Programmes

Sport

Education

Innovation

@Homelearning

Pathway to success

Our Programmes

Sport

Our sports and recreation programmes include a variety of life skills learning activities. This includes providing mentoring aimed at developing young people holistically and developing sporting talent

Changing Lives Through Sport

We build community-centred facilities that demonstrate a long-term commitment to the residents around the Centres and to our participants. The Centres provide a safe base for delivering life-changing programmes and also a place where children can grow, learn, have fun, make mistakes and develop into good citizens.

We play a range of inclusive sports – tailored to community needs:

  • Netball
  • Volleyball
  • Football
  • Futsal
  • Basketball
  • Rugby/Touch Rugby
  • Cricket
  • Chess
  • Table Tennis
  • Pool

In some of these sports, we promote sports excellence and the development of sports clubs; others we promote at a recreational and participation level. We also provide fitness and aerobics classes for different ages and have gyms in our Centres.

We facilitate a number of recreational activities for various ages, including:

  • Dance
  • Board games
  • Indigenous games

@Homelearning

We are the Lead Partner for the Western Cape Government’s unique programme, which was founded to help children recover the educational time lost during the COVID pandemic.

WCED@HomeLearning is a community-based initiative that strengthens support for learners from non-fee-paying primary schools by addressing learning losses, learner disengagement and supporting at-risk learners to prevent them from dropping out of school. We also work with drop-outs to encourage their return to school.

Our mission is to build an “educational ecosystem” of Schools, Teachers, Parents and Learners that support schools in their efforts to keep learners in school and engaged in their learning.

The programme is unique in that it addresses two of the most critical issues we face today, education and unemployment. We invest in unemployed youth (called YeBoneers) by training them to provide support to the education ecosystem and develop their own personal and professional skills. After the 10-month programme, the majority of these YeBoneers go on to pursue further education or secure meaningful work opportunities.

The interns are unemployed, aged 18 to 25, young people who receive training and development to enable them to support children in schools and in their home environment as well as improve their own employability potential.

Working with our partner SCORE, we provide management, governance and supervision of over 600 interns working for 12 different partner NGO’s across more than 79 schools in the Western Cape, serving over 7,000 learners referred by schools for support. Through community awareness activations and campaigns, we reach tens of thousands more people across all these communities, emphasising that it takes a community to educate a child.

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Innovation

We recognise the need to equip young people with the tools and technology necessary for them to develop safely in modern society.

Changing Lives Through Innovation

The ability to use technology safely is crucial for young people to gain employment. We believe all young people should know and understand how to use computers and the internet safely. The web is both a perilous place and a source of knowledge. The use of social media platforms is an essential part of young people’s lives. We believe that providing a safe, monitored space with access to proven programmes, along with mentoring and tutoring about how to use the web safely, is an integral part of young people’s development.

We are innovative in our approach to development, for example;

  • We have pioneered the use of tablets and technology to facilitate and monitor skills development in pre-school children.
  • In Franschhoek, we built a learning centre and library, equipped with computers, educational software, books and home teaching aids.

The Kurovo Learning Centre in Malmesbury was opened in 2022 and provides:

  • Teacher training
  • Skills training
  • IT Lab
  • Library
  • Resource centre for educational and skills development
  • Parent and carer support centre

Education

Our educational partners work with a range of ages and abilities. We use formal and informal teaching methods.

Changing Lives Through Education

We build community schools and learning facilities which are aligned to the needs of the communities and offer much needed access to computers and digital learning. Our schools provide a safe place to learn through recognised curriculum and trained staff and provide homework support. Our resource centres enable the development of crucial IT skills and provide access to books, games and quiet study areas.

We have educational partners who operate our schools in Mbekweni (Nompumelelo Educare) and Franschhoek (The Kusasa Academy). Our Learning Centres and all our other educational programming are managed by our implementing partner, SCORE.

Our Learning and Development Centre, The Kurovo Centre, in Malmesbury, offers IT training and provides access to computers and other technologies.

We provide outreach to Early Childhood Development centres for children from birth to 5 years of age providing reading and gross motor skill programming in all 3 communities. We support primary schools to deliver physical education and life orientation.

Our most significant education program is @HomeLearning, which is implemented across the Western Cape province.