Moving Forward

Bernice and Annabelle have now put together a job description for the artist in residence position. If you would like to see a copy of this, please e-mail annabelle.burns@mac.com and we can send you one. After finalising the salary and hours, we will be advertising the position through local networks and contacts. We have already had some interest in the position and we hope to have interviewed and appointed candidates by the end of June.

This weekend, we arranged for a group of children to attend an art and music event organised by the White Ribbon Alliance. The event was held in an area on the outskirts of Durban called Cato Crest and aimed to raise awareness about safe motherhood through creative activities. The children were eager to take part in banner making workshops and enjoyed writing, drawing and painting. It was positive to be able to take the children away from the street environment and to allow them to be part of a whole community event. Umthombo staff confiscated glue from all the children at the beginning of the day and the children did not request it back until we returned again to the streets. It was useful to note that a number of the children found it difficult to concentrate for long periods and this should be taken into account when we plan art activities in the future. As for all Umthonbo activities, it was essential to provide food and drink for the children alongside other activities.

Our Second Meeting

There are a number of changes and developments taking place within the wider Umthombo organisation which may have an impact on the specific remit of this project. In discussion, it was felt that although a focus of the original proposal was to decorate the drop-in centre, it may be more beneficial to take a wider view. The ‘heart’ of the original proposal was to promote creative arts-based activities as part of the outreach programmes in Umthombo and to train Umthombo staff members to continue with this work. This will be therefore be the central focus of the project.

A key component of the project is the employment of an ‘artist in residence’. We discussed the skills necessary for such a position and felt that it would be important to find someone that is not only an artist but also an experienced teacher or community worker. The person must be able to organise and facilitate a range of arts based projects and their short-term employment should be seen as pump-priming for longer term work in the area. One aspect of their employment may be the searching for additional, longer term funding to sustain the project into the future.

Bernice has made contact with a person who is willing to support the HR process of writing a job description, clarifying legal positions etc. This will be very helpful. Bernice and Annabelle will liaise to write a job description which can be circulated for comments. Bernice also has a number of contacts who may be able to help with advertising and recruitment of a suitable person.

Meanwhile, it was suggested that we trial a number of creative arts-based activities in order to test the venues, times and activities that are most successful and to inform the future work. Annabelle will liaise with the Umthombo outreach team and contacts of Richard and Bernice to put together a varied timetable of activities over the next 2 months. More information to follow!

Also, some feedback from the previous meeting: Psychology Students only take placements where they are supervised by a qualified psychologist so this would be inappropriate; Fine art students no longer have community outreach as part of their course; Drama students are engaging in prison-based outreach this year, they may be interested in working with street children but would need a proposal to be submitted for next academic year.

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