St. Anthony’s ethos is rooted in the Christian Faith and the call of Jesus Christ to ‘love one another’. There is no discrimination between children of different races and religion and every child is loved and welcomed as an individual. We take it as our responsibility as carers to also instil this essential Christian message of love and acceptance within each of our children.

As many of them have suffered traumatic experiences, loss and bereavement, developing their lives spiritually can provide much comfort and relief.

St. Anthony’s Home began through the work of the Catholic Church and we think it is imperative to continue practicing the Catholic faith. Our children are invited to attend Mass every Sunday and to engage in Sunday school classes. Each class caters for the spiritual needs of the particular child and the main aim is to offer acceptance, support and spiritual guidance. The children are also encouraged to pray daily and hopefully to develop a relationship with God which will enhance their lives.

St. Anthony’s has employed a Reunification Officer whose specific role is to search for and identify families of children in residence. They work in close partnership with the resident Social Worker to identify children who would benefit from this. The Reunification Officer then begins the difficult task of locating family members which involves following up on leads with limited information and visiting various communities to make enquiries.

Once the family is located forums with the Social Workers who manage the case are held to form a co-operative partnership and establish a common ground for the reunification process. If the group agree to continue with the reunification, the child will then be prepared for visiting the family by the Reunification Officer. The relationship is positively developed through visits, letter correspondence and telephone contact.

When the time comes for permanent reunification a stringent After Care Support Programme is in place to monitor the child and family’s progress and visits from the Reunification Officer continue to take place.

In the year March 2008-09 we succeeded in reunifying 20 children:  ten children went to foster care with relatives, nine to biological parents and one child to adoption.

A number of our staff have been trained in running workshops to educate and capacitate parents and guardians in the skills of behaviour management, household budgeting, childcare, healthy living and income generation. The aim is to provide them with the necessary skills for successful and nurturing family life.

Our children have suffered many different kinds of traumatic experiences and so their psychosocial wellbeing is a priority in their care and recovery. We have a skilled team of care workers and a residential Social Worker who oversees the therapeutic treatment of all our children.

They receive intensive individual and group counselling, psychological support and HIV/AIDS or bereavement counselling where necessary. In these sessions they are able to discuss and begin to heal their past, enabling them to overcome and work towards a brighter future.

Having fun and enjoying yourself is a natural and essential part of childhood and emotional development. All of our children are encouraged to engage in sporting activities such as soccer and netball which keep them fit and healthy, encourage teamwork and build self esteem. Music and dancing is also a regular activity at St. Anthony’s and you will often be greeted by the sound of voices singing, feet stamping and drums beating. Not only are these activities fun, but they help our children to grow in self-confidence, develop their natural talents and bond as a group.

An essential part of the Recreational Programme is also to encourage interaction and engagement with local communities and society at large. Our children need to integrate and interact with other children outside the Centre and playing sport and sharing music and dance is an effective way to do this.

We hold an annual Sports Day where teams from the community are invited to compete in soccer, netball, volleyball and athletics. We also organise regular outings from the Centre to various places such as to a local park, Game Reserve or even to Johannesburg’s ‘Gold Reef City’ themepark!

It is always difficult to live in a multi-cultural environment and to encourage individual cultural pride, but with most of our children living outside of their cultural structures, we find it essential to engage them in cultural projects that instil both a sense of pride, and a sense of belonging when returning to their communities.

Not only do these events encourage the child’s cultural awareness, but they also allow essential time to interact with their community and with other young people to develop their social skills. This helps them to understand their place in the world and community and to realise that they are accepted and loved by those around them.
 
Our children attend many different cultural events throughout the year which teach and encourage them to be proud of who they are and where they are from. These events include the annual Royal Reed Dance, Cultural Day at St. Anthony’s during September and other traditional celebrations during the year such as attending weddings and 21st birthday parties.

In order to help our children achieve in this demanding world, we equip them with different skills which are age appropriate. Every child is enrolled in either pre-primary, primary or secondary education, at a facility which is operating in their home language [isiZulu or English]. Their attendance and progress is monitored by their Care Worker and they are supported in their homework assignments.

As well as a formal education the children are equipped with skills within the Centre. The younger children are encouraged to draw and colour, and to develop their writing skills. Other age groups are equipped with computer skills and are enabled to improve their computer literacy, reading and writing. Teenagers are taught basic life skills; washing, ironing, cooking, baking and cleaning. The younger group of boys and girls (6-12years) are taught to wash their underwear, polish their shoes, make their bed and clean their rooms.

At St. Anthony’s our main aim is to see ‘children safe in families’ and so reuniting those staying with us with their biological family or an adoptive family is one of our main objectives.
We have a specific Reunification Officer who searches for and identifies families and who works in close partnership with the resident Social Worker.
In the year March 2008-09 we succeeded in reunifying 20 children:  ten children went to foster care with relatives, nine to biological parents and one child to adoption.

