Offering various programme options to parents,
care givers and educators – as well as frequent
evaluation of our own staff –keeps us abreast of
issues affecting the youth.

What a journey it has been since Boys’ Town (as it was then called) opened its first residential centre in Magaliesburg in 1958, to 26 boys. Today – 50 years on – the Magaliesburg home’s part of a countrywide network of four Youth Development Centres and four Family Homes, all of which can accommodate hundreds of girls and boys.

But it’s not only the number of youngsters we care for that’s grown. Many vital services have been launched in the interests of serving the children in our care, their families, schools, professionals and all of South Africa’s youth.

All along it has been Girls and Boys Town’s intention to reintegrate children and youth back into their families and communities within the shortest time and with the least disruption possible. We’d rather strengthen families enabling them to effectively deal with their challenges and solve them – which is why we introduced our Common Sense Parenting programme via our regional Training and Resource Centres in 2001.

This is one of many family programme options that Girls and Boys Town provides for parents and caregivers.

The introduction of our National Hotline in 1999 gave children – and their caregivers – a number to call, for help, advice and in some cases, counselling services.

Girls and Boys Town now also offer families a home-based family consultancy option; our mobile teams go to families and support them in their own home environments. Families have the opportunity to rediscover strengths and further build skills.

Just as every year in a child’s life presents new challenges, it’s not that different in Girls and Boys Town’s journey. From the fire that devastated our Magaliesburg Youth Development Centre in 1975 to the relocation
of our Cape Duin-en-Dal home in 1985 because of political unrest in Crossroads, no era has been without its hardships. But these – and many others – were met head-on, with the children’s interests at heart, and with the backing and blessing of our staff, Board and supporters.

With every challenge comes the opportunity for Girls and Boys Town to reassess and evaluate where and how we can better serve our youth, families, schools, other professionals and communities via our ongoing evaluations, assessments and now, recently in-house research activities.

Supporters
As Girls and Boys Town celebrates 50 years of sterling service to South Africa’s children, families, other community based professionals, organisations and schools – and gives thanks for the countless people and friends who have played a part in making all this possible – we ask that you also take stock of your special place in the Girls and Boys Town family.

Every one of our supporters fulfils a valuable role in the lives and futures of the children who count on Girls and Boys Town – as well as all those who impact on their healthy growth and development. Thank you for what you give them today – and for the chance you give them for a bright future.

Giving a toy to a child in hospital.

Learning to consider others – teaching the value of generosity – and reaching out a hand of help – are important life skills.

This is why every Girls and Boys Town involves their youth in community help and support projects.

Whether it’s taking gifts to children in hospital, clearing out alien vegetation at an old age home, picking up litter at the beach or helping to build houses with Habitat for Humanity, our girls and boys enjoy ‘giving back’.

Having a heart for others – and learning that we are all part of a greater, interdependent whole, helps our youth develop a service ethic. We’re proud of our girls’ and boys’ willingness to get involved in community projects whenever they can...

Girls and Boys Town has two types of residential facility: Family Homes and Youth Development Centres. Each Family Home caters for a maximum number of 10 boys or girls, who live with a caregiving couple – Family Teachers supported by an Assistant Family Teacher. These homes provide a child-centred family-style environment, while
enabling children to learn various social skills and coping mechanisms on a day-to-day basis. All children attend schools in the community.

Girls and Boys Town has Family Homes in Verulam, Glenwood (KwaZulu-Natal), Kenilworth and Claremont (Cape).

Our Youth Development Centres are larger; each can house 60 to 70 children, in addition to staff. There’s greater emphasis on self-government – through our unique Peer Group System – where young people are empowered to learn leadership and self-governing skills, under the supervision of adult staff. Youth attend schools in the community.

Our Youth Development Centres are in Magaliesburg, Kagiso-Randfontein (Gauteng), Macassar (Cape) and Tongaat (KwaZulu-Natal).

Youth from Girls and Boys Town participated in – and thoroughly enjoyed – their Outward Bound and Wilderness Leadership Trail experiences.

They had to ‘rough it’ and live in harmony with nature, while also learning valuable life and leadership lessons.

Months after these courses, the boys and girls are still mindful of the lessons they’d learned. A Glenwood Family Home youth shared: ‘We mustn’t do something to prove somebody else wrong. We must do things to prove to ourselves what is possible and what isn’t possible.’

‘Inmate’ Ken Ford of Sunshine Hospital is
‘guarded’ by the Girls and Boys Town
Magaliesburg Mayor and Councillor.

Celebrities and members of the community were ‘arrested’ in the name of Girls and Boys Town’s Jail and Bail fundraiser. Until they could raise enough bail money, they were confined to their cell – much to the amusement of passing shoppers – at the Northmead Mall.

