Special Commendation — Not-for-Profit Organisations: Coalition of Anglican Children’s Homes (Coach)
The informal settlements of Gauteng are full of children living in desperate socio-economic conditions. It is here that a church partnership is working to uplift the lives of not only the children, but also their communities.
“It is widely understood that children and childhood are the building blocks for social, economic and human development and yet millions of kids remain isolated in hopeless environments,” says Joanne Schermeier of the Coalition of Anglican Children’s Homes (Coach). “We uphold the belief that most of these young individuals can turn their lives into meaningful and productive experiences if they are given the relevant educational and related skills.”
Coach is a formal partnership between St George’s Home (active in the east of Johannesburg), St Joseph’s and St Nicolas’s homes (in the west of Johannesburg) and the Diocese of Johannesburg. These three children’s homes deliver therapeutic residential and community-based services to orphans and vulnerable children in the JohannesÂburg area.
The partnership helps — through residential and community developÂment programmes — the young and their families to avoid the pitfalls of poverty, such as crime and substance abuse. In a year it reaches more than 2 000 people, ranging from toddlers to senior citizens.
Schermeier says the partnership grew from a vision to develop a model of coordinated governance to deliver child and youth care services to increase the level of accountability and share resources between the homes and the diocese.
“Although not the first of its kind in South Africa, we aim to develop a model that is based on best-practice models and, ultimately, become a centre of excellence that is accessible to other organisations in Southern Africa,” she says. “The diocese provided us with many of the professional skills we needed to create the legal framework for Coach and guided us in realising its vision.”
Schermeier does not paint a pretty picture of the Johannesburg communities in which Coach works. Programmes have been implemented in Sophiatown, Westbury, Kempton Park and various informal settlements in the region.
“The communities are frequently informal or high-density sub-economic communities with a prohibitive rate of unemployment,” she says. “Gang violence is common in the western suburbs and dealing in alcohol and drugs is a major economic activity. Substance abuse is prevalent, as is the abuse of women and children.”
She says incidents of teenage pregnancy and dropping out of school are high and there are numerous single-parent households and a general lack of accommodation. Poverty and family dysfunction is pervasive. “Children in these areas are extremely vulnerable and require specialised therapies when they enter the programme,” says Schermeier.
Coach is slowly winning the hearts of the people with whom it works. Schermeier says it is not enough to work with the children, while ignoring the pathologies that abound in families and communities. It has a range of programmes to intervene in the lives of the youth, including therapy, life space interventions and its Life Campus programme.
Life Campus targets those aged 16 to 18 who have spent years outside of family care and helps them to develop skills while teaching them to live productive adult lives. About 60 teenagers benefit from the programme each year and, says Schermeier, 75% of the programme’s graduates leave the Life Campus having secured employment or created their own.