The Community Victim Support Programme offers support to
victims of crime. Survivors of domestic violence form a
large percentage of the clients we see. CVS and its expertise
in the field of domestic violence, based on 18 years of
experience and learning, is highly respected. NICRO is
widely recognised not only as a leader but also as an innovator
in the field of Victim Support. CVS with a staff complement
of 42 permanent service deliverers and over 500 active
volunteers, is currently operational in more than 83 communities
in eight of South Africa’s provinces: Eastern Cape,
Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, North West
Province, Northern Cape and the Western Cape. NICRO Northern
Cape launched CVS in January 2003 and now has two newly
established victim support centres in operation. Plans
to establish the Programme in Mpumalanga are reaching finalisation.
Highlights
Specialised psycho-educational, therapeutic
group-work programmes for perpetrators of
domestic violence, now operational in the
Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng, and
about to be launched in KwaZulu-Natal
Very successful and impactful court-based
services affording victims and witness access
to justice and support throughout the legal
process
Building capacity for frontline victim support
services
A holistic approach to domestic violence
prevention, including the Perpetrator Programme,
the Journey Programme for Survivors of Domestic
Violence, direct services to victims, and
the investigation of and support services
provided to children exposed to domestic
violence
Gender violence and socialisation workshops
targeting male and female youths in schools
Community education and awareness programmes,
and increased lobbying, advocacy, networking
and profiling efforts have gained the Programme
ever increasing respect
Rural models of intervention to address the
needs of rural communities and provide services
where they are most
Income generation projects with abused women
Statistics: 2002 - 2003
Victim support services rendered to 49 683
individual victims of crime and violence;
an additional 20 715 individuals were reached
through workshops
More than 46 victim support centres operating
from police stations, courts, clinics, NICRO
offices and community-based venues countrywide
Females constitute 73% of our clients
Cultural profile: African Black - 78.7%;
African Coloured - 18.6%; African White -
2%; African Asian - .8%
Offender Reintegration
Programme (OR)
Khanya Mpuang National
Programme Specialist
The Offender Reintegration Programme has been designed and
implemented to provide support for and assist offenders,
former offenders and their families with successful reintegration.
This programme strengthens the capacity of former offenders
to resettle in their communities and family, to make amends
and to become responsible and productive citizens. This,
in turn, contributes significantly to the reduction of crime
in South Africa. Intervention is aimed both at the ex-offender
and his or her family members, while work is also undertaken
within the community to strengthen and build community resources
and support systems.
In addition to support services rendered to walk-in clients
OR comprises the following five components:
The Tough Enough Programme (TEP)
The Working for Water Project
The Esther Lategan Study Fund (providing bursaries for
imprisoned TEP participants as well as the children of
imprisoned persons)
The Creative Arts Competition
The NICRO Bus Service (in the Western
Cape and KwaZulu-Natal)
TEP, an intensive 9-to-12-month intervention programme
that supports clients in prison as well as after their
release, remains the key focus of NICRO’s offender
reintegration work. Given the general lack of services
for families of prisoners, TEP, with its focus on the individual
prisoner as well as his or her family members, is considered
to be a few steps ahead of most offender reintegration
programmes.
REINTEGRATION PROGRAMME
Highlights
Three successful provincial seminars: “Breakfast
Behind Bars” in KwaZulu-Natal at the Pietermaritzburg
Prison in July 2002; a seminar jointly facilitated by the
Offender Reintegration and Diversion Programmes in Port
Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, in October 2002; the Northern
Cape’s provincial seminar, which also took place
in October 2002
A National Indaba, a seminar entitled “Offender
Reintegration - A Legitimate Crime Prevention
Strategy”, was held in Gauteng
in March 2003
A national training workshop aimed
at enhancing the involvement of communities
in the Tough Enough Programme was
conducted for all Offender Reintegration
staff in August 2002
A research study and impact evaluation
of the Tough Enough Programme in
the Eastern Cape, Free State, Northern
Cape and Western Cape commenced,
while the remaining provinces participated
in an impact study of the Working
for Water Project
Statistics: 2002 – 2003
3 146 individual beneficiaries and an additional 4 814
reached through workshops in Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Free
State, KwaZulu- Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North
West Province and the Western Cape
5 618 clients participated in TEP, which is operational
in 31 prisons in eight provinces, involving 26 service
delivery staff and five provincial programme managers.
243 bursaries were awarded to the children of prisoners
More than 2 000 entries received for the Creative Arts
Competition.
Cultural profile: African Black - 70.4%; African Colored
- 25.8%; African White - 2.7%; African Asian - 1.1%.
Gender profile: male - 57.8%; female - 42.2%.
Economic Opportunities Project (EOP)
The Economic Opportunities Project is geared towards training
and developing NICRO clients, equipping them with the necessary
entrepreneurial skills, tools and support services to become
economically self-sufficient.
A new direction for the future
The critical assessment of programme objectives and outputs
has highlighted a crucial challenge facing EOP: the need
to improve and develop an impact-orientated service to meet
the needs of a constantly changing environment and client
base, and the need to focus more specifically on job creation
and re-employment services.
EOP has thus far focused primarily on the transfer of
entrepreneurial skills, thereby striving to equip clients
for ownership of a micro enterprise. However, it has become
clear that not all clients possess an entrepreneurial mindset.
This has led to the decision that NICRO will, in the next
financial year, focus on developing a new strategy and
implementation plan for EOP, in consultation with NICRO
staff, all relevant role-players and stakeholders. The
aim of this process will be to reposition EOP and plan
the development and implementation of a more holistic approach
to improving the economic prospects of NICRO clients, more
especially former offenders, victims of crime and violence,
and at-risk youth.
It is envisaged that, as a result of this process, programme
content will be redeveloped to cater for the broad and
diverse profile of client needs and capabilities in respect
of economic opportunities. One specific objective would
be to broaden the scope of the EOP regarding economic re-engagement,
whereby the client will be empowered and coached for re-employment.
While entrepreneurial development will still be an option,
it will in all likelihood no longer be the only option.
Statistics: 2002 - 2003
21 service points in all nine provinces offered business
skills training, counseling, participation in support groups,
other support or mentoring/after-care services, business
linkage opportunities and assistance to secure micro loans
87 Business Awareness Workshops and 119 information sessions
were conducted, reaching a total of 4 876 individuals
60 Start and Improve Your Own Business (SIYB) training
programmes were run, offering entrepreneurial skills training
to 728 clients, 63,74% of whom were women
599 new businesses were started, and 754 new jobs created
Business development officers provided support services
and after-care to 4 407 emerging and existing entrepreneurs
Copies of this Annual
Report are available from the NICRO National Office nicro@wn.apc.org
