I believe I can fly : from shelter to developmental programme : changing interventions in a residential setting for street youth in Cape Town, South Africa between 1991 and 1999

Despite adolescence being a window of opportunity for effective intervention, street youth are frequently unnoticed by service providers, policy makers and the general public, and therefore their specific needs are unacknowledged. The writer has undertaken an exploratory study, using document analysis and participant observation as key methods, to contribute to identifying effective intervention techniques for work with street youth. This study bears witness to an extraordinary practice experience in a hostel for male youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, who have lived on the streets of Cape Town. Over three years the hostel developed from a "Home" offering shelter, care and support, to a "School of Life" which offered a focused developmental programme. Through documenting the philosophies, operating principles and the youth's responses to the two interventions, the study explores five suppositions concerning residential intervention practice with street youth. This study indicates that simply providing shelter, food and care is not usually sufficient to facilitate a street youth's move into the mainstream community. It suggests that providing for basic needs without demanding responsibility may encourage dependency, learned helplessness and institutionalisation. In tum the use of a time limited intervention, social skills workshops and involving the youth in the everyday running of the hostel may mitigate against this. The research proposes that assisting the youth to attain the developmental tasks of adolescence may prepare them for independence. The study notes that the use of group dynamics within the hostel community of youth and staff is a powerful tool of intervention and finally, suggests that the youth move through a process as they leave the streets, move into the hostel, settle and then prepare to leave. If the hostel is unable to support the youth through these phases, they will return to the streets. Street youth are only a "lost cause" if service providers continue to ignore the specific needs and issues of this client group.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Social Development

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Crawford-Browne, Sarah

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10280

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10280