2010 has seen the launching of a new phase of Family Reunification at St. Anthony’s Home. We have recognised the need for physical and material changes to the lives of some of our children and their families whose living conditions prevent their children being reunited with them.

The aim is to provide sufficient, basic accommodation with access to water and bedrooms so that the children sleep inside every night. This Project also works in conjunction with our various other Projects including Family Counselling and Community Gardens, in order to ensure a permanent and complete solution to the families difficulties.

‘ONE HOME ONE GARDEN’

Alleviating poverty and hunger is one of the major concerns of St. Anthony’s in providing children with safe and nurturing families. In order to capacitate these families for the future we have begun a project, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, to assist in planting vegetable gardens which will provide food security.

Families are then equipped with the skills and tools needed to provide for themselves, rather than living solely on Social Grants.

This intensive support is available for both the families of children in residence and to those in our local communities who have been identified as needing support. We may have been alerted to their situation through a school, church or other concerned community member.

At St. Anthony’s we have appointed a Community Support Officer and have built up a dedicated team of volunteers who work in our local communities to assist struggling families. Volunteers make regular home visits to aid in empowering the family and linking them with the relevant service providers. They may help by providing the family with access to Social Grants, ID cards, enrolling their children in school and even providing emergency food and clothing relief.

Many families experience difficult times which put a strain on the relationship between children and their families. However, we recognise that with the necessary support, they can be helped to overcome their challenges and live as a family again.

We facilitate Family Counselling Weekends where the child and parents/guardians are enabled to discuss their challenges in a safe, nurturing and caring environment. The vision is to provide a clear and structured way forward to address their issues. Weekends include; substance abuse, bereavement and HIV/AIDS counselling, behaviour management, household budgeting, income generation and childcare skills.

At St. Anthony’s we are very aware of the need to tackle the plight of abused and vulnerable children at the grass roots level. We know that PREVENTION is always better than seeking a cure and so we want to assist children and families before the Department for Social Development have to intervene.

We are eager to transform our work from being purely caring for children in a residential centre, to reaching out to our communities and assisting families to care for their children there. Removing a child from their family, their home, their school and community can cause more difficulties than it seeks to solve. Therefore, we want to develop a strategy for preserving families and preventing the removal of children, so that children no longer have to grow up in an ‘institution’.

Family Preservation can take place in two different scenarios; either involving families whose children are in residence, or families whose children are still staying with them. In both situations the services rendered are the same and the aim is the same; to PRESERVE families so that children live in safe, happy family environments.
Outlined below are the key steps and activities involved in our Family Preservation Programme:

St. Anthony’s ethos is rooted in the Christian Faith and the call of Jesus Christ to ‘love one another’. There is no discrimination between children of different races and religion and every child is loved and welcomed as an individual. We take it as our responsibility as carers to also instil this essential Christian message of love and acceptance within each of our children.

As many of them have suffered traumatic experiences, loss and bereavement, developing their lives spiritually can provide much comfort and relief.

St. Anthony’s Home began through the work of the Catholic Church and we think it is imperative to continue practicing the Catholic faith. Our children are invited to attend Mass every Sunday and to engage in Sunday school classes. Each class caters for the spiritual needs of the particular child and the main aim is to offer acceptance, support and spiritual guidance. The children are also encouraged to pray daily and hopefully to develop a relationship with God which will enhance their lives.

St. Anthony’s has employed a Reunification Officer whose specific role is to search for and identify families of children in residence. They work in close partnership with the resident Social Worker to identify children who would benefit from this. The Reunification Officer then begins the difficult task of locating family members which involves following up on leads with limited information and visiting various communities to make enquiries.

Once the family is located forums with the Social Workers who manage the case are held to form a co-operative partnership and establish a common ground for the reunification process. If the group agree to continue with the reunification, the child will then be prepared for visiting the family by the Reunification Officer. The relationship is positively developed through visits, letter correspondence and telephone contact.

When the time comes for permanent reunification a stringent After Care Support Programme is in place to monitor the child and family’s progress and visits from the Reunification Officer continue to take place.

In the year March 2008-09 we succeeded in reunifying 20 children:  ten children went to foster care with relatives, nine to biological parents and one child to adoption.

A number of our staff have been trained in running workshops to educate and capacitate parents and guardians in the skills of behaviour management, household budgeting, childcare, healthy living and income generation. The aim is to provide them with the necessary skills for successful and nurturing family life.

Our children have suffered many different kinds of traumatic experiences and so their psychosocial wellbeing is a priority in their care and recovery. We have a skilled team of care workers and a residential Social Worker who oversees the therapeutic treatment of all our children.

They receive intensive individual and group counselling, psychological support and HIV/AIDS or bereavement counselling where necessary. In these sessions they are able to discuss and begin to heal their past, enabling them to overcome and work towards a brighter future.

Having fun and enjoying yourself is a natural and essential part of childhood and emotional development. All of our children are encouraged to engage in sporting activities such as soccer and netball which keep them fit and healthy, encourage teamwork and build self esteem. Music and dancing is also a regular activity at St. Anthony’s and you will often be greeted by the sound of voices singing, feet stamping and drums beating. Not only are these activities fun, but they help our children to grow in self-confidence, develop their natural talents and bond as a group.

