The Social Welfare Unit provides a free drop in service. One of the key roles of the social worker is to act as a communication-bridge between the members of the community and formal and non-formal health/social resources. Income generation programmes are important for the underprivileged in the community in order to help them break free from the spiral of poverty and deprivation. The social worker supervises such programmes, giving them support, encouragement and helping them in developing marketing strategies. Youth development has proved an important component in Community Health. With the use of a harm-minimization approach the social worker provides counseling to help the young avoid drug abuse and crime. Volunteer boys conduct Youth meetings supervised by the social worker and identified “at risk boys” are given an invitation to meet the social worker for a general discussion with an option of career Counseling, Vocational Training and Youth Group facilities.

Social worker’s key areas of work: Health promotion and social health events Mental health and dysfunctional family counseling Capacity building of individuals and groups Childhood development Youth development Income generation and education of business skills. Communal harmony Women’s empowerment Savings and finance Collection of community profile data Networking with other NGO’s

Mental Health and Dysfunctional Family Counseling

The social work service provides a basic counseling facility with a referral system to various facilities including the Psychiatry Department of St. Stephen’s Hospital. The social work service has established referral links to other organizations providing mental health services for specific problems such as drug addiction, marital discord, mental retardation etc.

Careers Guidance and Vocational Training

The purpose of vocational training is to encourage youths to become economically self-sufficient

• These training courses are run with the help of part time tutors. At any given time two – three courses are running.

• Except for tailoring and screen-printing all the courses are short term and are be spread over the year.

Youth Training Course: