Counselling and Social Work skills experience

Your role and the types of work/activities you are given may vary and may depend on certain factors such as what’s required at the time that you’re there. You’ll work as part of the team and may spend various periods of time during the day attending community networking activities, assisting in the preparation of and attending community workshops, attending case study groups, data capturing and reporting, administration, attending the Family Foundation counselling courses that run throughout the year (aside from South African school holidays) amongst other things.

Mainly adults are counselled. You will not be doing one-on-one counselling

You will assist in some or all of the following services:

Counselling
You could attend small case study discussion groups which meet monthly covering marriage preparation and enrichment, relationships, individual, family, re-marriage, divorce, trauma and mediation counselling. You may assist the Counsellors in group sessions (no counselling). Due to the nature of the work, counsellors themselves must undergo compulsory monthly supervision.

Trauma Support
This take place at the FAMSA offices. FAMSA provides a trauma counselling program to victims of crime and violence. Other forms of trauma support are sickness, suicide watch, accident, rape, death/loss, family violence, abuse, and HIV/AIDS. With the client’s permission, sessions may be observed.

Training
FAMSA offers various forms of training that you can get involved with, from basic counselling skills, trauma support, group work training, stress management, life skills, personal growth and intimate partner violence throughout the year as part of  their Family Foundation counselling course. Training does not run during the South African school holidays. These are aimed at local volunteers, international volunteers, professionals and the public to provide them with the tools to be able to assist with counselling, support and effective listening skills.

Parenting support
Community workshops are given to parents to help them gain skills to be better equipped parents, assisting them with effective parenting skills and addressing specific problems in groups and individual counselling.

Programs
FAMSA runs various programs giving support and assistance to groups of mainly women and men. These include the Men Care and the “Women of Worth’ program. These are programs for men and women which are aimed at equipping them with knowledge and skills to cope with daily situations they find themselves in.

Occasionally an “Anger-in, Anger-out” workshop takes place at the local Knysna Correctional Services Facility where they impart life skills and information to the Inmates, thus assisting in rehabilitating and empowering them.

Fundraising and Marketing
If you have any skills in fundraising and marketing, you will be welcomed with even wider arms! As with any work of this type in the NPO sector, funds to support it are always difficult to come by, so any help that can be enlisted is always very deeply appreciated. You could also be involved with fundraising and marketing projects while you are on the placement.

Administration

As this is a skills experience you will also be involved with the daily activities that take place in a Non-Profit Organisation in South Africa which can include administration, data capturing, minuting team meetings, report writing, client intake and attending stakeholder meetings and engagements, for example with the Community Policing Forum and other community networking forums in the NPO sector. Sexual Offences forum is also attended monthly. 

07:30 Breakfast
07:50 Get picked up at your volunteer accommodation by our driver to be taken to the centre
08:00 Arrive at the centre and take part in one of the various services allocated for the day
13:00 Lunch break(this can differ day to day)
13:30 Back to work 
15:00 Finish for the day at the centre unless a particular program or training is being run that day. Our driver will fetch you and take you back to your volunteer accomodation
15:30 Enjoy the rest of the day exploring the town or

Mondays start with a team meeting at 8am and Fridays you will finish early at 13.30pm

Knysna is one of South Africa’s favourite towns based around the beautiful Knysna estuary with views of the iconic headlands. It is not known as the jewel of the Garden Route for nothing and is surrounded by magical forests, farmlands and a breath-taking coastline dotted with blue flag beaches which are great for swimming, barbequing or just simply watching dolphins surfing in the waves. It is also home to the famous elusive Knysna elephant which are the most southern free roaming elephants in the world and there are still hot debates about the numbers with some saying there is only one left and others a small herd of about 4.

The area that Knysna is situated is the Garden Route of the province of the Western Cape and it is a dream for animal lovers and extreme sports enthusiasts as there are numerous private wildlife reserves, national parks, whale watching, predator sanctuaries, primate sanctuaries, elephant sanctuaries, wolf sanctuaries, skydiving, paragliding, sandboarding, numerous interesting markets and so much more so boredom is not an option.