Community Engagement - Creating Sustainable Communities

LIKE OTHER UNIVERSITIES, UWC sees community engagement as part of its exercise of social responsibility, which includes making its infrastructure, expertise and resources available to communities, both on and off campus.

However, UWC seeks community engagement that goes even beyond this and promotes equitable partnerships with communities and community-based organisations. The Community Engagement Unit (CEU) of UWC recorded 106 separate community engagement activities in 2022 involving 351 partnerships between local organisations and UWC staff and students.

Mobile Dental And Nursing Services

A new mobile clinic was initiated in 2019 for community outreach services consisting of three surgeries mounted on a six-ton truck. The surgeries are equipped with the latest technology, including dental chairs and intra-oral digital cameras. The mobile clinic enables fourth and fifth-year dental students to receive supervised clinical training while helping to provide much-needed dental and oral health services to needy communities on the Cape Flats. The dental clinic operates on the premises of an existing clinic or a school. Additionally, outreach weekend clinics are conducted five times a year in rural towns in the Western Cape such as Ceres, Prince Alfred Hamlet, Tulbagh and Vredenberg. Final-year dentistry students also spend a two-week rotation on the Phelophepa HealthCare train managed by the Transnet Foundation. Along with other programmes, the Dentistry Faculty treats almost 3 000 patients in its outreach services annually. The Department of Oral Hygiene also conducts separate health advocacy and screening at Tygerberg Hospital and community sites.

The School of Nursing received a donated ambulance furnished with medical equipment and a gurney in 2020 that allows the School to engage in community outreach activities such as health promotion. The UWC Mediclinic Health Promotion bus is staffed by supervisors and third-year students. After a delayed start due to COVID-19, the programme began offering health promotion services in communities around Cape Town in 2021.

FIRST INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION (IPE) CLINIC

The Faculty of Community and Health Sciences organised the first IPE clinic in May 2023 to improve access to health and wellness services and information. The three-day programme involved patients in Mitchell’s Plain receiving health and wellness interventions from students studying nursing, physiotherapy, natural medicine, social work, psychology and occupational therapy.

Faculty Of Law

The Law Faculty is an enthusiastic proponent of outreach programmes that both provide community services and enable students to acquire professional skills and experience.

Senior law students at the UWC Law Clinic provide legal assistance to the indigent on cases ranging from divorce, domestic violence, maintenance and custody issues, to lease agreements, evictions, drafting of wills, deceased estates, consumer protection in contracts and employment matters. The Clinic also represents indigent accused in criminal matters at the Fezeka and Mitchell’s Plain community courts; provides legal services, legal support and legal education programmes to community-based advice offices in the Metro, Boland and West Coast regions; and operates paralegal advice offices in Athlone, Elsies River, Heideveld, Langa and Mitchell’s Plain.

FACULTY OF COMMUNITY AND HEALTH SCIENCES (CHS)

The CHS regularly collaborates with other faculties to present wellness and advocacy programmes in communities. Recent activities included:

• Students and staff from the CHS, Dentistry, Law and Natural Sciences faculties provided health screenings and wellness services in the Bellville CBD. Activities included health screening, wellness talks, and therapeutic, dental and legal counselling services.

• CHS delivered outreach services in Genadendal soon after the pandemic restrictions were lifted with the Natural Sciences and Law faculties.

• Physiotherapy students collected and distributed sanitary towels to youth in the Fisantekraal community in Durbanville.

• Postgraduate students and staff from the Department of Psychology worked with youth organisations from Fisantekraal to launch a futsal soccer tournament for children in June 2022.

The Faculty’s Street Law programme participates in numerous public education programmes such as career expos and wellness programmes, promoting youth, worker and gender rights as well as providing practical legal advice such as assistance with drawing up a will.

FUTURE-INNOVATION LAB

Situated in the office of the DVC (Research and Innovation), the UWC Samsung Future-Innovation Lab is a multi-year collaboration between UWC and Samsung’s Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) and is one of the projects of the CoLab for e-Inclusion and Social Innovation at UWC. The CoLab was established in 2012 to work towards an inclusive approach for maximum participation in the competitive global digital society and economy. The Future-Innovation Lab offers disadvantaged unemployed young people the chance to develop digital skills (software development and digital innovation) with the aims of finding work, starting businesses or continuing their studies. This programme simultaneously addresses the problems of youth unemployment, the shortage of scarce skills in the economy and the digital exclusion of disadvantaged communities.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT UNIT (CEU)

The small staff of the CEU and its dedicated community liaison officer perform a key facilitation role between UWC units and communities, often serving as the communities’ interface with charitable organisations and initiatives. The CEU Community Substance Misuse Training Programme offers training based on current theory and research on substance misuse as part of interventions involving various community organisations. The Community Liaison Officer equipped community leaders in three sub-districts to respond to the Sexual Offences Bill. The CEU collaborated with Change Agents South Africa in Women’s Month and provided court support training to 60 people from the Langeberg area. The unit facilitated the distribution of food parcels in Touwsriver and dignity packs to women in West Coast villages; collected and distributed donations of goods (from UWC staff ) to victims of fires in informal settlements; and organised donations of clothing for hospital patients, meals at old age homes, and books and stationery for schoolchildren.