Social workers bolster City’s social crime prevention arsenal

Suzette Little sigining the pledge

A group of 14 social workers have already made an impact in their areas of deployment, tackling a number of social issues.

The City of Cape Town’s Social Development and Early Childhood Development Directorate has added another layer to its basket of services: the deployment of 14 social workers.

The group will strengthen existing efforts to address social ills in 17 hotspot areas identified across the city and will focus specifically on the push/pull factors that result in people migrating to the streets. This includes truancy, substance abuse and domestic violence.‘This is a brand new direction for the City and I for one am very excited about it. We have grown our basket of services quite nicely over the last few years and by bringing in this group of social workers, we are opening more doors for residents in need. Tackling the repair of our social fabric is a thankless task, because there are no instant results. But I am confident that the interventions we have implemented will have the desired results in years to come,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Social Development and Early Childhood Development, Councillor Suzette Little.

The social workers will work in the following areas: Athlone, Cape Town/Sea Point/Green Point, Lansdowne, Grassy Park, Durbanville, Wynberg, Somerset West, Strand, Gordon’s Bay, Mitchells Plain, Goodwood, Bellville, Parow, Ottery, Kuils River, Diep River and Table View. These areas were determined based on the City’s street people enumeration conducted in 2014/15.

‘The interns are already working in their respective areas. They are working well with other role players in the different communities and are very enthusiastic about helping to bring about change in the lives of people they’re working with,’ added Councillor Little.

The social workers are deployed at the various Social Development district offices in the identified areas and will work closely with the officials to complement the Directorate’s existing interventions and programmes.

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