Chantel, supported by the Streetscapes Outreach Team started on 1 August 2021, and she hit the ground running! On her very first day of work, she stayed by the side of someone in need of emergency medical care for several hours. The person was finally taken to the hospital and was extremely grateful for the support that Chantel provided!
The Streetscapes/DPVO Team – Chantel, Sibusiso, Sicelo and, more recently, Rudy – have introduced themselves to people living in the area. This includes people to whom housed residents requested that DPVO and Streetscapes reach out. The Team provides weekly reports to DPVO. So far, they have found 56 people experiencing homelessness in Devil’s Peak, Vredehoek, Mill Street Bridge and De Waal Park.
The Team completed Digital Survey training with DPVO member Gianna Maita-Edwards. They learned how to use Kobo Collect to digitally capture responses to a survey of individuals sleeping on the streets, using their smartphones. The survey will begin in early October and will cover Devil’s Peak, Vredehoek, Mill Street Bridge and De Waal Park. The results will assist Streetscapes and DPVO to respond to the needs of the community.
The Team have started bi-weekly computer training with DPVO member Natalie Spires. This training covers basic computer use, creating documents in MS Word, capturing data in Excel and emailing reports and PDFs. Later training will cover Google Workspace tools like Google Drive (creating sheets and documents) and Google Calendar sharing. The training aims to empower the team to capture data electronically, create and share reports and improve efficiencies.
Cascadia Behavioral Health, based in Oregon, USA, has partnered with Streetscapes. Cascadia run a certified 20-week Peer Specialist training programme. We are delighted that our team is now part of this programme, which will add to their skill-set.
How can you help?
We are currently raising funds for Chantel’s fieldworker salary. We hope to be able to maintain this through January 2022.
If we reach this, we will also begin saving for Chantel’s Auxiliary Social Work course, Streetscapes’ supervision of the Outreach Team, and other outreach expenses.
Evidence shows that this approach to addressing homelessness is far more cost-effective than the securitised approach to evicting individuals that is taking place in surrounding neighbourhoods (Hopkins et al, 2020).
Click here if you would like to donate.
Do you have any questions for us?
You can submit comments to our Questions & Answers page or email us at info@dpvoutreach.org.za. We’d love to hear from you!