The Maitland Garden Village: Strengthening Community

The Maitland Garden Village (the village) in Cape Town, South Africa, faces low community cohesion, leading to struggles with drug abuse, high teen pregnancy rates, and unemployment. Our sponsor, Ronell Trout, founded the Green Light Project (Green Light) to combat these issues. However, Green Light struggles to engage the community with its current offerings. To address this concern, we interviewed community members, program leaders, and our sponsor; attended community programs; and observed the village’s community dynamics. Using our findings, we developed several recommendations: increase funding, secure meeting space, improve the structure of existing programs, and create new programs targeting youth. These steps can help Green Light to effectively strengthen cohesion.

Strengthening Community Cohesion in The Maitland Garden Village

Danielle Rubin, Oliver Thomas, Lauren Mitchell, and Andrew Poutry