Helping empower communities
THE Safety and Peace through Urban Upgrading (SPUU) programme has gathered pace since its inception, despite teething problems and some snags along the way.
Officially, the SPUU commenced on February 3 2014.
Prior to this, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) had already put into place a number of programmes and a community participation structure. The concept of a community participation structure was to maximise citizen participation by devolving leadership to the grassroots level. In pursuit of this objective, the MBDA proposed that citizen participation be organised around the four voting districts of Helenvale, with communities electing five leaders from each to the leadership structure – the Programme Advisory Committee.
A major milestone was when the SPUU Masterplan was submitted to KfW Bank of Germany (the funder) and approved in January 2015.
In the meantime, some of the project proposals in the masterplan were initiated, and the technical planning commenced.
First off the blocks were social services, which saw the Department of Social Development and two NGOs – the PE Mental Health Society and Famsa (Family and Marriage Society of South Africa) – commence services at the Helenvale Resource Centre.
A third NGO – Sanca (South African National Council on Alcoholism) joined the services provision team in 2015.
The MBDA provides offices at the Helenvale centre as a base for provision of services, and facilitates meetings, discussion and coordination of services, as well as monitoring and reporting.
The technical planning process for various infrastructure and school improvements began in October 2014, and the designs were completed in April.
Other than all the physical infrastructure and social programmes implemented, the creation of the Community Development Fund (CDF) was significant as a mechanism for local NGOs to apply for and access funding for local small-scale projects. The CDF supports community initiatives that contribute directly and indirectly to the project components.
The projects are categorised as follows:
Category one projects: Small to medium projects that need operational investment and that can be planned in advance and are complementary to the outcomes of the SPUU.
Applications from registered organisations (NPO) are received by the SPUU team on a quarterly basis and projects are subject to approval by the CDF approval committee that includes representatives from the Helenvale community.
Regular visits to monitor the projects are conducted.
The maximum CDF grant budget per individual project is R25 000.
Category two projects: Once-off ad hoc projects such as events or sponsorships that cannot be planned in advance are regarded as un-scheduled applications and occur on an ongoing basis.
The maximum CDF grant budget per individual project or event is R10 000.
To date, the community development fund has supported 18 community-based organisations in Helenvale under category one, and six events under category two since January last year, when the fund became fully operational.
The process for a second round of funding for those who have completed projects successfully has commenced. The maximum CDF grant budget per individual project for this is R35 000.
Some of the NPOs that were able to complete projects successfully under category one are:
1 Grassroots Early Childhood Development Centre – building renovations.
2 Mak-Hasie educare centre – early childhood development centre.
3 Resurrection and Life Ministries – alternatives to violence programmes.
4 Wecosa Faithful Ministries – feeding scheme.
5 Helenvale Youth Enrichment Programme (HYEP) – early childhood development centre.
6 New Life Pentecostal Church – building and youth activities.
7 Helenvale White Door Centre of Hope – awareness campaigns.