In our first newsletter, we mentioned that Streetscapes, in partnership with the City of Cape Town, received 60 stipends from National Treasury through the Public Employment Programme. All members of our community – both housed and unhoused – are benefiting from this initiative.
In Devil’s Peak and Vredehoek, 12 of the new Streetscapes employees, several of whom currently live in public spaces in our area, have started by cleaning the gutters, pavements, and parks in the neighbourhood. The two teams of 6 are supervised by fieldworker, Chantel, and her assistant, Sibongile, and they’ve been doing an incredible job of tidying up the public areas in our neighbourhood. In their first week alone they filled 180 rubbish bags of waste! The workers and the supervisors wear reflective vests with name tags.
If you see the teams out and about, please say hello and, if you can, top up their water bottles, especially as the weather is getting warmer. We are also looking for donations of re-usable/refillable water bottles / sports bottles. Please have a look in your kitchen cupboard and if you have any to donate they can be dropped off at the Streetscapes Rugley Road Garden (entrance opposite the Engen on Buitenkant Street; 8am – 3.30pm Mon to Fri; Sat 10am – 12pm) or handed to the team if you see them in the hood. Thank you!
Unfortunately, the City of Cape Town has not yet signed its contract with Streetscapes for the Public Employment Programme. After two months of success, which Streetscapes has been funding out-of-pocket, the programme is at risk of ending. DPV Outreach strongly hopes that the contract will be signed as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can support the project by donating to DPV Outreach with the Reference “Streetscapes Stipends”. *
* UPDATE 14 DECEMBER 2021: After two months of success, during which Streetscapes funded the new Public Employment programme out-of-pocket, DPV Outreach is delighted to report that the contract with the City of Cape Town has now been signed. This puts the new programme on a firm footing for the future.
More details on this initiative coming soon! In the meantime, if you have any ideas about what you would like the teams to tackle, please drop us an email info@dpvoutreach.org.za.
