Milestones

1908	The Society for the Protection of Child Life is established.
1908	A Register of Foster Mothers is established.
1908	The first emergency home for children opens.
1913	The Society is actively involved in the promulgation of the Children's Protection Act of 1913.
1913	Maternal and child welfare clinics are established (Infant Life Bureaus) - later taken over by the City Council.
1914	The first Infants Hostel opens.
1917	Lady Buxton Emergency Home opens.
1921	The first Place of Safety opens.
1924	The Society advocates the establishment of specialized training for social workers and negotiates with the University of Cape Town for a diploma course in Social Science.
1924	A mother craft training centre / dietetic hospital is established and continues until 1975.
1927	Massage and Remedial Clinics are established to treat the effects of disease such as rickets and polio as well as congenital deformities. This work was eventually taken over by orthopaedic clinics.
1929	Maitland Cottage Hospital for crippled children opens and is run by the Society until it becomes a separate organisation in 1943.
1939	A pre-school training center and practicing nursery school - the first of its kind in South Africa - is established in the grounds of the Lady Buxton Home.
1955	A dental clinic, which operates as a sub-committee of the Society Until 1979, opens.
1956	Concern regarding the incidence of juvenile delinquency leads to the Appointment of a Parent Guidance Officer.
1961	The first of the Society's crèches, Hout Bay Crèche, is established.
1969	Nursery school facilities are added to the Hout Bay Crèche.
1970	The Silvertown Nursery School and Crèche open its doors.
1976	A crèche and nursery school is opened at the Lady Buxton Home.
1978	Society becomes known as "Child Welfare Society Cape Town".
1982	Branches of the Society start to operate crèches in Manenberg, Heathfield and Hanover Park. The Khanyisa Pre-school opens in Guguletu. The Society provides pre-school care and education to 210 children of working mothers.
1982	The first shelter for street children, The Homestead, opens 1982 Annie Stark Village - a cottage style children's home in Silvertown, Athlone finally becomes a reality despite plans having been drawn up in the early 1970's.
1983	Siseko Educare Centre in Guguletu opens its doors to 100 children.
1983	Family Focus, a parent education and counseling service (later to become known as the Parent Centre) opens in Mowbray.
1984	Patrick's House, a second-stage shelter for boys and part of The Homestead project, is established.
1985	The first Community Emergency Homes are made available.
1986	This year marks the introduction of a comprehensive child welfare service to Black communities; the development of an effective practice model for child abuse and the decentralization of services to Athlone.
1987	Margaret's House, a shelter to accommodate runaway boys, opens its doors.
1988	James House (a home for destitute, neglected and abused children in Hout Bay) and Ons Plek (the first ever shelter for homeless girls on the street) become operational.
1989	Restructuring at the Society takes place - the Social Work and Adoptions Departments are dissolved and replaced by three departments. A new department is established to undertake Community development work exclusively (a field in which the Society has been involved in throughout its history); Foster Care and Adoptions amalgamate to form the Alternative Care Department. The Child Protection Department is established.
1990	The Society embarks on a strategic planning process. Greater emphasis on prevention and community development; placing of greater proportions of available resources at the disposal of poorer communities. Focusing on children in the 0-12 age group and providing training, guidance and similar support to older children. Establishment of decentralized offices closer to the communities served and greater emphasis on the employment of non-professionals.
1991	Elukhuselweni / Caltex Place of Protection, and emergency residential care facility for babies and children, becomes operational in Khayelitsha.
1991	Claremont Children's Shelter, a first-stage shelter for street Children, opens its doors.
1992	Cape Town Child Welfare projects provide pre-school care and education to some 1 200 children.
1992	Parent Centre establishes an office in Athlone, taking its Services closer to the community.
1993	Siviwe, the first second-stage shelter for girl street children in South Africa, is established in Woodstock.
1993	Educare centers - initiated, managed and staffed by community members - are established in informal settlements.
1993	The Society has four community emergency homes (in which families provide temporary care for up to six children) to cope with the growing need for emergency care for children in crisis.
1994	The Society moves towards establishing an area-based operation. Khayelitsha is the first area to follow this method of service delivery.
1994	The Adoptions Centre takes responsibility for Black adoptions, previously handled by the Cape Provincial Administration.
1994	Parent Centre established an office in Khayelitsha and continues to reach out to the community.
1994	Director of the Society chairs a committee, set up by the Western Cape MEC for Health and Social Services, to make recommendations regarding the release of children from detention.
1994	Development work (undertaken in the largely informal communities of Philippi, Khayelitsha, Lotus River and Hout Bay) reaches over 5 000 people annually.
1994	Research into how children (from birth to six years of age) who are not in educare centers, are cared for in the community 1995 Preventative programmes to ensure that children do not drop out of school and become street children, are run in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Philippi and Mitchell's Plain.
1995	The move from functional management to area management continues. The second and third area operations in the Athlone area operations in the Athlone area and in the Cape Town-Wynberg area are developed.
1996	Research into the effectiveness of the care of children in homes and various communities, and the development of a programme to assist community-based caregivers.
1997	The Isolobantwana ("Eye on the Children") Community-based Child Protection Programme is launched.
1998	Research into the role of children's organisations to address the needs of children infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
2000	The launch of the Thembalabanwana (Hope for our Children) HIV/AIDS Project as a pilot in Gugulethu.
2001	November : Launch of Website (www.helpkids.org.za)
2002	Commenced internal transformation process.
2002	Launch of Thembalabanwana HIV and AIDS Programme as an official project of CTCW.
2003	Obtained 18A TAX status.
2003	For the first time in its history the International Forum for Child Welfare was held on the African continent. Cape Town Child Welfare was chosen as the host organisation.
2004	Adopted Thembalabantwana (Hope for our Children) as our business model and established six hot spot community based centres.
2006	Established the HELPKIDS Hotline for children in crisis. The helpline operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

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