Community engagement

The personnel and learners of the Department of Social Work and Criminology are involved in a range of community service programmes and projects, including:

• Job creation for women and street children
• Awareness-raising of child abuse
• Raising awareness of HIV
• Home-based care and support for AIDS patients/children
• Holiday projects for street children
• Women abuse
• Life skills
• Parenting skills
• Foster care
• School holiday programmes
• Correctional Services: Programme for awaiting trial juveniles
• Support programmes for victims of crime              
• Crime awareness                                              
• Restorative justice
• Crime prevention projects.  

                          

Project: Pretoria Local Remand Detention Centre: sentenced offenders

Dr Karen Booyens is involved in a continuous project for sentenced offenders at the Pretoria Local Remand Detention Centre, Pretoria. The project involves various programmes and courses for these offenders.

Toward the end of each year, offenders are acknowledged for completion of different courses. On 1 November 2010 sentenced offenders from Pretoria Local Remand Detention Centre, Pretoria Management Area, received certificates for successfully completing the following courses: Computer skills, Basic entrepreneurial skills and Life skills (stress management, anger management, victim awareness and restorative justice). The life skills programme was presented by Dr Booyens. Apart from these courses Dr Booyens and the offenders also participated in community outreach such as celebrating Nelson Mandela day where they visited the clinic at the correctional centre and engaged with the patients. The offenders also knitted scarves (a first for a male correctional centre) and did fabric paintings for an orphanage in Hammanskraal.   

Scarves knitted by the offenders and the fabric paintings

Dr Karen Booyens, students from UP and the group of offenders with their certificate
 

Project: Pretoria Local Remand Detention Centre: youth awaiting trial

Dr Reineith Prinsloo initiated the Youth Awaiting Trial-project in 2008 as community engagement project for the practical module MWP 261 for second year social work students in the Department of Social Work and Criminology. The project continues every year and is one of the projects funded by the Department of Community Engagement of the university since 2010. Not only does the project have benefits for social work students for the integration of theory and practice, but for the youth awaiting trial as well. The project is an example of a community engagement project as envisioned for tertiary institutions with reciprocity and partnerships. The Departments of Drama and Ancient Languages (Latin) joined the initiative in 2010 and the planning for 2011 is that other departments in the faculty will come aboard to enrich the outcomes.

Dr Reineit Prinsloo and students at the Pretoria Local Remand Detention Centre
 

Students practising activities for their project with youths awaiting trial