The appointment of the CDE Officers is in support of the City’s Continuous Community Engagement Strategy. The group of 144 will be provided with relevant training to empower them with the necessary skills needed to support their function.

The City of Cape Town is walking-the-talk when it comes to empowering individuals and preparing them to become job ready. In addition to the abovementioned training programme, EPWP workers will receive work place experience that will prepare them to effectively engage with communities. This will equip them with the tools to identify early warning signals of risks and challenges within communities and come-up with proactive interventions.

They will also be well equipped to create awareness of the City’s Basket of Services on offer.

You have a great responsibility of helping us respond and improve our response to service delivery. Your efforts will bring important information to assist the ward councillors to attend to challenges and needs within communities. My message to you is to work hard and you will experience the reward of seeing the daily lives of communities being uplifted,’ said Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato.

We are excited about this programme that will give unemployed individuals the opportunity to become Community Development and Engagement Officers, which will make them more marketable and work place ready for future employment opportunities. Their primary responsibility as CDE Officers will be to play a facilitation role between the City and communities with regard to service delivery issues in their areas,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management, Alderman Grant Twigg.

Being on the ground, at the coal-face will enable the CDE Officers to improve services to residents by proactively identifying interventions within the communities where they operate.

We have employed 144 individuals who will be empowered and developed with a sound knowledge and understanding of local government. Additionally, they will need to be primed about the dynamics within communities, which differs from one to the other. A non-negotiable minimum requirement is was a matric certificate,’ said Alderman Twigg.

The training programme will include facilitation, communication and basic life skills � all of which will be externally accredited. Problem solving, the Microsoft Office package (MS Excel, Word and Powerpoint), change management and public participation methods will also form part of their training.

In my engagements with various communities, I have come to realise that not all residents are aware of the City’s Basket of Services, which has sparked the need for an intervention to step-up service delivery. The Community Development and Engagement Officers will be in a position to detect early warning signs of reduced service standards. This will in turn enable the relevant City departments to react quicker to improve upon services required,’ added Alderman Twigg.

With this training, CDE Officers will become more employable in the government and NGO sector, as well as participate in Social Programmes in the corporate/private sector.

Source: City Of Cape Town