Our First Meeting

A project steering group has been formed: Christy (Programmes Director: Umthombo), Ashika (Senior Social Worker: Umthombo), Bernice (Board Member: Umthombo) and Annabelle (Street Action).

The group will meet approximately every two weeks, at least in the initial stages to ensure that the project meets the stated objectives and is developed in accordance with Umthombo’s aims and ethos.

We discussed the initial project proposal. A number of issues and ideas have been highlighted:
Building:
o The drop-in centre was always intended to be a temporary structure which was open to the city
o The drop-in centre is ‘on-loan’ from the municipality, the contract is renewable month by month. It is not permitted to make any permanent changes to the structure.
o We need to think of the drop-in centre as a public space that can be invigorated and give a message to the wider community. Any art projects at the centre could be seen as public art.
Staffing:
o The funding is finite – we need to keep this in mind when raising expectations (particularly with existing Umthombo staff) and planning for longer term continuation of the project
o One Umthombo staff member has already been identified and briefed about the project. He is interested in being involved.
Other possible contacts:
o DUT child and family development centre
o University psychology department
o Drama students
o Fine arts students
o Cascoland
o Municipality contacts
Other things to consider:
o Many of the older young people are interested in income generating projects. There may be additional funding available for entrepreneurial ventures.
o It would be good to combine practical solutions with art e.g. the children currently hang lots of washing on the outer perimeter fences
o We should not be limited to the drop-in centre as a focus for art projects. There needs to be programmes developed on the streets as part of the outreach work as well. The drop-in centre is not necessarily a permanent solution.

Actions:
→ Invite the original centre architect, Richard, to the next meeting in 2 weeks
→ Make contact with the university departments mentioned above
→ Continue to liaise with the municipality around continuation of the contract for the centre
→ Seek advice from contacts in HR about recruitment of an artist

The Drop-in Centre as it looks now

Project Summary

A grant has been awarded by Trust Greenbelt to establish an arts and creative play project with Umthombo Street Children in Durban, South Africa. The project will also be supported by Street Action and Amos Trust.
Umthombo has recently been commissioned by the municipality to take over the running of a street child drop-in centre. This project aims to support the running of the drop-in centre in the following ways:

• By making the drop-in centre a street-child friendly location; one which street children feel comfortable and at home in and also one in which they can take pride
• By developing a creative arts and play based programme with the street children
  
• By supporting the training of a number of Umthombo workers (most of whom are former street children themselves) to run and develop this work