GRADUATION DAY
In 2023, we set out to create meaningful change – improving the wellbeing of thousands of young people and creating jobs while doing so.
In 2023, South Africa’s youth unemployment rate hovered around 49.14%
Our dream was to welcome young people into our teams and we chose to invite young people from the local community who understand the challenges and have a heart to serve and help others. Today, these shining stars graduate as Social Auxiliary Workers.
It has not been an easy journey for anyone. Trauma is a barrier to learning and a barrier to getting and keeping a job; during the training and mentoring process, quite a few of the candidates shared stories of personal growth and healing as they progressed. The work that we do requires resilience, and to work while studying over a two-year period takes a special kind of person.
WHAT WE DID
This innovation is known as task shifting, where we release our mental health professionals (social workers and registered counsellors) from any work that can be delegated, freeing them up to focus on caseload within their scope of practice. Our Mental Health First Aiders are trained up as first responders to work on the frontline.
HOW WE DID IT
First, we recruited four young people to join us as Marketers/Community Liaison to publicise the opportunity – they reached out through the media and social media and visited career centres and wifi hotspots to describe the work and explain how to apply. We partnered with JobJack, an online platform for entry level career opportunities to use technology in our mass recruitment drive; with the added benefit of unsuccessful applicants being able to access other job opportunities through the JobJack platform. National Treasury’s Jobs Fund partnered with us for this enormous task and our team rallied around taking on the extra load needed for catalytic growth. At the start of 2023 we had 35 partner schools, and by July, of that year, we had opened 44 new sites, expanding into two new provinces. Jacaranda FM joined us for a live broadcast at one of the schools, welcoming us to Gauteng with great fanfare.
WHAT WE LEARNT
No one can do this alone. Learners and educators need help and support. We receive heart wrenching letters, daily, from schools asking if we can please open rooms at their school. Yes, it is possible to help as many people as possible – it takes hard work and partnership.
It is not easy to grow up in poverty. It is not easy to be unemployed. It is not easy to apply for an opportunity and trust that you may be a good fit. It is not easy to start a new job when you feel nervous and possibly vulnerable. It is not easy to study. It is not easy to study while working. It is not easy to learn new systems. It is not easy to find time to mentor and support others when your own workload is already challenging.
But, we did it. They did it. Today is graduation day.
One of the valuable practices when partnering with National Treasury’s Jobs Fund is their ongoing prompt to reflect, to note the highlights and challenges and to document the learnings. This is a process that required us to step back and continuously program the learnings back into the project so that we continuously improve and refine – to be sustainable.
Jobs Fund project manager, Mthetho Mhlafu, sent a message, early this morning, to congratulate the graduates: “It’s exciting news indeed. Congratulations. We cherish our partnership and thank you for the great work.”
AMANDA’s SPEECH TO THE GRADUATES
Amanda van der Vyver-Anderson, our Educational Psychologist, took the lead on the Mental Health First Aid part of the project. Her pioneering work included conceptualising mental health first aid in schools; designing and writing the training material; facilitating the training courses and teaching others to facilitate; guiding, mentoring and leading our team of 77 mental health first aiders. When the plan started to teeter, Amanda moved to Mamelodi to be a constant and stable presence. A humble person by nature, she was also often found packing boxes, washing tea cups and waiting in the dark for the Takealot deliveries to arrive.
Where Covid had created distance, the Jobs Fund project pulled us all together. Everyone in team CK stepped up – often working late at night, hours were spent on emails, on the phone and some flew up to Mamelodi to help or drove through to Bonnievale and the rural parts of the Eastern Cape to offer their support – all while still doing our day jobs.
This was a heart-and-soul project for everyone involved.
Today, Amanda is in her academic robe, on the stage at the graduation and this is her message:
“Well done. This is an amazing achievement and a great testimony of your hard work, dedication and sacrifices you had to make. We are *extremely* proud of you, and I hope that you walk slightly taller today, with appreciation for the choices you made that led you here. To those who are able to attend the graduation ceremony this morning, take a moment to pause, breathe, and take it all it in. I will be in the crowd cheering for you!! To those who are not at the ceremony, please also take a moment today – make an extra cup of coffee or tea, pause, and celebrate your achievement.
Lastly, a quote from Nelson Mandela – “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
THANK YOU for the change you bring in our team, our schools, and for the many learners, caregivers, educators and others you encounter.”
