Johannesburg Organisation of Services to the Homeless
PROJECTS
JOSH (NPC)’s operational model takes the homeless on a journey from social exclusion to one of social inclusion. In short it enables the homeless to:
Journey
Off the
Streets into work and
Homes and communities
This is done via chain of services:
Voucher Scheme
The scheme involves the general public purchasing via their church/school/ local store a book of 5 vouchers. The citizen then gives a voucher to someone begging on the streets to access help at participating soup kitchens. The help comes in the form of counselling, a change of clothes and skills training assessment. The vouchers cost R25 for 5 vouchers. This is the start on enabling via a hand up action as opposed to cash and further dependency behaviour.
The voucher scheme operates at present only in the Randburg area. The scheme is based on the voucher scheme that operates in parts of Cape Town by the UTURN Homeless Ministry.
Soup Kitchen Directory
JOSH is in the process of compiling a soup kitchen directory of places where soup and a warm meal is given out across Johannesburg. This will then be put up on the JOSH website.
Please help us by emailing us at info.joburghomeless@gmail.com to let us know where soup kitchens operate in your neighbourhood.
COUNSELLING AND SKILLS ASSESSMENT
The soup kitchens at present do not offer additional services. JOSH is changing this. JOSH trained counsellors engage with the homeless person opening a case file on each person. The counselling involves ensuring the person has or gets all their necessary documentation, address family reunification issues, deal with their personal problems and also it starts to assess which training programmes would work for the person.
The skills assessment programme is based on the A2B Movement developed by Ms Vivienne Schultz. This approach involves moving people from a stagnant state of believing all they can do is beg to one being self-directed, entrepreneurial and motivated to get the skills needed to become self-sufficient.
Counselling is now offered at 2 soup kitchens in Randburg. This will be further expanded once counsellors are trained to the needs of the JOSH approach.
OVERNIGHT SHELTER
The JOSH model involves a chain of overnight shelters being established across Johannesburg. Research and practice have proven that moving the homeless off one location only results in them relocating elsewhere in the same vicinity.
The JOSH Management are in the process of finding a site to establish an overnight shelter in Randburg. The overnight shelter will be connected to a training centre where the job-skills projects will be located.