Welcome to the Community of Practice (CoP) for Social Systems Strengthening to Improve Child Well-being Outcomes portal. The CoP research project is a multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration between researchers and practitioners across different sub-fields, including social work, sociology, psychology, education psychology, education, mathematics and language curriculum, mental health, nutrition, primary health care, community nursing, public health and school health care services. In the CoP study, we target children and their caregivers who receive a Child Support Grant (CSG) in the foundation years of schooling, namely, Grade R and Grade 1. Research shows that investing in children’s nutrition and health, improving their emotional and social well-being and schooling outcomes are important social investments in the human resources of a country.

The CoP project is currently in its second phase to refine the CoP model and assess viability in a rural context and track child well-being longitudinally and based on this, implement and evaluate short-term solution focused interventions.