Kidstop Drop-in Centre

ABOUT US

SERVICES

The Community workers visit the streets on a daily basis and monitor the movements of the children at risk in the community. They identify children who are leaving their homes and communities and then link them with the basic reading and writing program, mainstream schools, social worker and families. The community workers build relationships with the children on the street and invite them to the drop-in center.

Basic Reading and Writing Program:

The purpose is to cater for the children who have dropped out of mainstream schooling. They are motivated and learn on an informal basis – so that at the end they can go back to mainstream schooling. The children and their families are link with social services to assist the family to over come their challenges. This also provides an important support network for the children and their families.

The Kidstop SAFE HOUSE in Blanco, a partnership project with the George Municipality, caters for a maximum of 6 children. The children are referred to the Safe house from our daily programme being run at Kidstop as well as through social services and the various welfare organizations or departments working with placement of at-risk children.

After careful consideration of the many unique factors and needs in their individual lives a multi-professional team assist them through a rehabilitation programme to be re-integrated in their families and community life!

Two Recent success stories of how a young person’s life was changed.

One of the boys at the safe house was asked how he was doing and replied that it was going well. The staff member asked him what was making it go well. He replied that he had a safe place to sleep, food to eat but most of all he had staff members who really care for him and love him. He said he felt cared for because there were people he can talk to and they listen to him and people who pray for him and his family. The boy said because of the love he received from the staff he was able to turn his life around.

Another boy at the residential house in Blanco who had left a few months ago changed his mind and decided to come back because he was encouraged by one of the other boys in the house. The friend challenged the boy to consider coming back and changing his life of begging on the streets, sniffing petrol and not attending school. Every time this friend went home to visit he told the boy how glad he was to be at the residential house and spoke of the positive impact it has had on his life.

The community workers also spent time with that boy encouraging him about the positive change they had seen in him while staying at the house in Blanco. They visited him at home in Conville and encouraged his mother who is a single parent, to ask him to go back to the house. A few weeks ago the boy told one of the staff members that he would like to go back to the Blanco house and wanted to see the same change in himself as he could see in his friend’s life. The boy has shown good progress and has enrolled in the basic reading and writing program.