We saw the need to support children within the school system, where they would be able to access mental health services more easily. This programme enables us to reach a far broader number of children. It is a partnership with educators who can identify their learners as needing support and receive immediate connection to services.
Our School Counselling Services provide children with psycho-social support to deal with difficulties and stresses arising from poor socio-economic conditions, where children are dealing with difficulties at home such as divorce, lack of support and resources, gender-based violence in the home, domestic violence, substance abuse and child abuse, loss and grief as well as poverty and unemployment of caregivers. The need for these services has been exacerbated by COVID and lockdown. Schools have identified children and families in extreme emotional distress reaching critical proportions exacerbated by the past year of the pandemic and lockdown. One project that we have worked on is called 326, an afternoon school for refugee and stateless children, which enables these children to be educated. Such children have multi-layers of trauma, including having to leave native countries and culture, xenophobia, and now COVID-19 which has escalated their treatment as outcasts in South Africa.
We have moved from an initial 10-15 schools, to over 40 schools in the Johannesburg and Soweto areas of South Africa. In this we are reaching a far broader number of children in our efforts. In addition we have employed a larger number of staff, and are training a far greater number of volunteers in order to carry out this project.
One of the other gains of this project is that educators and families get acess to more indepth services at our centre, when the need for this arises. Therefore our community outreach has enabled our core function to also expand and develop, with a greater number of children reached and staff developed.
They should contact Claudine at director@jpccc.org.za for further guidelines and assistance in starting this type of programme in their community.
