THE FOUR CLIENT GROUPS THAT MES FOCUSES ON ARE:
City pre-school aged children:
This is the Early Childhood Development client group from five months to almost six years old and per implication their nuclear families.
Services Offered:
Pre-schoolers are reached specifically through crèches providing them with learning and day care. Parents are reached as a second target group through parenting programmes. MES Adoption services are in the planning phase.
City school-aged learners:
These are children between the ages 7- 18 years who are of school-going age.
Services Offered:
Learners are reached & mentored through the after-school programmes, holiday programmes, camps & outings, gymnastics and the Dance4aPurpose initiative.
City Youth:
In South Africa, youth are categorised as between the ages of 18-35 years, who are either studying or acquiring skills after school. They are often the largest unemployed component of South Africa and make up the vast majority of the clients at MES.
Services Offered:
Youth are reached through the skills training, job preparation and placement through our Training centre, and recruitment into the Joshua Youth Service Year programme.
Adult marginalised city communities:
These are generally adults older than 36 years in marginalised communities who are typically poorer, disempowered, unemployed and at-risk communities many of which are homeless and have health problems.
Services Offered:
Adult marginalised city communities are served through shelters and GROW Job Rehabilitation programmes.
Social Support Services are offered to all above focus groups through multi-disciplinary teams.
Services include Social Work, Health Care, Community Engagement, Spiritual Support and Nutrition Enhancement. The composition of the teams varies in the branches depending on resources & capacity available. Through these service teams integration of services are strengthened and specialised services are offered.
Social Enterprise Projects enable MES to generate some of its own income so as to not be solely dependent on grants, donations or fees.
Looking at the activities of MES, there are certain components that are not necessarily age specific. These form part of social enterprise projects such as renting out of accommodation or office spaces to paying customers, selling of second hand clothing or selling of sorted recyclable waste material. The focus of these ventures have a more income generating focus.
Each branch has its own development strategy since the needs in the inner cities differ and the services offering is also dependent on what other services are available in the specific city. MES believes in the power of collaboration with other service providers. Below is a visual illustration of the MES services.
