Guardian Angels South Africa

If there is currently no chapter in your city, your interest in the Guardian Angels may not be easy to facilitate.  We hope that this will not deter you from pursuing the goal of being a force for good as so many of our volunteers have over the past two and a half decades.

The process of opening a new Guardian Angel chapter is neither instantaneous, nor easy.  Some take half a year to start, others can take a year or even two.  Much of that time-table depends on the work ethic and consistency of the contacts in each city.    It is not beneficial to have a chapter open quickly and then close. Community residents could be discouraged by this and may become even more close-minded to new solutions.  We want to build solid chapters with solid foundations.  We want to build partnerships will local groups and officials. We want to make sure that the leader of the chapter is trainable, honest, dependable, level headed, and persistent. Helping to build safer communities takes patience and persistence.  In the end the formation of a new chapter and the graduation of a group of trained volunteers is just the beginning of the effort.

A chapter is only started when local residents request Guardian Angels presence in their city and a number of them are willing to volunteer to go through a three month training program. Training is usually a 4 to 8 hour commitment each week conducted in the evenings or on weekends to avoid interfering with the recruits’ job or family life. Individuals who are interested in starting a Guardian Angels chapter are encouraged to visit the nearest chapter to see what we do firsthand.

Once there are enough recruits a trainer or team of trainers will visit the city in question and start training the local recruits.  When training is completed local volunteers will be selected and trained to be leaders and trainers.

Eventually to start a patrolling group you will need to be committed and consistent.  You will need to approach it like a part time job; consistently every week taking steps to complete the things that need to be done.  (At first most of those steps are self-directed learning and communicating with the regional office.)  You will need to work behind the scenes, avoiding the limelight.  The regional office will decide when it is appropriate to contact city officials, media, or police department representatives.  

Are you still interested?

If so, the first step is one of personal development and building your lines of communication with the organization.  You need to become an expert about your city, it’s decision makers, it’s neighborhood activists and it’s crime issues.  You need to start reading the newspaper and watching the TV evening news. You should clip newspaper articles that deal with street crime and youth issues and send them to the regional office.  If needed you should read books on leadership and hone your written and verbal communication skills.  You need to walk the different streets of your city and learn its areas and denizens firsthand.   And most importantly, you will have to recruit other motivated members and potential leaders with different skills and talents.

If you are unsure if you are ready for the responsibility of helping form a local Guardian Angel chapter in your city, you can test the waters by assisting us as a non-patrolling volunteer Guardian Angels contact for your city, initiating non-patrolling action projects that deter crime and assist with building safer neighborhoods.  As you continue to communicate and work with the regional office, if you choose, you will be working toward the next level; starting a patrolling Guardian Angel group in your city.  The nation needs heroes and you should be one of them.

As a non-patrolling Guardian Angel contact for your city you will set your own agenda.  You will keep the regional office informed of crime, gang or public safety issues in your city for possible consideration for Guardian Angel intervention.  You can work with the regional office to choose a non-patrolling action project and tap our expertise to help ensure a successful project.

You will be required to take the Guardian Angel Pledge and abide by our no-gang, no-drug, non-biased, non-violent code of conduct.  BUT NO PATROLS. Any non-patrolling contact who wants to experience a Guardian Angel patrol, is welcome to visit a city with a current Guardian Angel group.  Any visit should be scheduled through the regional office.

Operating as a non-patrolling Guardian Angel contact will not take as much of your time as starting a group.   Additionally, you won’t have to look at your goals as 12 months or longer down the road.  You will need to be a self-starter and self-motivator.  The regional office will be waiting for you to set the pace.  You will be expected to uphold the good name of the Guardian Angels at all times.  You will need to ensure that you don’t over represent your involvement in the group or commit the organization to any action without the agreement of the regional office.  Your first step is to contact us at capetown@guardianangels.org or call us at 083 568 6760 and we can discuss these issues and your interest.

We hope that all the straight talk hasn’t put you off the idea of using the “dare to care” concept of the Guardian Angels to make a positive difference in your community.  In the end there is no getting around that one word that has made the Guardian Angels a household word around the world: Perseverance!  I hope you will join us in the work that is still to be done.

Once you are ready to start you can use the following loose guidelines as your compass.

1.     Your first step would be to call a public meeting.  For this you will have to print out flyers, inviting people to the meeting.  Do not make the date for the meeting too far in the future.

2.     Once your flyers are delivered they need to be distributed in your community.  An early evening will be fine.  Go around the neighbourhood, putting one in each post box, under every car wiper and door and in the hands of every pedestrian you can find.

3.     On the night of the meeting, either at a private house or public venue (ask your library), you will need to discuss things like:

• Leadership – decide on your chapter leader, it is most often (but not always) the person who contacted us first.
• Training – find a self-defence instructor in the area
• Headquarters – find an office and training area
• Patrol area – decide on the patrol area
• Projects – decide on pressing problems that need to be addressed first
• Fund-raising – identify places to put down collection cans as well as getting the names of potential donors
• Printing – find a sponsor and get at least one copy of manual
• Recruitment – allocate persons who will primarily be recruiters

4. We will send a representative to you and supply you with the manual on a CD, along with attendance records etc.  Primarily our contribution at this stage will be experience and uniforms.  Your contribution will be basic accommodation and meals for the member.  Very NB:  the representative will also evaluate you to see if we want you as a Guardian Angel.  Racist/hate groups will not be considered!
5. Start your training and patrols, using the information in the manual.
6. After 6 months, when you are experienced and sure that your new Angels have fulfilled the basic requirements, we will send another representative (not the same) for a month.  (S)He will put them through their paces, make sure that standards are being maintained and if they pass the written exams will then graduate your sub/chapter as a part of the International Alliance of Guardian Angels.
7. Put your main focus in the first year on training, recruitment and fundraising.  Once your numbers are built up and stronger you can start dividing your time equally between training, fundraising, recruitment and patrols, since a deficiency in any of them will cause your chapter to fail.