An essential part of the Recreational Programme is also to encourage interaction and engagement with local communities and society at large. Our children need to integrate and interact with other children outside the Centre and playing sport and sharing music and dance is an effective way to do this.

We hold an annual Sports Day where teams from the community are invited to compete in soccer, netball, volleyball and athletics. We also organise regular outings from the Centre to various places such as to a local park, Game Reserve or even to Johannesburg’s ‘Gold Reef City’ themepark!

It is always difficult to live in a multi-cultural environment and to encourage individual cultural pride, but with most of our children living outside of their cultural structures, we find it essential to engage them in cultural projects that instil both a sense of pride, and a sense of belonging when returning to their communities.

Not only do these events encourage the child’s cultural awareness, but they also allow essential time to interact with their community and with other young people to develop their social skills. This helps them to understand their place in the world and community and to realise that they are accepted and loved by those around them.
 
Our children attend many different cultural events throughout the year which teach and encourage them to be proud of who they are and where they are from. These events include the annual Royal Reed Dance, Cultural Day at St. Anthony’s during September and other traditional celebrations during the year such as attending weddings and 21st birthday parties.

In order to help our children achieve in this demanding world, we equip them with different skills which are age appropriate. Every child is enrolled in either pre-primary, primary or secondary education, at a facility which is operating in their home language [isiZulu or English]. Their attendance and progress is monitored by their Care Worker and they are supported in their homework assignments.

As well as a formal education the children are equipped with skills within the Centre. The younger children are encouraged to draw and colour, and to develop their writing skills. Other age groups are equipped with computer skills and are enabled to improve their computer literacy, reading and writing. Teenagers are taught basic life skills; washing, ironing, cooking, baking and cleaning. The younger group of boys and girls (6-12years) are taught to wash their underwear, polish their shoes, make their bed and clean their rooms.

At St. Anthony’s our main aim is to see ‘children safe in families’ and so reuniting those staying with us with their biological family or an adoptive family is one of our main objectives.
We have a specific Reunification Officer who searches for and identifies families and who works in close partnership with the resident Social Worker.
In the year March 2008-09 we succeeded in reunifying 20 children:  ten children went to foster care with relatives, nine to biological parents and one child to adoption.

2010 has seen the launching of a new phase of Family Reunification at St. Anthony’s Home. We have recognised the need for physical and material changes to the lives of some of our children and their families whose living conditions prevent their children being reunited with them.

The aim is to provide sufficient, basic accommodation with access to water and bedrooms so that the children sleep inside every night. This Project also works in conjunction with our various other Projects including Family Counselling and Community Gardens, in order to ensure a permanent and complete solution to the families difficulties.

‘ONE HOME ONE GARDEN’

Alleviating poverty and hunger is one of the major concerns of St. Anthony’s in providing children with safe and nurturing families. In order to capacitate these families for the future we have begun a project, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, to assist in planting vegetable gardens which will provide food security.

Families are then equipped with the skills and tools needed to provide for themselves, rather than living solely on Social Grants.

This intensive support is available for both the families of children in residence and to those in our local communities who have been identified as needing support. We may have been alerted to their situation through a school, church or other concerned community member.

At St. Anthony’s we have appointed a Community Support Officer and have built up a dedicated team of volunteers who work in our local communities to assist struggling families. Volunteers make regular home visits to aid in empowering the family and linking them with the relevant service providers. They may help by providing the family with access to Social Grants, ID cards, enrolling their children in school and even providing emergency food and clothing relief.

Many families experience difficult times which put a strain on the relationship between children and their families. However, we recognise that with the necessary support, they can be helped to overcome their challenges and live as a family again.

We facilitate Family Counselling Weekends where the child and parents/guardians are enabled to discuss their challenges in a safe, nurturing and caring environment. The vision is to provide a clear and structured way forward to address their issues. Weekends include; substance abuse, bereavement and HIV/AIDS counselling, behaviour management, household budgeting, income generation and childcare skills.

At St. Anthony’s we are very aware of the need to tackle the plight of abused and vulnerable children at the grass roots level. We know that PREVENTION is always better than seeking a cure and so we want to assist children and families before the Department for Social Development have to intervene.

We are eager to transform our work from being purely caring for children in a residential centre, to reaching out to our communities and assisting families to care for their children there. Removing a child from their family, their home, their school and community can cause more difficulties than it seeks to solve. Therefore, we want to develop a strategy for preserving families and preventing the removal of children, so that children no longer have to grow up in an ‘institution’.

Family Preservation can take place in two different scenarios; either involving families whose children are in residence, or families whose children are still staying with them. In both situations the services rendered are the same and the aim is the same; to PRESERVE families so that children live in safe, happy family environments.
Outlined below are the key steps and activities involved in our Family Preservation Programme: