An assessment of some prominent issues relating to community development in the Sparks Estate Sydenham Community

This was a 'group area' for 'Coloured' people at the time of writing, a spatially defined residential neighbourhood, with a shortage of residential accomodation and substantial social problems. This study is motivated by the need for St Philomena's a children's home to have a comprehensive study of the surrounding community, with the purpose of providing the children in the home with social access to normal community life, and of serving as a focus of meaningful social and spiritual life for the surrounding and broader community. The reports generated are intended as documents for use by the community itself in its own ongoing attempts to deal with problems and difficulties.It will hopefully form the basis for a community programme to be evolved within a community context, with the research-based information and suggestions merely servicing the community endeavour.