VPUU- Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading

VPUU is a comprehensive area-based community development programme that aims at safe and integrated communities, citizenship, pride and the improvement of quality of life for the residents in local neighbourhoods through urban improvements and social interventions.

VPUU aims to overcome the different levels of economic, cultural, social, institutional and spatial exclusion, in order to reduce and prevent crime. Based on a structured, participatory approach, the focus is on improving safety, providing public services, and developing social cohesion factors, community data and the willingness of the local community and other partners to cooperate in implementing a transformation programme, through facilitating processes between communities, government departments and other organisations.

This is done through 5 programmatic, integrated components, known as ‘workstreams’, complimented by a multi-disciplinary team, at the core of the programme. These include: Situational, Social and Institutional Crime Prevention, Community Participation and Knowledge Management. The success of crime reduction and the improvement of quality of life lies in the interaction and integration of all these elements.

The back end support of these workstreams includes Project Management, Executive Support Services as well as strategic direction from CEO and Directors.