Lessons from community-based initiatives to prevent violence

The report examines three community-based organisations (CBOs) in South Africa—Seven Passes Initiative, Net vir Pret, and Hantam Community Education Trust—to identify common elements for sustainable violence prevention. It argues that successful interventions must be aligned with local culture, prioritize the building of social capital, and manage the tension between immediate service delivery and long-term community transformation. The findings highlight that while these CBOs have fostered significant 'intangible' gains like trust and hope, they often operate in the absence of consistent government support and face challenges in overcoming deep-seated racial divisions.

• Community-based organisations (CBOs) contribute to violence prevention by addressing immediate needs while investing in long-term skills and knowledge building to foster agency and confidence.
• Sustainable violence prevention requires a community-based ecological approach where interventions are aligned with the specific cultures, norms, and values of the geographical community.
• The Seven Passes Initiative (SPI) in Touwsranten has achieved measurable impacts, including over 80% of local children attending daily after-school care and 20 young people accessing tertiary education.
• Net vir Pret (NvP) in Barrydale focuses on providing a safe, creative outlet for children to prevent risky behaviours, resulting in successes such as the establishment of jazz groups and numerous students entering tertiary education or apprenticeships in 2018.
• The Hantam Community Education Trust (HCET) in Colesberg has provided extensive educational and health services, reporting that over the last 10 years there have been no new HIV infections, no children born with foetal alcohol syndrome, and no reported cases of stunting among its target farm communities.
• A critical component of sustainability is the 'cycling of resources,' where beneficiaries of CBO programmes return to their communities to serve as staff members or trustees, creating a sense of local ownership.
• Deeply entrenched racial divisions, a legacy of apartheid spatial planning, continue to limit the reach and effectiveness of community interventions across different racial groups.
• There is a significant gap in government support for CBOs in Barrydale and Hantam, where organisations have had to rely on internal resources due to perceived government inefficiency and lack of responsiveness.
• Meaningful transformation in impoverished communities often produces 'intangible' gains—such as trust, hope, and pride—which are essential catalysts for change but difficult to measure within standard short-term donor funding cycles.
• Collective efficacy—the willingness to intervene for the collective good—remains low when violent incidents conflict with strongly held community norms or when the community lacks internal and external resources.

APA

Parenzee, P. (2021). Lessons from community-based initiatives to prevent violence. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-45.pdf

Chicago

Parenzee, Penny. Lessons from community-based initiatives to prevent violence. Institute for Security Studies, 2021. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-45.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Parenzee |first1=Penny |title=Lessons from community-based initiatives to prevent violence |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=March 2021 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-45.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{parenzee2021lessons, author = {Parenzee, Penny}, title = {{Lessons from community-based initiatives to prevent violence}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-45.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }