E1: Feat. Yitty Fisch from Kochavim

Shownotes

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Tzivia: Hi, my name is Tzivia Cohen. I'm the founder of 14Minds, a marketing agency that specializes in developing strategic campaigns to help nonprofit organizations connect with their audience. I've had the privilege of meeting some inspirational nonprofit leaders and doers who have devoted an untold number of hours to achieving their mission.

Many of these incredible individuals have shared a similar frustration with me along these [00:00:30] lines. No one knows what we really do. Not even our own volunteers. It's so hard to explain all of our different services. People think our organization is a lot smaller than it is. [00:00:40] That's why I created this podcast to give non-for-profits a platform to share their mission with the world.

I hope these conversations inspire you as much as they inspire me.

[00:00:50] Okay. Hi everyone. Today I am really excited to have with us Yitty Fisch, the founder and director of Kochavim. Yitty, thank you so much for being here.

Yitty: Thanks for having me. I am the director of a nonprofit [00:01:10] organization called Kochavim. We are based in Brooklyn as our first location, and we are committed to helping [00:01:20] kids shine despite serious illnesses.

And our anchor program and our most important program is our school [00:01:30] for immunocompromised children, which enables children who otherwise would be at home and unable to attend regular school because of their complex medical needs [00:01:40] to get a good education, enables them to go to school, to preschool, just like anyone else. And it makes sure that beyond just doctors’ [00:01:50] appointments, hospitals and home, they have an additional safe place that they can go to school and get their education.

Tzivia: Wow. Amazing. So with which type of [00:02:00] illnesses?

Yitty: So any kind of illness in which there is a child that has … usually it's immunocompromised, so that would be if a child has a heart transplant and they're [00:02:10] on certain drugs that prevent them from being exposed to germs or children on active chemotherapy, kidney transplants. And there's a whole host of diseases that will compromise the child's immunity and we know prevent them from going to school with 30 kids where they can pick up any germs and become too sick to be able to function. You know in today's times, we could probably understand the concept of germs, but we've been in existence already for eight years. And I think it becomes a lot easier to explain to people what it means to be in a sterile environment because of unfortunately the last year and [00:02:50] Corona. But our children and the children we service were out of school even before anybody knew what Corona was, and we were taking safety measures and precautions to make sure that they were safe.

[00:03:00] And if you were to visit our class, the first thing we would do is send you straight to the sink to wash your hands. And then at different intervals during the day, the children wash [00:03:10] up, wash their hands, and everybody has their own box and their own supplies.

Tzivia: Way before it was commonplace…

Yitty: Yes, exactly. And we did shut down for [00:03:20] Covid obviously because our children were at higher risk, but some of the protocols and procedures were already in place before the rest of the world caught on.

We do have an air purifying [00:03:30] system that purifies the air, and there are children who literally can be on chemo in the morning and come to our school in the afternoon. Or, you know, we even had children like [00:03:40] wheeled in in their carriages sleepy from post-radiation. And we are so lucky to have them be part of a regular school setting.

It's obviously a small class. [00:03:50] If a child isn't feeling well and has a runny nose, the mothers know not to send them. Teachers have to be feeling fine. And all this is I think an outgrowth of a volunteer experience that I had [00:04:00] when I was around 18 years old.

Tzivia: Yeah, so ?to ask you, tell us your background and how you got involved in starting an organization.

