Heinz Park Local Network of Care officially launched their services to the community with a workshop on Thursday November 24.
The network is a non-profit organisation which involves volunteers who live in the community providing a network of support, to prevent vulnerable and at-risk people from ending up on the streets; and to help with the reintegration of street people back into the community.
They also partner with the City of Cape Town to reduce the number of people living on the streets.
At the launch, participants were split into groups to discuss ways to prevent people from resorting to life on the streets and how homeless people could be helped.
Maggie Davey, reporting back for one of the groups, said residents in the low-socio-economic community of Heinz Park, needed to be empowered to help themselves.
Similarly, she said parents needed skills to calmly know how to manage their children, to prevent them from rebelling and allowing them to speak up, when they need help.
Ms Davey said apartheid had left many parents illiterate because they had to leave school early to be breadwinners. “They don’t know the worth of education,” she said.
Moefeeda Salie-Kagee, head of Social Development and Early Childhood Development for Mitchell’s Plain district, pledged to help the community in prioritising its problems and finding solutions together.
