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Welcome to the RAPCAN website!
RAPCAN (Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) works to promote the rights and protection of children in South Africa and the region.
RAPCAN delivers direct services to children and families, aimed at promoting the rights and protection of children. We also undertake training and develop resource materials with a view to strengthening the quality of work undertaken by others in relation to children and families. Our advocacy work is aimed at ensuring that legislation, policy and practice are consonant with the international children’s rights framework.
NOTICE: Prospective intern applications
Please note that RAPCAN does not have any vacancies for interns at this stage as all intern vacancies have been taken. Therefore we are not accepting any further correspondence on this. We will indicate when we are able to resume accepting proposals from prospective interns for placement at RAPCAN. We wish you well with finding other placement opportunities.
NEWS... RAPCAN hosts Promundo presentation in April!
Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect in partnership with Promundo Brazil hosted a presentation on Preventing the Sexual Exploitation of Adolescent Boys: A Global Proposal for Building Knowledge and Improving Practice in Research and Programming.
NEWS... RAPCAN Healers Package Training!
After much research, development and testing, RAPCAN is proud to announce a rare training opportunity in June for professionals on the implementation of the HEALERS Project, a tool to assist a therapeutic process for children between the ages of 4-18 who have experienced sexual abuse. Developed over a period of 9 years with input from leading professionals in the sector, RAPCAN has tested and implemented the HEALERS Project in conjunction with various role-players such as Childline, The Teddy Bear Clinic, The Child Trauma Clinic and the Child Trauma Centre across South Africa. We will be offering this training to professionals in Cape Town.
NEWS... RAPCAN celebrates 20 years of promoting children's rights!
The work of RAPCAN is being covered in the Mail & Guardian of 20 November 2009 (pages 25-26) and commemorates this special event.
These articles share an overview of our work.
Taking over the reigns
Engaging the process
Getting schools on the team
Protecting the children
NEWS... RAPCAN launches Youth @ Risk newsletter
The RAPCAN Training and Resource Development Team would like to welcome you to our newsletter, Youth @ Risk, aimed at practitioners working in the Youth at Risk field. Youth at Risk is one of our Team’s areas of interest and we strive to develop cutting-edge resources and training programmes.
Vol 1 Issue 3 supplements:
1. Guidelines for Programme Design (PDF)
2. Questions when Designing Youth at Risk Interventions (PDF)
3. Risk and Resilience (PDF)
NEWS... RAPCAN launches Working with Boys newsletter
RAPCAN’s interest in working with boys has developed over a number of years and has seen the organisation host a number of seminars on working with boys. Whilst the arena of working with men as part of a gender violence prevention strategy has shown significant gains, our experience has been that very few organisations engage with young boys in the same way. We hope that this newsletter will create a platform for meaningful discussion, information sharing and debate to enable us to work with boys on their journey to becoming meaningful, resilient and positive contributors to their community.
PRESS RELEASE... Report on SAPS FCS services released: Assessing the impact of restructuring on access to and quality of services to women and children in South Africa
SAPS announced their plans to restructure Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offence (FCS) units in 2006. The main objective was to increase accessibility through disbanding existing specialised Child Protection and FCS units and devolving the service to local police stations. Members of civil society supported the intention of increasing access to services, but expressed grave concerns that devolving these sensitive investigations to station-level would result in undermining the quality of services.
Raising the Bar: A Review of the Restructuring of the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units
Press Release (PDF)
Executive Summary (PDF)
Full-text Report (PDF)