The South (Booysens District)

The first area in which we have piloted the Community Development Programme is Rosettenville in the South of Johannesburg (Booysens District). The intervention started in February 2010 and the first phase of HCCT has been completed, having had  the’ Foundations of Change’ colloquium and 4 ‘Pioneer of Possibility’ sector specific workshops.
 
Foundations for Change:

Sixteen local community leaders from different sectors attended the workshop. They decided that they wanted to ‘build a safer community’ and would achieve this through an internal and external process. Internally, they would work on the relationships between different departments within the civil service to ensure service delivery and functional law enforcement. Externally, they would mobilise the community through events that call individuals to action that will build a safer community and made a commitment to activities that promote youth development. Out of this workshop, the banner “Safer South” was adopted as the name for their campaign and movement.

Pioneers of Possibility:

These sector specific workshops focused on the role of each sector in building a safer community. There were four in total: for the Faith-Based sector, Education sector, Civil Servants, and for the business community.

Events of ‘Safer South’
So far this year there have been a number of activities and events that have been part of the Safer South campaign.

1. 100 Days Football Tournament: A seven a-side football tournament was held to mark 100 days before the kick-off of the FIFA World Cup. Teams were drawn from local churches, schools, community organisations and SAPS also attended.


2. Business Breakfasts: Two business breakfasts were held to promote a Safer South to the business sector, to introduce them to our objectives and to encourage their attendance at the business sector POP workshop. In total we had an audience with approximately 50 business leaders in the area.


3. Faith-Based Leaders training: 54 church leaders from 16 different churches were trained and equipped with Heartlines materials that will enable them to promote values education in their churches.


4. Youth Academies: We took 10 Grade 10 learners from Fakkel High School, the Headmaster, and two educators on a week-long values-based Leadership Academy. Feedback from the school has been that the lives of these young people have been turned around, with a great impact on the school and surrounding community.


5. Park Clean up: At this event176 people turned up to clean a local park that was full of rubbish and was a hotspot for crime in our area. This was also a wonderful relationship building event. Read more...


6. Heritage Day Community picnic: The Local Organising Committee organised a Safer South community picnic on Sept 24th, Heritage Day. This was a family oriented affair and took place in the park that everyone had cleaned up. At the event, literature was handed to all attending with the aim of encouraging pride in the community and with a call to implement small actions that will have a bearing on crime.
   Read more...

Events spawned by Safer South without Heartlines’ direct involvement:

Local churches have come together to plan communal events without the direct involvement of Heartlines. This demonstrates a great level of unity and initiative, and would not likely have taken place before Heartlines because the relationships between churches were not strong.

See Chesterville