Services to Families Programme

Overall focus

Social Development's Care and Support Services to Families Programme aims to promote functional families and to prevent vulnerability in families.

Services

• Family preservation services such as individual, couple and family counselling, marriage preparation and enrichment and support for families in crisis.
• Targeted Awareness that link families to available support services.
• Parenting and care giving skills to parents including teenage parents in order to improve their ability to provide proper care and support to their children.
• Fatherhood education and training programmes and services that promote positive involvement in families as well as positive male role modelling.
• Programmes and services that facilitate rehabilitation and reintegration of homeless adults back into society into families and/or communities.
• Capacity building training of service providers in family preservation services.

Fatherhood Programmes 

The Western Cape Department of Social Development funds 33 Social Service Organisations to render services to families, and of these, 17 Non Profit Ogarnisations (NPOs) provide Fatherhood Programmes. 

The programmes are focused on the following areas:

• Empowering fathers to take responsibility for the lives of their children
• Fostering positive relationships with their children’s mothers
• Responsible parenting
• Decreasing levels of violence against women and children
• Involve men in the lives of their partners, children, families and communities.
• Increase men’s involvement in treatment advocacy and home-based care activities.
• Reduce alcohol abuse and alcohol-related violence and HIV risk.

Those who are interested in accessing these programmes can visit their nearest DSD office. A social worker will conduct an assessment and based on the outcome, will do the appropriate referral or provide further interventions for the individual and/ or their family.

List of Fatherhood Programme NPOs