Cape Flats YMCA

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About Cape Flats YMCA

The Cape Flats YMCA was formally known as the Mitchell’s Plain YMCA and was founded in 1989. Their main focus was Street Children’s programmes and Youth Camps. In 1995 the Cape Flats YMCA employed full time staff and extended there areas of work to Hanover Park, Khaylitsha, Nyanga and Guguletu.

Through the years, a lot of money, resources and manpower were spent on rehabilitation putting little effort into preventative work. Had the same effort was put into preventative work a lot less rehabilitation cases would be reported. This is where the challenge lies for the Cape Flats YMCA. They have spent the past years researching and experimenting and are successful in being the first NGO to tackle this field to the extent that they are doing in the Cape Flats.

Within the community Cape Flats YMCA is preventing problems, through their various programmes and activities. These problems within the community include gangsterism, drug peddling, addictions, alcoholism, sexual, physical and verbal abuse as well as children living on the street. YMCA’s programmes focuses on the youth and children as well as on the parents, although the child remains the core of the programme.
Over the last 13 years this YMCA has serviced the Cape Flats area with pride and diligence. It was established with a focus on helping street kids reform their lives and over the decade the focus has changed to helping Young People become leaders and communities become nodes of care and support for youth at risk. The Cape Flats YMCA is a non governmental section 21; it is a volunteer driven and community need based organisation with a vision to enable the youth in the community it serves through development and empowerment to become agents of positive change.

Projects:

Peer Education
A leadership development programme, that is done with selected learners within High Schools developing them for life, leadership and service. This programme also focuses on self development as well as equipping young people with knowledge so they can inform their peers. The programme is done in the following 10 Secondary Schools; Aloe High, Beacon Hill High, Lentegeur High, Crystal High, Groenvlei High, Silverstream High, Modderdam High, Heideveld High, Windsor High and Philippi High. These young people are taught the importance of role modelling, providing accurate information, advocating for change, recognise of other young people with issues and referral of these problems to professionals.

Community Health Workers
They do Health Education on the primary schools, assisting school nurses to test eyes, ears, weight and some other forms of literacy due to malnourishment. They are stationed within the schools and work very closely with educators to do necessary referrals.
Lay Counsellors
They work within hospitals and clinics to do pre and post HIV/Aids Counselling as well as ARV counselling before medication is administered to patients. They also do health talks within the clinics and especially the divisions of clinics that deal the mother to child rational on HIV. A lot of the Lay Counsellor work deals with infected and affected people dealing with the virus.

Prison Project
The Prison Project is in Pollsmoore, they work with Juveniles that are awaiting sentencing/to be released. This project deals with developing the young people holistically as well as individually so they can do out into the world and not fall into the same trap. This project also tries to reform young people so they can think bigger and be bolder as individuals.

Outreach (Holiday Clubs and Special Projects)
The Cape Flats YMCA does specialised outreach projects on request, from holiday clubs that deals with Christian leadership to sexual choices as well as individuality. They also do a lot of church events and outreaches within the sector of Youth Advocacy among Christian Youth. Camps, Clubs and Special events are very unique to the YMCA’s scope of work in the communities it serves.

Community Development Workers
Their main focus is running After-School clubs in Lentegeur, Portlands, Beacon Valley and Heinz Park. They run specialised clubs dealing with martial arts, dancing, arts and crafts and leadership with younger children (10 – 13 years old).

Victim Support
This is a volunteer based programme, dealing with counselling of people before and after they take the stand to testify in court. These volunteers are trained in counselling as well as other fields, they also do a lot of referral in cases that are beyond the courts control.