Communities of Practice for Child Wellbeing
Submitting University
University of Johannesburg
Summary of the impact:
The Communities of Practice for Child Wellbeing (CoP) project tested a collaborative, evidence-based approach to improve child wellbeing. It drew together leading experts in the fields of social welfare, education, social work, psychology, engineering and health to design a Child Wellbeing Tracking Tool (CWTT) and programme, implemented in the early grades of schools, that could identify children at risk and work to improve their wellbeing across several domains.
The project was implemented in five schools in the poorest areas of the City of Johannesburg and one school in a rural area in Limpopo, benefiting teachers, social workers, and nurses who learned a new approach to supporting children at risk of poor wellbeing; and children and their caregivers living in poverty. Key tangible impacts include enhancing the capacity of school social workers, teachers and nurses to work collaboratively to support the wellbeing of children and their caregivers. By linking families to amenities and organisations in their respective communities such as social development offices, vaccinations in the local clinics, and food relief programmes, and ensuring that children receive eyesight, speech, and hearing assessments, the research demonstrated improved wellbeing across all children who were at risk at the baseline point.
