The Specialised Support and Development Unit (SSD) is a specialised support unit within NICRO that supports both service streams through direct services as well as through operational support in the form of internal and external capacitation, monitoring and evaluation, and programme design and development.
SSD’s key functions include:
- Training & Capacity Building – Providing high-quality training for professionals, staff, and community members.
- Programme Development – Designing, refining, and implementing best-practice models for service delivery.
- Monitoring & Evaluation – Ensuring our programs are impactful, sustainable, and meet the needs of those we serve.
- Specialised Support – Rendering services directly to community crime and violence prevention (CVP) and Criminal Justice (CJS) clients who are allocated to the unit based on offence, income, referral source and existing stakeholder agreements.
Specialised services the SSD unit offers are as follows:
- Online or virtual client services
- Employee wellness and wellbeing services
- In-person and online service provider and stakeholder training and capacitation
- Bespoke programme development
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Research
- Workshops
- School services
- Consultations
To contact the SSD unit, please click
Online or Virtual Client Services
In addition to online programmes offered on NICRO Online (see below), the SSD unit also offers the following services for clients who cannot commute to the office or live outside of South Africa.
- Psychosocial assessments
- Counselling
- Court reports for diversion and non-custodial sentencing
- Trauma services
Please contact the SSD unit for a quotation on virtual services.
Employee Wellness
The Employee Wellness services the SSD unit offers are as follows:
- Anger management
- Communication skills
- Conflict resolution
- Fiercely female (emotional and psychological empowerment for women)
- General counselling
- General emotional and mental health and wellbeing workshops
- Parenting skills
- Positive masculinities (emotional and psychological empowerment for men)
- Road to resilience
- Safe driving behaviour programmes
- Stress, anxiety, depression and coping skills
- Substance abuse education workshops, programmes and counselling
- Trauma sensitivity training
Please contact the SSD unit for a quotation on employee wellness services.
Online Programmes
Visit our NICRO Online portal to see the online programmes available. The programmes include professional development as well as personal growth programmes. You can self-register on the platform. Payment for the online programmes is done in the platform via PayPal using a credit or debit card. Bulk registrations and subscriptions are managed by the SSD unit.
Current programmes include the following:
- Personal Development
- Adult Lifeskills
- Anger Management
- Beyond Boundaries
- Chance to Change (adult substance abuse psychoeducation)
- Choosing the High Road (road safety for the general public)
- Fatherhood Programme
- Positive Parenting Programme
- Rapid Intervention for Trauma
- Shifting Gears (road safety for diverted or sentenced people)
- SparkStarter Programme
- The Road to Resilience
- Professional Development
- Basic Facilitation Skills
- Basics of conflict resolution
- Basics of Restorative Justice
- Child Justice Act
- Child Protection in the South African Context
- Domestic Violence
- Introduction to Bullying for Educators and Practitioners
- Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Introduction to Crime and Violence Prevention in South Africa
- Introduction to Psychosocial Assessments in the Criminal Justice Sector
- National School Safety Framework
- Positive Discipline and Classroom Management
- Social Work Code of Ethics
- Social Work Supervision
- The Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy
Monitoring, Evaluation and Research
NICRO has extensive experience in the following types of research:
- Impact evaluations (qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods)
- Designing monitoring and evaluation tools and systems
- Focus groups
- Survey-based research
- Landscaping studies
- Desktop studies
- Literature reviews
- Community needs assessments
- Community engagement
- School safety analysis
In-Person Training and Capacitation
NICRO has a range of programmes available for training and capacitation purposes. NICRO is also able to develop bespoke training content in the crime and violence prevention domain.
The following topics are currently available for training:
- Psychosocial assessments
- Cognitive behavioural therapy
- Domestic Violence for practitioners
- The Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy
- The National School Safety Framework
- Introduction to Bullying for Practitioners and
Educators - The Child Justice Act
- Positive discipline and classroom management
- Basic facilitation skills
Bespoke training is also available on topics NICRO has expertise in.
Please contact the SSD unit for a quotation on training and capacity development using this form. Click here.
Bespoke Programme Design and Development
NICRO has over 115 years’ experience in developing interventions for the crime and violence sector. Below are some of the programmes NICRO has developed over the years:
- Adult and child lifeskills
- Resilience development
- Economic empowerment
- Substance abuse psychoeducation
- Parenting skills
- Community activism and mobilisation
- Community-based changemakers
- Offender reintegration
- Anger management
- Domestic violence interventions for perpetrators
- School violence prevention
- Sexual offences interventions
- Wildlife crime prevention
- Child safeguarding / protection
Criminal Justice and Crime and Violence Prevention Consultations
Over the years, NICRO has provided guidance and advice to other countries regarding the implementation of criminal justice and crime and violence prevention services. Below are some examples of this work:
- Introduction of youth diversion services to Cameroon
- Introduction of youth diversion services to Malawi
- Introduction of youth diversion services to Zimbabwe
- Introduction of youth diversion to Lesotho.
NICRO can provide consultation services on the following:
- Adult diversion systems
- Youth diversion systems
- Adult non-custodial sentencing systems
- Youth non-custodial sentencing systems
- Offender reintegration from prison systems
- Provision of online programmes to adults and children in conflict with the law
- Community mobilisation and education, including key public relations messaging regarding the above.
Please contact the SSD should you wish to enquire about similar service provision to your country or region.