Fortunately, the ‘inmates’ family and friends were happy to bail them out, since Girls and Boys Town would benefit from their freedom.

Thank you to all our ‘prisoners’ (and their bail sponsors!) for your wonderful support – and to East Rand Stereo for publicising this event.

Girls and Boys Town has a wide range of programmes all developed to effectively address various challenges.

Our Common Sense Parenting Programme, which was introduced in 2001, has already helped dozens of parents, caregivers and people who either care for or work with children.

Another key development in our Family Services Division was the
introduction, in 2006, of the Building Skills in High-Risk Families programme.

While this programme aims to strengthen and empower the families of the children in our care, as well as families in the community – it also strives to reunify our youth with their families as quickly as possible. And it has been overwhelmingly successful …

Last year, our KwaZulu-Natal Family Homes team successfully reunified 90% of the youth from our Verulam Family Home with their families.

Education
Our programmes – as trained by the regionallybased training teams – have attracted the attention of key role players in the field of education. The University of Potchefstroom invited us to submit and present a paper on Learner Discipline – and we’ve made several presentations at educators’ conferences.

Girls and Boys Town also participated in the public hearing organised by the Human Rights Commission in Cape Town, to address the topic of ‘Violence in Schools’.

Amongst the education programmes already taught to over 200 schools and 5070 educators (impacting on 182 713 learners) are the Well- Managed Classroom, Safe and Effective Secondary Schools and Specialised Classroom Management workshops.

Feedback to all the programmes offered by Girls and Boys Town has
consistently been positive. Why? Because the training is effective: it works!

For more information about educator and parenting programmes in Gauteng, please contact our office on 011 482-2655 or e-mail gptr@gbtown.org.za For Cape-based training, please call 021 939 8085 or e-mail wctr@gbtown.org.za

At Girls and Boys Town we believe in the power of feedback. Regular evaluations at every project – and the feedback we receive from our youth, parents, teachers, staff and professional evaluators – all combine to continually assess the effectiveness of our work and ways in which to improve it.

It ensures that Girls and Boys Town grows, adjusts to changing conditions, remains accountable in every area and guarantees the highest standards of service excellence. As a result of these practices, programmes are kept relevant and up-to-date.

Specific standards
The standards we’ve set for our work with youth go far beyond meeting their physical needs and protecting their rights and safety.

They demand that the most effective methods and skills are employed
in working with challenging and inappropriate behaviour.

Training in these methods is compulsory for Girls and Boys Town staff working with children. Staff skills and practice methods are assessed annually to monitor and ensure that the highest standards of practice excellence are maintained.

Positive
Cavell Siems, a Family Teacher at our Verulam Family Home in KwaZulu-Natal, was recently awarded her 10th Certification. Although Cavell’s been working with youth at risk at Girls and Boys Town for 12 years – it’s the quality of her work that’s recognised by ‘certification’.

Well done, Cavell!

This is not a living thing, but a fond reference to the famous green Girls and Boys Town bus!

This huge vehicle was given to the then Boys’ Town by Lady Oppenheimer in 1963. It was finally declared beyond repair in 1982, but not before leaving us with many hilarious – and hair-raising – memories. As described by a ‘Green Monster’ youth passenger:

‘Some years ago a large number of hard-boiled eggs was left on the bus after it arrived at Munster. The bus was locked for the four-week holiday. When we entered the bus to pack for the return journey, we fell out of the bus – now we felt like ‘green monsters’. Not even litres of Jeyes Fluid helped to get rid of the stink. Many boys and the drivers felt nauseous all the way home.’

The Green Monster’s life was characterised by breakdowns – a trip without one was a rarity.

Over the years, many journeys to Camp Caroline in Munster – Girls and Boys Town’s South Coast holiday home – would involve blown pistons,
oil spurts, earth-shaking, shuddering, heaving halts and many mechanical mysteries. On one occasion, said an old boy, ‘it was saved from cremation by one of the boys who was quick on the draw with the fire extinguisher’.

Trips also involved long waiting periods –which sometimes saw boys fervently praying (literally!) for the bus’s recovery ... all this while
the nearest mechanic was frantically summonsed to make the Green Monster mobile again!

Hammocks
The bus’s spacious interior served as a dining room and play room at Munster before the buildings were finished. Boys stretched out on the floor under the seats; some made hammocks with their blankets – and the smaller boys slept on the luggage racks under the roof.

As much as we relished the arrival of a muchneeded new bus – funded by friends and donors like you in 2003 – there was also a twinge of
sadness as the Green Monster was finally laid to rest, and now stands as a memorial at Girls and Boys Town Magaliesburg.

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