PROFESSIONALIZING THE COMMUNITY-BASED WORKFORCE :

“STARTING FROM WHERE THEY ARE - LEARNING FOR IMMEDIATE APPLICATION.”

By Alex Tigere

www.repssi.orgSocial Work & Social Development : Action & Impact 2012

SITUATION OF CHILDREN IN AFRICA

HIV AND AIDS

POVERTY

NATURAL DISASTERS

CONFLICT

DISPLACEMENT

Extended Family

Traditional safety net over starched beyond capacity

Those that are caring for children are often:•Too old•Too ill•Too young or •Too poor

DEPLETED SOCIAL SERVICES WORKFORCE

•Very high caseloads (1:300 – 600 children)

• Shortage of qualified social workers

•Vacancy rates 50-60% - half those employed leave within 5 years*

•Lack of incentives for community practice- due to caseload & geographic issues

•Inadequate social work curricula dealing with community development and the emerging challenges

•Community caregivers mainly reliant on workshops and short courses* Davis, Rebecca. Human capacity within child welfare systems. The social work workforce in Africa. United States Agency for International Development. December 2009

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THE COMMUNITY-BASED CERTIFICATE: COMMUNITY WORK WITH CHILDREN & YOUTH

REPSSI and UNICEF developed 6 learning modules

One Personal and Professional Development

Being a Professional – values and ethics Personal and Professional Development Wellbeing and Positive Living

Two Introduction to Human Rights-based Approaches & Child Protection

Human Rights Approaches Children’ rights programming Child Protection Advocacy and Participation

Three Child and Youth Development

Contexts of Development Child, Youth & Adolescence Development Resilience and strengths

Four Care and Support of Children at Risk

Basic Support Skills Direct Support of Children and Youth

Five Integrated Development in Communities

Principles of Community Development Participation and tools Community mobilization and Networking

Six Service LearningProject

Planning and undertaking Service-Learning Project

Building Reflective Practitioners

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Situated • Learning happens in student’s community of practice

Supported • Students part of a learning support group (8-12 learners)• Facilitated by trained mentor • Groups meet 4 times during each module

Distance Learning• Learning through 6 hard copies of modules• Assignments (2 per module) formally assessed and

accredited by UKZN or in-country academic institutions

THE LEARNING METHODOLOGY

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Course has gone through 2 cycles:

•Round 1: 553 students across 8 countries

•Round 2: 1065 students across 10 countries

THE COMMUNITY-BASED CERTIFICATE

The Certificate Programme

WHO PARTICIPATES IN THE COURSE?

Social workers

VCT CounselorsECD workers

NGO / FBO project officers

Teachers

Police

Youth workers

Community caregivers

High retention rate•89.5% (Cycle 1) and 88% (Cycle 2) of those who

started, graduated•Unprecedented rates for distance learning. Students

attribute this high retention to their mentors:“He encouraged me to continue the course when I wanted to give up.” (Cycle 2 graduate, Tanzania)

Students remain in their communities•Cycle1: 18 months after graduation, 70% are still living

in their same communities

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR (1)

Direct work with children: each Cycle 2 student reaching approx:

• 130 children (113,400 across ten countries)• 7 of whom (5,700 across ten countries) are in

child headed households• 19 caregivers (15,800 across ten countries)

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR (1)

Professionalization:• Cycle 1:

• 23% (42/182) of those who started as volunteers are now in paid positions

• 74% of them attribute this change in their employment status to the course

• Of those in paid positions, 27% have been promoted. • Cycle 2:

• Immediately upon graduation, 8% of those starting as volunteers are now paid

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR (2)

CONCLUSION

Strengthening the social services workforce means building a critical mass of a community – level social capital that links vulnerable children to available social services

WE KNOW FOR SURE, SITUATED SUPPORTED DISTANCE LEARNING

WORKS!