Yitty: Okay. So [00:04:10] I have a degree in education. I've been an educator for years, and I actually write curriculum in different schools; my focus is on literacy [00:04:20]. And I was a volunteer starting from when I was 14, I started volunteering. And I noticed in my volunteering experience [00:04:30] something very interesting, and that is that children were having a lot of fun but not having a lot of education, children who were going through serious illnesses. In other words, we were providing [00:04:40] magic shows and fun experiences and we were dancing and we were having a good time, but I was working together with ??Lina’le, a little girl who was seven years [00:04:50] old and we were coloring a picture and it was around this time of year before Pesach, and her mother told me, “Could you teach her something about Pesach. I would [00:05:00] love for her to know something going into the Seder. And I said, sure, what will I teach her? And I said, “Give me a few minutes.” And I ran [00:05:10] to Eichlers and I bought one of these Pesach coloring books, and we went through them page by page and we colored Pesach pictures instead of just regular pictures. And I was watching this [00:05:20] little girl drink in all the information, and I was just astounded at how she was just feeling so good about herself that she knew what was going on. Her mother was [00:05:30] watching and I saw a tear coming out of her mother's eye, and she was like, well, my daughter is regular, she's normal, she's learning, she's gaining. And it was a very special [00:05:40] experience and a pivotal experience in which I realized that there's something about education that fills you and it provides a certain hope and a certain [00:05:50] satisfaction. And we've been committed to providing educational experiences for immunocompromised children ever since in some capacity. [00:06:00] And our classroom is just the outgrowth of that moment.

Tzivia: Wow. That's incredible. And from that you established Kochavim? What was the [00:06:10] process until it became an official organization?

Yitty: So I feel like everything is a slow process and a lot of experiences combined. And right now we have a branch [00:06:20] in Brooklyn where we service kids from Boro Park, Flatbush, Crown Heights, and we have another location in Monsey and we service children from that area. [00:06:30] So it's two classes, two offices. And the class is just one of our services, but we also have an after-school program, so siblings of immunocompromised [00:06:40] children can also do their homework and get supper. Like if there’s a mother who's in the hospital until six o'clock, where will her kids go until she comes home? So they can come to our, we call it Our [00:06:50] Space and they can do their homework there. And we have crafts, a snack and programming there. So it's an afterschool program, a Sunday program. And then we have a [00:07:00] teen program, a voice program, all at the space. And we also have a parent support program approximately once a month where we bring down a speaker with different parents to [00:07:10] give chizuk, we're parents going through difficult times.

So Our Space is a happening space, and there's always something going on there. From like 9:30 to [00:07:20] 2:30 it’s the school in one half, and the other section is our after-school center and our teen center and activity center. So anytime you come by, there's always [00:07:30] activity, there are always things happening.

Tzivia: Wow. That's amazing. So tell me, if you had to pick one story, what's your favorite story in [00:07:40] recent years?

Yitty: Okay. That's going to be a tough one because I feel like every day…

Tzivia: I know every nonprofit has amazing stories.

Yitty: Right. Every day is [00:07:50] actually not just one story, but every day, every moment is a story upon a story upon a story, upon a story. So I think I'm going to share [00:08:00] this story with you. One of the other services that we do is that we provide support at our center, which I described. We provide support at home, if there's any kind of like babysitting [00:08:10] or dishes or even homework help at home, we'll provide services at home. And then our third prong is we provide services in the hospital. Now [00:08:20] because it's Covid and because it's the current situation, obviously our services to the hospital are very, very, very limited, and we make do by sending boxes [00:08:30] to the hospital with different educational activities. We just sent out yesterday quite a bit of boxes with UPS to different locations with Haggadah and different [00:08:40] activities, some as far as Texas, Florida, Memphis, Tennessee, so that children wherever they are, whichever medical center they are in, they can get their educational experience with [00:08:50] stickers and things to paste in. And they can actually go onto Zoom with the classroom teacher and they can be part of it. But we can't get into hospitals because of their restrictions, different restrictions that are in [00:09:00] place.

And this is a story that happened approximately half a year ago, around September. I wouldn't say the height of Corona, but it [00:09:10] was still ??worse, many, many restrictions in place. And there was a family from Israel who came for medical treatment with their three-year-old daughter to a distant medical center [00:09:20] down in the New York area. And I helped them fly in and get settled in the house that they were staying in. And then I flew back. And[00:09:30] around a week later, she told me that she would love if I could come back and support the family on their first day at the hospital. So I told her [00:09:40] you know that American hospitals don't allow visitors so I won't be able to come in and support you during that first hospital visit in a foreign country with a foreign language.

