Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s attempt at uplifting communities where it has rental units has seen 900 participants receiving certificates from its social development and early childhood development departments.
The Women for Change programme, now in its ninth year, creates employment opportunities through the City’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
The majority of participants are tenants of City-owned rental stock units, trained and deployed throughout the city to help uplift areas where it has rental units.
The City said the empowerment programme was developmental in nature and was created to capacitate women to play a more active and meaningful role in communities, while acquiring new skills and help with personal development.
“The Women for Change programme aims to equip women with skills to train and mentor people in development programmes and also assist them in finding jobs.
“It creates awareness of logging of C3 notifications for service delivery requests; provide support to individuals and families affected by substance abuse, gender-based violence, sexual abuse and other social issues through awareness raising activities.
“Provide safe passage for learners to and from school and implement truancy interventions.”
The City said the participants in the programme were deployed across the city and placed at schools, clinics, libraries, early childhood development centres as well as NGOs, where they had access to a number of training opportunities, including substance abuse, gender-based violence, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution and first aid.
It also has programmes for men relating to culture, religion, traditions and their relationship with family and community.
“In addition, the men’s programme encourages participants in their role as fathers on how to be positive role models for children and how they can contribute towards a healthy and safe community.”
The two programmes created more than 900 opportunities in the last financial year, which ended in June, which included 653 opportunities through Women for Change and 259 through Men for Change.
The majority of participants are continuing as volunteers even though their EPWP contracts have ended. Others have been employed by their placement organisations.
Mayco member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross, said the the women for change programme has been a game-changer for many participants, and the more recent men’s programme is also making strides.
“These programmes are among the many social development interventions that target challenges within our social fabric, and where the impact isn’t necessarily evident overnight.
“By building stronger individuals, we will eventually have stronger and more resilient communities, which in turn contributes to other challenges like unemployment, substance abuse, violence and gangsterism.
“Participants in the programme are also ambassadors for the City as they often assist those in need and help with access to various social services. It is encouraging to see so many participants, and we hope to have an even wider reach in the next 12 months,” she said.