Strategies

Our work is organised in eleven strategies that each have their own programmes.
Our strategies are:

  1. Children development and early childhood development
  2. Youth development
  3. Women work & mobilization
  4. Men work & the “absent male role model” work
  5. Broad life education/life skills training
  6. Employment and local economic development
  7. Partnerships and networking
  8. Responsible ecological living
  9. Physical changes Lavender Hill
  10. Civic engagement, human rights and legal advice
  11. Training and development of staff

Strategy 1 - Children development and early childhood development

Overall objectives:

  • To develop children holistically (with intellectual, emotional and spiritual expansion and growth;
  • Within this context, to acknowledge the important role of parents/legal guardians and therefore, to offer programmes to develop parenting skills.

Strategy 2 - Youth development

Overall objectives:

  • Provide programmes in a safe environment for children and youth where they can learn, play and develop holistically to become positive change agents and role models in their community.
  • Counsel and offer intervention for children and youth with problems and offer a support structure for school drop-outs, equipping them with skills to problem-solve and to be reintegrated into the school.
  • Training of youth members to become change agents and/or youth leaders to assist with children and youth programmes in the community surrounding Lavender Hill and Vrygrond/Capricorn area with the aim of contributing to positive change.

Strategy 3 - Women work & mobilization

Overall objectives:

  • Support and facilitation of the development of community, church and mosque women and women groups (for instance soup kitchens, environmental or discussion groups, etc)in Lavender Hill, Vrygrond/Capricorn and surrounding areas.
  • Training and facilitation of development of women in the areas of “broad life education”, work & employment and basic & advanced skills in various areas (e.g. computer skills, catering or home based care).

Goals:

  • To support the development of women by training them in life skills, computer skills, home based care, HIV/Aids, health & wellbeing, conflict resolution and mediation.
  • To support the development of support groups, court committees and interest groups in Lavender Hill, Vrygrond, Capricorn and surrounding areas.

Most activities of the Women’s strategy are aimed specifically at women but some are aimed at a mixed audience, including also men and children.

Strategy 4 - Men work and the “absent male role model” work (new!)

We are currently in the process of researching and exploring the way forward for this new programme. This should put the New World Foundation in a position to better understand the extent of the problem and to identify the kind of interventions and programmes that will address the “absent male” challenge in our communities. The ultimate hope is that in time, this work will contribute to the healing of a very important part of the multiple woundedness of our society and communities. This healing will challenge the men who “lost the way” to “stand up again” and to ensure that the younger generation of boys as they grow up will break down the pattern of fathers “disappearing” from their communities and from the lives of their families. We want to eventually create a mind shift in the culture behind this phenomenon and also unpack gender stereotypes and reinforce gender equity in this regard.

Strategy 5 - Broad life education and training

Overall objectives:

  • To provide broader life education and life skills to restore human dignity, give hope and support participants in their self-development for the future.
  • To provide unemployed people and people with little skills with basic “hard” skills and life skills to increase their chances of employment of the participants in the informal and formal job market.

Strategy 6 - Employment & local economic development (new!)

The huge unemployment challenge in the community (higher than 60%) impacts in a negative way on every single aspect of New World Foundation’s work. We are currently exploring ways in which this challenge can be addressed as part of the work of the organisation.

Strategy 7 - Partnerships & networking

New World Foundation as part of the broader and more representative development community (local, regional, national and international)is internalizing a strong culture of networking and partnerships. We believe we as development organisations should not reinvent the wheel, duplicate services or compete against each other. Rather, we want to learn from each other, cooperate where relevant and desirable and delegate where possible. As a formal strategy, “Partnerships & networking” is currently in its initial development phase. However, a wide range of partnerships have been established over the years.

Strategy 8 - Responsible ecological living (new!)

With so many basic survival issues in the context of the NWF’s work over the years, the much needed focus and awareness of environmental issues and the need for more responsible ecological living on the planet Earth has been an “understandable” oversight. However, the environmental issues have become too important and too vital not to be included as a priority focus in our work. We are currently in the process of starting up this strategy.

Strategy 9 - Physical changes Lavender Hill (new!)

New World Foundation is convinced that the facilitation of human development and community development should include addressing the inhumane living conditions of people in Lavender Hill. NWF will address and plan the renovation and/or upgrading of the apartment blocks, the living conditions of the back yard dwellers and the living conditions of people in the informal settlements in cooperation with Cape Technikon, Sun Development, VPUU and the City of Cape Town. Our strategy to address this topic is currently being developed.

Strategy 10 - Civic engagement, human rights & legal advice

Lavender Hill was created when people were forcefully uprooted from areas where they were disowned due to the color of their skin. There was no infrastructure or service delivery provided and human rights were grossly violated on various levels. The life of the inhabitants resulted in continuous protest action for basic service delivery. People and families became dysfunctional stemming mainly form a dysfunctional environment. In the new democratic South Africa, post 1994, the poor remain marginalized and need support to fight for their rights and to deal with their daily challenges and problems.

Overall objective:
The aim of the programme is to ensure that basic human rights are protected and that human dignity is restored. We assist people to know their rights and stand up for them, becoming fully functional members of society.

Strategy 11 - Training & development of staff

New World Foundation realizes that it will not be possible to bring our other ten strategies to fruition if we don’t commit ourselves the development of our organisation and our staff.

Overall objectives:

  • To put in place the necessary mechanism that will ensure continued reflection and learning from practice, so that NWF continues to develop as an organisation that has the ability to support the staff in the realization of the organisation’s vision.
  • To have specific staff formation and training interventions/programmes in place as an ongoing and permanent aspect of the organisation’s life.

© 2012 New World Foundation
Grindal Avenue, Lavender Hill, Cape Town
Tel: +27 21 701 1150
Fax: +27 21 701 9592