So [00:09:50] she said, okay, could you at least come? And I have other kids here with me that would benefit from just seeing a friendly face who speaks some Hebrew and [00:10:00] can take them out to any attraction, just an extra hand for our first day of chemotherapy. So I was debating, do I fly all the way out three and a half [00:10:10] hours for, you know, to spend some time with her kids; I had just been there. And she’s like, you can try to see if you can come into the hospital. And I’m like, uh uh, there's no chance, [00:10:20]. And I made a decision that Sunday that I will fly out Monday morning. So Monday morning at 4:00 AM I got onto a plane. I landed at [00:10:30] eight and I knocked on the door to her house and her husband said she just left to the hospital and we'd love if you can spend some time with the kids. [00:10:40] And I said, okay, no problem. I'm just going to go to the hospital and I'm going to see if I can get in. And I'll probably be back in 10 minutes ‘cause there's no chance. So I took an [00:10:50] Uber and I get into the car and I head to the hospital and on the way I get a call from this mother and she says, “Could you translate, please, for [00:11:00] me? The nurse was trying to tell me something.” I get on the phone and I say, “Hi, I'm a friend and I speak English and Hebrew and I can translate.” She says, “We are so, so, [00:11:10] so sorry and so embarrassed. I was like, what happened? She says, “On Friday when we put it into the computer that this family [00:11:20] will need a translator, a hospital translator, on their first day of chemo, it seems like the secretary mistakenly said Hindu [00:11:30] translator instead of Hebrew translator, so we do not have any Hebrew translator available today. And it is [00:11:40] crucial, you know, to sign all the consent forms on the first day of treatment to have a Hebrew-speaking person available who can come down and translate. Do you by any chance know anybody in the [00:11:50] area that can come down?” I was like, I'll be there in two minutes. And I walked into the hospital and they said, “Are you visiting?” I said, “No, [00:12:00] I'm translating.” They're like, what's your translation ID? I don't have any. Well you can’t be here then. And I said, “Just call up to the floor.” And they’re like, ”Yes, yes, we're expecting her. We need her.”

[00:12:10] So I feel like that story was amazing because you know, everyone wants to do good things. We have to do our hishtadlus and sometimes Hashem says no and sometimes He [00:12:20] says yes. And we just have to do our best and he takes care of the rest because I hadn't even made a decision to fly out on Friday when the secretary made a mistake and said Hindu [00:12:30] instead of Hebrew. I was still in New York, but apparently the seeds were already planted to enable me to be able to be there at the right moment in order to translate for her [00:12:40] and be able to get into the hospital. So I spent that day translating in the hospital. The next day I was already on the approved list so I was able to go back and spend some [00:12:50] time with her on their first days and really make a difference. And I just find that story to be so humbling, how we know nothing, we do nothing, and we just have to try [00:13:00] our best and really leave it to Hashem to guide our footsteps.

And that's my favorite story. Tzivia: I love it. Thank you. So back to [00:13:10] running the day-to-day of your organization, what would you say is the most satisfying or inspiring part of what you do? Which part do you enjoy the most?

Yitty: I believe watching [00:13:20] the kids learn and watching them make gains. And we love to graduate our kids into regular schools, into regular programs, that's our biggest nachas. And when [00:13:30] I have a principal of a yeshivah tell me that Yitzchok is in first grade and he was in our program for three years from when he was like two and a half, [00:13:40] and he has no social, emotional or educational losses from the three years he spent on chemotherapy—that is awesome. [00:13:50] I just have so much satisfaction from that moment. And watching the children learn and not lose out, and even siblings, when they can come to [00:14:00] our educational center and do their homework and they go back into school the next day and their life seems in order and they have that comfort of having a big [00:14:10] sister doing their homework with them and a predictable system in place despite the chaos in their life—that's just so satisfying to me.

