The Hope Exchange 398 views

The Hope Exchange is a 41-year-old NPO in central Cape Town, South Africa. We help the homeless via our comprehensive offering of social services. It is all about facilitating opportunities for positive change. The start is to support them in maintaining or regaining hope and dignity. In our previous fiscal year, our Social Care Department assisted more than 60 shelter residents or street-based clients with reunification and/or reintegration. This was done by a team of two basically - with support from the rest of the organisation.Our approach is holistic; you cannot do one without the other. So our service range is wide - providing the basics such as facilities to wash and store medication to skill training and work readiness programmes.The Hope Exchange also have a second-phased shelter (we prefer to call it a house) where 40 men can stay. Those are employed, but either on their way to complete independence or need support to avoid ending up on the street.We have two social enterprises: a car wash and a secondhand store. Both offer job skills training and employment. Our aim is to open a third this year: a coffee shop. We did a pilot programme in 22 with Heaven Cafe in Cape Town (the owner actually being an old house resident of ours). In close collaboration, he and our Social Care team choose two candidates from a first-phased shelter and had them do 4 months of training program and counselling. They both stayed for the period, passed a certified barista test, found jobs and are now living in our house. Obviously, we want to grow this!