DPV OUTREACH
About Us
OUR STORY
How DPVO got started
DPV Outreach (DPVO) was formed by a small group of residents of Devil’s Peak and Vredehoek who had previously been involved with DPV Neighbourhood Watch as well as the DPV Community Action Network (DPV CAN) that operated in the area during lockdown in 2020. Engagement with both these organisations showed that residents in the wider community were concerned about the growing numbers of homeless people in our area, but were unsure about what to do about it.
DPVO works in partnership with Streetscapes, to help find solutions to homelessness in our area.
As an organisation, our first project followed in the footsteps of the Van Riebeeck Park Pilot Project which ran from the end of April 2019 to end February 2020, with the aim of providing support to homeless people and information to all community members in the Devil’s Peak Vredehoek area. When we started, support was provided by Chantel Sampson, a part-time fieldworker, who was supervised and mentored by our amazing partners from the Streetscapes Programme at Khulisa Social Solutions.
DPV Outreach’s approach is to tackle homelessness by working with residents and with Streetscapes to find sustainable solutions to homelessness in our area.
We act as a link between homeless people in our area and housed residents, with the help of the Streetscapes’ Peer Outreach team. With help from residents, we support the work and rehabilitation programmes that Streetscapes offers to help people move permanently off the streets.
Chantel started on 1 August 2021, and she hit the ground running! Since then, until late November 2025, she has been our main contact; from fieldworker on the ground, she moved on to manage the Streetscapes cleaning team in our area. When Streetscapes set up their team of Outreach peer counsellors, she supported their work in our area. In November 2025, she was offered a position with the Lower Gardens City Improvement District, which has several homeless encampments, where her experience and expertise will be of great benefit to all involved.
Streetscapes itself has also grown and is now a NGO in its own right, known as Izitalato NPC t/a Streetscapes.
DPV Outreach is a registered non-profit organisation (271-223 NPO)
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There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
~ MARGARET J. WHEATLEY
The Streetscapes Peer Outreach team engage with people on the streets. When someone accepts assistance and joins Streetscapes programme, the services offered include:
- Intake assessments and trust building
- Assisting clients with opening a bank account and obtaining ID
- Facilitation and assistance with psychosocial services
- Regular one-on-one sessions: goal setting, budgeting, debt management etc
- Regular group sessions: women’s groups, men’s groups, recovery groups, development groups (career planning)
- Development of interpersonal skills/controlling emotional impulses
- Referrals and support to access health services, inpatient / outpatient rehabilitation, NA/AA groups
- Accessing counselling and therapeutic services
- Helping clients build a support network, liaising with family
- Facilitating recreation activities like soccer and yoga
- Assisting clients access skills development programmes – (cleaning, security, fork lift operation, work readiness, etc)
Please say hello if you see the Streetscapes Peer Outreach counsellors in the neighbourhood.
We are delighted to have access to their services.
Our partnership with Streetscapes
Streetscapes’ mandate is to work with individuals who are chronically homeless, drawing them into a structured work environment at their vegetable gardens, which act as an entry point to their rehabilitation programmes. Streetscapes’ experience is that when people are given the opportunity to earn a regular stipend, they are then able to find accommodation and stabilise their lives. A safe place to live then allows them to deal with the challenges that drove them onto the street in the first place. Streetscapes has a high success rate of helping people move off the street.
We aim to provide information to members of our community about services on offer to homeless people in our area. The Streetscape Peer Outreach team under Rudie Basson’s management, engage with individuals on our streets; we support the work that they do.
Together, we can make a difference.
DPV Outreach members and the Streetscapes Outreach Team at Rugley Road Garden, during our first in-person meeting on 2 October 2021.
