COMMUNITY

One of our founding principles when we started in 2011 was ‘to be a catalyst for opportunity in the area in the form of job creation, the development of micro enterprise and the upgrading of the adjacent buildings and infrastructure’, another being ‘to further elevate the tourism credentials of Hout Bay as a destination thereby helping to further support economic development for all’. Fundamental to this was to ensure that we first created a commercially viable and sustainable business, from which we could then offer social and economic opportunities and then, also, serve to catalyse change and development.

Given our being located in the Hangberg Harbour Precinct, we have always subscribed to the notion of, wherever possible, making a difference for this vibrant community. Almost without exception, when we started we only utilised the services of Hangberg artisans and have since encouraged our traders to employ and mentor staff from this community.

At last count we employ, in one form or another, 102 residents of either IY or Hangberg, thereby positively impacting on nearly 300 household members…as well as having a number of stallholders from the less privileged communities.

Other than job creation, we try to touch the local community in as many ways as possible, certain of which are further detailed below.  Most exciting as well, is the fact that our intention has always been to create a place for social integration, given the multicultural nature of Hout Bay residents….whereby all people are welcome and share in the festive energy that has become characteristic of the market – it has taken a while but in the last year it is wonderful to be able to experience the diversity of our Nation in one place…..all sharing and grooving together!

It is with great pride that we are able to reflect on what has been achieved in terms of this over the past 6 years! None of this would be possible without the support and involvement of our traders, visitors and Bay Harbour Market staff…as well as, of course, the people of Hout Bay!

If you have a community project that you would like to present to our team, click here and send an email to us.

SMIPES

We are extremely excited by this social initiative, as it goes to the heart of our business – creating happiness and smiling faces – in this instance honouring our stated intention to provide opportunities to the less privileged families in the Hangberg Community, specifically the children, in this instance those at the Little Angels Community Centre, which is our adopted charity.

SMIPES is a brand of serviette that was born and bred at Bay Harbour Market in 2013, with a view to, in due course, expanding to include Cape Town and, indeed, the rest of South Africa.

An acronym for ‘Wiping smiles across South Africa’, the intention of SMIPES is to raise funds for Early Childhood Development (ECD) in impoverished communities, whereby a portion of the selling price is donated accordingly.

An acronym for ‘Wiping smiles across South Africa’, the intention of SMIPES is to raise funds for Early Childhood Development (ECD) in impoverished communities, whereby a portion of the selling price is donated accordingly.

To date, the Little Angels Community Centre in Hangberg has been the recipient of our charity funding as a result, in the form of food and clothing, toys, nappies, blankets etc, as well as funding for the teachers, who give of their  valuable time in somewhat trying conditions. In order to ensure this ongoing funding all food traders at the market are required to utilize these serviettes. In excess of 100 000 serviettes are consumed every 3 months at the market.

“It is encouraging to see how our Bay Harbour Market traders have embraced the concept. Also, very importantly, it is a very scalable project, to the extent that we envisage a roll out across a number of retail food outlets and restaurants in the rest of Hout Bay, Cape Town and, indeed, South Africa, so that, in due course, the funds raised towards Early Learning Centres should be significant!” – Anthony Stroebel, co-founder, Bay Harbour Market.

For more information on SMIPES or to join the movement, email SMIPES or follow www.Facebook.com/smipesZA

BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH ARTS AND CULTURE

The Bay Harbour Market features up and coming artists from surrounding communities and helps raise funds for them from the audience and visitors to the market. We’re also proudly committed to booking local South African artists regularly to help build their profiles and careers. Check out our line up of sizzling South African muso’s on our Facebook Page.

We also offer the stage as a dance platform for children in our local communities and townships. Over the past few years we have hosted numerous dance troupes and facilitated performances at the market on busy weekends where their talents can be witnessed by local and international visitors.

The Bay Harbour Market has also offered our space to these various groups to utilise as rehearsal space, and we continue to work with them in trying to drive paid performance opportunities via our visitors. More often than not, they are able to achieve commercial performance bookings as a result.

The inaugural Republica LIVE! Music Contest was held last year, with the prize of R10 000 and a recording deal being won by an up-and-coming young artist named Phoenix from Mitchells Plain. During this contest over 30 budding artists enjoyed exposure to media and top record label managers, not to mention huge exposure over our social media platforms!

Performance, music and dance are a big part of our community and we’re committed to building this platform for our local artists and the youth in our surrounding communities.

If you want to collaborate with us, send an email to our team!

HOUT BAY CARES!

CARES stands for Community Awareness Rehabilitation Education Support Services, and is a community development project working in Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay. The project supports communities in need through integrated rehabilitation programmes with life skills workshops and the Care Centre for children at risk.

Through the popular piggy bank and ambassador Viola, Queen of the Bay, the Bay Harbour Market community was successful in collecting ‘change for change’ from visitors at the market to be contributed to CARES. The funds raised were matched rand-for-rand by Bay Harbour Market.

This program is managed by Non-Profit Organisation, FavorSA and a whopping 82% of youths and adults in the programme have opportunities to make a positive contribution to their lives, their families and their communities by living in recovery and learning life skills.

The awesome folks over at Cape Markets covered this story! Check out their article here.

Next time you’re at the market lookout for VIOLA! She was recently given a sassy summer-makeover by the students from The Lalela Project, another cultural and community partner to The Bay Harbour Market.