Over the past two decades, South Africa has attempted to address disparities by emphasizing equal access to in early childhood development (ECD) (Atmore, 2013). Many ECD programmes unfortunately have low attendance; out of the 530 000 children between the ages of zero and four living in the Western Cape, 345 000 children do not attend a day-care, crèche (preschool), playgroup, nursery school, or pre-primary school (Statistics South Africa, 2013). Additionally, there is an unequal distribution of resources among families with different economic backgrounds (Department of Social Development, 2015).

Foundation for Community Work’s (FCW) mission is to promote the holistic development of children within the context of their families and communities through innovative, integrated, and sustainable programmes across the Western Cape. FCW aims to continuously explore new outreach models of ECD to be able to better suit the needs of communities throughout the area, keeping in mind that no two settlements are the same, and therefore, a variety of ECD approaches are necessary. This project was intended to explore two outreach models for ECD service delivery in marginalised settlements. The first model involves utilising a public space (e.g., stadium, school) to host ECD programmes and the second consists of retrofitting a shipping container into a resource hub for ECD. A case study of the public space model was conducted in the informal settlement of Vygieskraal within a public sports stadium. In conjunction with FCW staff, these models were explored and feedback from Vygieskraal residents and various ECD organisations in the area was organised into a proposal for FCW’s use in the future.

Learn More

• Background Research conducted prior to arriving in Cape Town discusses sustainability, the importance of ECD, and exploring various approaches to ECD.
• Read more about our Partnership with FCW, Vygieskraal residents, and other people we worked with throughout this project.
• The Planning Pages discuss how we went about completing our objectives.
• Learn about this process as seen through our eyes in our Scenes.
• View project findings on the Outcomes page.
• Access resources accumulated throughout the course of this project on the Project Resources.

To view an overview of the entire project, including planning, outcomes, and conclusions, view our Executive Summary [pdf, 2.73mb].

You may contact the project team at CT15-FCW@wpi.edu (available until May 2017)

You may also contact the Cape Town Project Centre at CTPC@wpi.edu

To cite:

Cassidy, D., Ring, J., Santangelo, N., Scott, J., & Stolz, E. (2015). Exploring New Outreach Models for Early Childhood Development. Worcester Polytechnic Institute Cape Town Project Centre. Retrieved from https://wp.wpi.edu/capetown/projects/p2015/fcw/