Tzivia: Wow, I love that. What would you [00:14:20] say is your biggest day-to-day challenge? I know running an organization is super fast-paced and there's always so much going on. So what's your biggest day-to-day challenge and how do you work to overcome it? What are your solutions? [00:14:30]

Yitty: So we're in the process of working to overcome our challenges, but definitely we have over 600 volunteers [00:14:40] in so many different… like some of them are cooking, some of them are driving, some of them are going to homes, some of them are going to hospitals. And it's a very big operation. We have 25 coordinators, [00:14:50] ?? 12?? paid staff that do incredible work. And our biggest challenge is probably hundreds of open requests, very fast-paced, lots of pressure [00:15:00] and not so much down time—there has to be someone on call all the time to answer whatever questions families may need, we are there to [00:15:10] support them. We do not touch anything medical, but where can I fill a prescription at this time of night? How can I get from this place to that place in the middle of the night? [00:15:20] So we're really there as a call center to answer any questions that families may have, and that may be American families living here, and then every year we have around, [00:15:30] I would say 80 families throughout the year who are coming in from Israel. So we have a Hebrew-speaking call center as well. So it's a lot of pressure, very fast-paced and [00:15:40] so much going on.

Tzivia: So what are you trying to do? I know it's a process, it's an everyday process, but maybe something you can share with other people in similar situations? [00:15:50]

Yitty: So our first thing is that we're working to computerize and have a good CRM that basically keeps track and logs every activity, a lot of reports so we can pull [00:16:00] reports and track what's going on. A lot of communication, a lot of feedback, a volunteer finishes her shift, she clocks in and says, I'm done, went well. Or [00:16:10] she can say, knocked on the door, nobody was home. And then we'll follow up with that. We need more space, more staff. And having a good computer program tracking our activities [00:16:20] is just crucial.

Tzivia: So what would you say is your biggest, big-picture challenge? That was I guess the biggest day-to-day challenge. What's the biggest, big-picture challenge that you deal with running your nonprofit? Yitty: [00:16:30] So I'm going to say that we have hundreds, really hundreds, of very grateful parents out there. And our biggest referral is parent to [00:16:40] parent. You know, somebody sits in the hospital and says, why don’t you get in contact with Kochavim. And that's basically how we get a referral. Right [00:16:50] now we're small and we do not do a lot of marketing, a lot of advertising. So there's always that struggle between marketing and confidentiality as well, getting the [00:17:00] word out and who our organization is and what they do. Sometimes I feel like we have over 600 volunteers and does each volunteer know what the other volunteer does? Like do our own [00:17:10] ambassadors know what our organization does?

So that's still something that we're working on too. Understanding and our comprehensive internal education and then, external [00:17:20] marketing and branding.

Tzivia: Yeah, I think ?they think that's a pretty common, just from my experience, that nonprofits ??deal with? because you get so immersed in the day-to-day and the immediate need [00:17:30] that taking them back and saying, okay, well, how do we communicate that properly—that can definitely be a challenge.

So now I have kind of a final question. If someone were just to walk over [00:17:40] to you and hand you a very large sum of money to Kochavim and say, do whatever you want with this money, what would you spend it on?

Yitty: So much fun! If it's very, very large, [00:17:50], then the answer would be space. We are just always out of space. I want more space so that we can run a boys program and a girls program simultaneously. You know, [00:18:00] now we have to divide the hours. I’d open another class for different age children. A lot of real estate space. And another thing that we do, which is very [00:18:10] important, is that when families are coming from out of town for treatment, we host families in apartments. And most of these apartments are very generous volunteers who [00:18:20] open up their homes and sometimes have either a dedicated basement apartment or some people bought the house next door and they're not sure what they're doing with it yet and they give us that apartment, sometimes [00:18:30] three floors for a family, and we're in charge of furnishing it and putting on the linens and getting the ??refrigerators, stove, couch, [00:18:40] small electrical appliances, Betty Crockers and all that,...