mending a bike for another person is a new experience of GIVING to others. These boys have been used to taking, and are unused to giving. We’ve seen how this important is to them. They want to mend their ways and become good and productive citizens but don’t know the way. This biking activity gives them a way.
- It channels their teenage energies into an enjoyable and positive activity that gives them a feeling of success and achievement. Biking develops their self-esteem and improves their self-image.
- It gives them friendly contact with a community of people (bikers) who are positive role models, who are accepting and respectful, encouraging and supportive, and with whom they can share enjoyment. Biking gives them a good social life.
- It gets them out into nature and makes them aware of the environment in which they live. They notice the signs of wildlife and the effect that man has on nature. It makes them aware of the need to look after our environment.
- It is trendy, “in”, and puts the boys in the mainstream, makes them like other good people; it’s socially acceptable.
Practicalities:
We have two models:
a) For youths who live at home, the biking activity takes place after school hours during the school year, and there are holiday camps and day trips. The local welfare department and school decide which youth should participate in the program at the start of the year. The bicycles are brought by trailer to the place where the activity is held, to prevent theft. Each youth rides the same bike each time. The cost of doing this is less than replacing stolen bikes. Each young person has his/her own helmet and when they have proved their commitment to the sport, they are provided with bicycling shorts, T-shirts and gloves. The cycling activity is once weekly for up to three hours, increased to twice weekly when the youth train for competitions.
b) For youth in care, living in a hostel, the biking activity takes place after work hours, in the late afternoon. The bikes are owned by the organization that runs the hostel. Each youth rides the same bike each time and has his own helmet. The bikes can be used outside the designated hours with the bike therapist, under appropriate supervision of their counselors, e.g. so that the boys can participate in community riding events at weekends. The cycling activity is once weekly for up to three hours, increased to twice or three times per week with their counselors or volunteers, according to circumstances and social events involving bicycles. Two or three “giving” events per year, where the youths give the bikes they have collected and mended to disadvantaged recipients and ride with them.
Cost of such a program includes:
- Purchase of bikes + hats for each youth
- Salary for bike therapist
- Materials for bike repairs
- Insurance for riders
- Trailer, if necessary.
Dr. Michele Klein, michele2kl@gmail.com