Today, the Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, will welcome 50 women who are currently serving on the Youth Safety Ambassador Programme (YSAP) from outside of the Metro to a Leadership Conference organized by the Department of Community Safety in partnership with the Chrysalis Academy.
The women will be welcomed from Robertson, Worcester, Wellington, Darling, Mamre, Grabouw Riebeeck-Wes and Swartland. Over the next three days, they will participate in various sessions facilitated by the Chrysalis Academy, including personal mastery, emotional intelligence, trauma-release exercises and more. There will also be social workers on standby, and a system of referral has been established in cases where the services of a psychologist will be required.
Minister Fritz said, “many of the women in our communities are walking around with years and years of psychological trauma. Mental health and psycho-social therapy is something that is often neglected in our communities, and so as part of the violence prevention component of our Safety Plan, we do endeavour to equip and empower our women, amongst other things, to deal with some of the psycho-social issues that they may be faced with. We think it’s very important.”
The programme, facilitated in large part by the Chrysalis Academy, will be continued over the coming months as part of the Youth Safety Ambassador Programme.
Minister Fritz concluded, “I want to thank everyone, including DOCS staff and colleagues from the Chrysalis Academy, who have worked to bring us to this point. A lot of work has gone into this programme. We encourage the women participating on this programme to really invest themselves into it, and we hope that they will find that it has been a source of growth for them at the end of it. And we look forward to welcoming many more women to more of these powerful Chrysalis sessions in the future.”
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