The Self-Help Skills Training Centre was established after our historic election in 1994 with the aim of providing Adult Basic Education and Training, focusing on skills and entrepreneurial development to the disadvantaged people of our Communities, particularly the areas surrounding Pretoria.

Our organisation as a non-profit entity and depending entirely on fundraising and donations has over the years done tremendously well in training, as most of our activities were sponsored through the facility of the department of Labour and other stakeholders.

With the emerging of new training centres mushrooming all over our area of operation, we had to face up with competition and grappling at the same target group, it was an issue of survival of the fittest. Hence our Organisation had to look at alternative activities to get involve with.

A survey conducted during the year 2004 on Street Kids resulted in us redirecting our focus on Street Kids with particular concern on the Youth at Risk (ages 18 to 25 years). The Department of Social Development approved our Shelter, which we trust would address the issue of Homeless/Street Children who are roaming our streets hopelessly.

The Shelter focuses mainly on the Youth that live and work on streets and the Youth that are moved out of other Shelters after attaining 18 years. We provide them with accommodation, meals, rehabilitation, skills empowerment, job placement and family reunification. We believe we had to start somewhere and thus far we can accommodate 60 beneficiaries at a time and we are aware that there are still more vulnerable beneficiaries roaming our streets. However, we do have other developmental programmes that we offer, "drop ins" (non residential beneficiaries) to empower them with education and training.

Our Mission Statement:

With major focus on the Youth at Risk, we project to rehabilitate, uphold skills empowerment, foster entrepreneurial skills, curb crime, promote Black Economic Empowerment and Affirmative Action Programmes, consequently producing a viable youthful human resource base for the Nation.

Our core functions:

a) Provide a sound formal education to the youth at risk.
b) Create a fully viable youthful human resource base
c) Provide entrepreneurial skills to enable the youth at risk to be self-reliant and uphold BEE and AA programmes
d) Inter-relate with other local governance boards in the promotion of skills training and enterprising endeavours.
e) Provide decent accommodation and feeding to the Youth while empowering them with skills.
f) Play a major role in empowering and rehabilitating the Youth at risk

Deliverables:

The organisation envisage to achieve the following outcomes

• The Organsiation will always be known as a place of safety, development and empowering the beneficiaries of our Communities.
• The Organisation will provide stakeholders with a facility that deals with Youth that leave Shelters after attaining 18 years and have nowhere to go.
• Our organisation working with the Department of Social Development would compile a database with correct information of how many beneficiaries have been rehabilitated.
• Beneficiaries, who successfully complete their development, would also be participants in our economic development for sustainable livelihoods.
• Our organisation is an active participant towards finding a lasting solution towards removing the beneficiaries from the streets through our family reunification programme.
• Foster accelerated skills training learnerships to potentially criminal Youth and destitute thus divert them from possible criminal endeavours.