We Draw the Line Against Child abuse
Over the past ten years we have heard so many stories of desperation and trauma in the aftermath of child abuse and family violence that we became compelled to care more, work smarter and take an up an active role in the communities of Tshwane against abuse of children and women. We Draw the Line.  The main aim of the Therapy and Adoptions Unit is to provide an assessment and therapeutic support service to the community based offices of Child Welfare Tshwane. We act primarily as an internal resource for the social workers in the communities to provide an intensive assessment and therapeutic services through applying unique expertise to high risk families and abused children in order identify and address the needs of our clients.
We are drawing the line to stand up against the tide of neglect and abuse of innocent children by providing a professional yet compassionate assessment and therapeutic services to children and victims of violence.

 Our mission is both preventative and rehabilitative in nature and we can provide interventions to a variety of social problems. We provide an assessments and therapeutic intervention service to children, adults and family systems. At Child Welfare Tshwane we are committed to provide quality social work services to children. This entails providing social workers and the Children’s Court with in depth reports on the life world experiences and possible abuse that our clients may have been exposed to. Our therapeutic services involve individual as well as group therapy interventions.

The adoption service focuses mainly on Black same race adoptions. We provide black couples the opportunity to adopt abandoned or unwanted babies who otherwise would not have the chance to grow up within a family. We do consider cross cultural applications and adoption to alternative families. Each application is evaluated and dealt with on its individual merit.

Our assessment, therapeutic and group work services are offered in English, Sotho, Afrikaans and Zulu. Training is mostly provided in English.

We are also acutely aware of the pressures placed on social workers, educators, and parents to raise and develop children under very difficult circumstances. To address this we have developed high impact morning seminars and small group training material on topical issues to empower and improve the care of children.

This web site aims to inform and connect you our clients and co labourers to our services. You are welcome to contact us with any questions.

The DTL support centre has been rendering psycho social assessments and social work based therapeutic support to the clients of Child Welfare Tshwane since 1999. The centre employs 5 social work therapists who have a heart for children and families. They receive regular in service and expert training on issues related to the field of children’s services and is registered by the SACSSP. We also employ a part time forensic social worker to assist in identifying alleged sexual abuse where possible.

The DTL Support Centre provides the following therapeutic services:

• Assessments
• Therapy
• Therapeutic Group Work
• Training
  
  

Therapy and Adoptions Unit Board of management report 2009-2010

 The winter’s end is in sight as I write this and I am struck by just how fast the days are speeding by! There is so much to say and to remember about the year that has passed.  There is too much to mention for a comprehensive report but following is the highs and some lows that we experienced in this year. The dedication and commitment of all of the staff at the Therapy and Adoptions Unit to their clients and service delivery has been the definitive description for the year 2010.  The Therapy and Adoptions Unit was supported by 13 staff members who provided adoption services and therapeutic support to 3510 beneficiaries for the year. The world would be formless and void, was it not for our admin angel Mrs Amanda Heck, who provided the backbone for all of the services provided by the Unit.

Thanks to the National Lottery distribution Fund (NLTDF) we were able to make some significant changes and improvements to our facility. The kitchen and bathrooms were retiled and upgraded. The two therapy rooms were refurnished and it created a much better impression than the old couches that still came from the eighties! The Adoption Unit was relocated to the Therapy Unit premises due to the Child Welfare Tshwane head office’s move to the new premises. To accommodate their arrival we had to restructure the office space, share offices and move our administrative coordinator into her own (although small) space. 

In 2008-2009 we started the development of our strategic vision and marketing plan and  made some strides towards implementing the plan. We were able to create public awareness regarding the unit through one television appearance and four radio talks. We commented on human trafficking, commercial sex work, the high maternal and child mortality rate and physical abuse. The Community Interest Group (CIG) which acts as a community committee for the Unit continued its operations but we are in many ways still finding our feet with this process. There was progress made regarding the fundraising and marketing of the Unit but much still needs to be done to establish the brand.

Keeping abreast with the financial management of the Unit is always a priority for us. Due to the high number of experienced staff with scarce skills the unit has traditionally incurred high costs, especially regarding salaries. An effective cost saving strategy was introduced - Savings of +/- R 120 000 was accomplished and the deficit of the Unit was substantially reduced. The expected deficit of the operations of the Unit was brought down from R 604 000.00 to just over R 300 000.00. The Unit is also developing its income streams through extending the adoption service and private therapeutic referrals. Planning and the initial implementation of the medium and long term funding strategies has commenced and hope to be coming into effect within the next two to three years. 
40 Babies were placed in loving homes during the year, which are 18 babies more than last year. The quality and the quantity of the adoption service were improved with the extension of the staff component of the Unit. We now have 3 full time and two part time adoption staff members. The work flow structure was improved by the introduction of an adoption coordinator and social work auxiliary, which freed up our social work capacity to process and supports the 80 new applications for adoptions. Our services to the babies, which lie at the heart of the adoption unit, were also capacitated through the selfless dedication of the place of safety homes for these little ones. We honour our partners in full realisation of the physical and emotional cost to care for our adoption babies.  We have had the opportunity to work with 16 biological mothers and babies of which 10 released their babies for adoption through statutory processes.