Exploring social workers’ experiences in providing gender-based violence-related services in non-profit organisations in Alexandra township, Gauteng Province

Abstract

Social workers designated at non-profit organisations play a significant role in the provision of gender-based violence (GBV) related services. These social workers provide various GBV-related services such as awareness, psychosocial counselling, and after-care. In this study, the researcher explores social workers’ experience in providing GBV-related services in two selected non-profit organisations in Alexandra township, Gauteng. The qualitative and explorative approaches were adopted to explore and analyse the social workers’ experiences in providing GBV-related services. A total number of ten (10) social workers were interviewed from the two selected non-profit organisations. A semi-structured interview guide comprising open-ended questions was utilised for data collection. The findings indicated that there is a high level of understanding and knowledge of the roles of a social worker in GBV-related services among social workers. However, continuous training is required since policies get amended. Therefore, continuous training and provision of professional development (CPD) of social workers, especially regarding GBV, is necessary to acquire knowledge as NPOs have high social worker turnover due to poor salaries and instability. Furthermore, it was revealed that social workers’ roles in provision of GBV related services include advocating, empowering, making referrals, and educating. Social workers indicated a high level of understanding of the roles including the roles involved in current services they are assigned to render. The researcher considered the ethical guidelines as part of requesting permission to conduct a study to the committee of Social Work at the University of Witwatersrand. The collected data was analysed by identifying themes from the data collected.