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A Community Outreach Programme: Teacher training at the University of Durban-Westville

This outreach programme forms part of a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention by a group of third- and fourth-year trainee teachers in the lives of 35 boys living in a street shelter. The boys ranged in age from 6 to 17 years. All of them were currently attending local schools, with an age for grade discrepancy of up to 7 years. Two students are allocated to each child, and intervention over a period of 7 months yielded significant results, with a rate of improvement in specific school subjects of up to 110%. In addition, feedback by way of unstructured interviews, from schoolteachers, as well as childcare workers and social workers involved in the day-to-day lives of the boys, also indicated greater social and emotional gains. Documented evidence made available as a result of reflective diaries also served to confirm the advantages of this form of intervention. Both the students involved in the programme, as well as the boys whose needs they sought to address, have benefited both intellectually and emotionally from the experience. Quantitative, together with qualitative feedback supports the success of this community outreach project.