Established in 1982 as the first street child organisation in South Africa, the Homestead has always been a leader and innovator of effective interventions for street, neglected and abused children and youth. The Homestead's mission is “To help street children reconstruct their shattered lives, and to provide prevention and early intervention services to children and families in disadvantaged communities”. Our vision is that “no child should live, work or beg on the streets of Cape Town and that every child should live in a community with a family”. The Homestead has 3 programmes that currently work with over 400 boys and girls, aged 7 to 21, a day. The Homestead has 90 boys and youth in residential care, and through formal Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) programmes run at 6 Drop-in Centre sites, it helps chronically neglected, abused and traumatised community children return to school, stay with their families, avoid street life.