Evaluation of a Community Care Programme in Chatsworth, Durban

Overview

Chatsworth Community Care Centre (CCCC) is a voluntary community organisation situated in Chatsworth, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was set up in 1998, in response to a perceived need for organisations in Chatsworth to provide crisis counselling around domestic and/or gender based violence.

Chatsworth is a large township, within the Durban Metropolitan area. Chatsworth was created during apartheid as an area for housing people of the ‘Indian’ population. It remains predominantly inhabited by the Indian population, and informal settlements in and around Chatsworth provide housing for refugees and other black urban residents as well. The total population of Chatsworth is approximately 750 000.

For the past ten years, CCCC has been providing services to victims of violence and those with social problems. CCCC’s primary aim is to provide crisis counselling to victims of violence and crime, specifically around domestic and gender based violence, i.e. providing “emotional” first aid to victims. The role CCCC plays has slowly expanded outside of crisis counselling and it has, and continues to provide general counselling on household and family issues – especially child related issues – and has also been providing training for the courts and the South African Police Services (SAPS) on the implications of the Domestic Violence Act of 1998. Furthermore, CCCC has also become involved in raising awareness of domestic violence in Chatsworth and providing support for women who seek Protection or Peace orders from the court in cases of domestic and gender based violence.

CCCC has three offices. Its main office is a house in Chatsworth which was donated by the National Lotto fund in 1997, initially this had a rape crisis room, however, as hospital services improved in Chatsworth it was deemed unnecessary. CCCC also has offices at the Chatsworth Police Station and, since February 2008, an office within the court in Chatsworth.

In terms of funding, financing is purely by fundraising. CCCC hold 3-4 fundraising events a year for example, dinner and dance, golf day, raffles. Other fundraising is done by approaching businesses and individuals. Apart from this, CCCC does not have any other income. Furthermore, CCCC does not have a budget in place.

Aim

The aim of the research is to evaluate the role of CCCC in providing mitigation services around gender-based violence, and identify its strengths and weaknesses with a view to make recommendations on the future direction of CCCC.

Objectives

This evaluation has three primary objectives:

• Provide a quantitative analysis of the scope and scale of the work of CCCC and a costing of it using Cost Consequence Analysis;
• Evaluate the perceptions of people who interact with CCCC to identify its strengths and weakness, with a view to improve upon its operation where necessary; and
• To make recommendations to CCCC based on our analysis as to the directions it should be taking in the future.

Research Questions

In order to meet these objectives, the research focused on three key questions:

• What are the cost consequences for the community care program provided by CCCC?
• What are the social impacts added by CCCC by its different services? Essentially this looked at what the positive impacts and the successes of CCCC are in Chatsworth; and
• What are the shortfalls of services provided by CCCC subject to its resource constraints? (With a view to exploring how these can be overcome and the community care programme further enhanced into the future.)

Strategic Questions

Program 1: Effective responses

Expected Knock-On

Knowledge advancement: Suraya to gain experience in costing and economic evaluation.

Project Impact

By the end of this project we would have evaluated the Program run by the Chatsworth Community Care Centre and would have looked at the benefits of such a program in the Chatsworth community. Furthermore, CCCC intends to use this evaluation as a means to lobby for funding for their Centre which has, since its inception, been reliant on donations and good-will of the community. Finally, we would have evaluated the economic consequences of violence.

Brief Description

The costing and economic evaluation was led by Dr Koustuv Dalal with the assistance of Suraya. Suraya and Andy were responsible for the qualitative data collection and analysis. The final report will be completed in July 2009.

Collaborators

• Dr Koustuv Dalal Course Coordinator Master Program & Other Courses of Health Economics & Editor, Safe Community Monthly News WHO CC on Community Safety Promotion Karolinska Institutet Dept. of Public Health Sciences Norrbacka, 2nd Floor. SE-171 76, Stockholm.

Key Phases

Outputs and Activities

• Data Collection
• Data Analysis and Reporting
• Interim Report
• Final Report
• Journal Articles
• Article writing