CK partners with 1 Million Strong Breakthrough program

In many respects, the world in which young people are growing up in is a harsh one. Sadly, many young people drop out of school, or engage in high risk behaviours. It is for this reason that Breakthrough has been developed.

“Before Breakthrough came to my school, my life was just a mess.  I did not know who I was. The facilitators did a wonderful job. I feel different.”

“The Nolands Foundation is committed to making a difference in the lives of as many young people as possible,” explains CEO Paul Jones.  “We understand that to maximise our reach and potential we need to collaborate with like-minded people and like-minded organisations. We are therefore meticulous in who we choose to partner with. Community Keepers, who are already proactive in 31 schools, and growing, are ideal partners. From day one, we realised there were huge synergies. The success of the Breakthrough programme can largely be accredited to the role of the Youth Coaches who facilitate the programme and Community Keepers have a highly trained and highly skilled team who can facilitate Breakthrough.”

“In business, whether profit-driven or not, we regularly attend meetings where we meet new people. Some of these people we will see again, some not. There are, however, times when we leave a meeting and you feel an energy; a something that you can’t quite describe. This is “synchronicity” – a term that Jung described as ‘meaningful coincidences’.  This is how I would like to describe our relationship with Community Keepers. I sense many lives will be impacted.”

Spearheading the project at Community Keepers is Joané Geldenhuys who holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the University of Stellenbosch and master’s in Play-based Intervention from the University of Pretoria: “We really enjoyed the training with Paul and also valued the content of the Breakthrough programme. We attended the training so that we can now launch the programme at all of our partner schools, but after the training those of us who attended said: ‘Wow we really benefited personally from the training, because it kind of forced us to look at our own perspective and attitude towards life.’  The way we think and what influences our thinking is so powerful and the training just reminded us that we really need to pay more attention to it. This programme just takes your focus back to your principles and values, which is so important. I’m really excited for the Breakthrough programme to start running in our schools. I believe it will change our learner’s outlook on life and help them to thrive.” .

.The 1 Million Strong initiative is a collaborative platform built around one common cause – raising the next generation of leaders.  Breakthrough is a 12 module programme that was birthed at 2 am one morning, a number of years ago, in the heart of a father who had to deal with the pain of a daughter, who he loved dearly, that had become a full blown heroin addict. On numerous occasions he visited his daughter on the streets of Hillbrow, not knowing whether he would see her alive again.

Breakthrough was written with love and dedication not realising that many years later tens of thousands and maybe even hundreds of thousands of young people would be touched by the programme.

In the video below, Joané shares a story to whet your appetite.  Press on the triangle button to play.

“Breakthrough changed my life. Before the programme came to our school, I was the child with a bad attitude; always waiting for someone to do something wrong to me. I was not forgiving, but now I know how to forgive and I do not have a bad attitude anymore. Breakthrough changed my life!”