SAEP's Centre for Innovative Education and Community Service, our research and development hub, supports and develops our educational programmes and contributes to the broader conversation on education in South Africa.

Since we began our work in 1998, community members' requests, observed needs and lessons of experience have spurred SAEP to create new programmes. By responding to these urgent needs, we have learned a great deal about the challenges of South Africa's education system post-apartheid. And we have learned, through trial and error, how to meet these challenges head-on and to empower children and young people to take charge of their futures.

Through the Centre, we aim to document and share these lessons with the broader education community. The services SAEP provides are urgently needed across the country, and what we have learned can help other people and organisations who are working to improve education in their communities.

To achieve these goals, the Centre carries out:

» Research

We partner with students from local and international universities to conduct research on our programmes and the key educational challenges we work to address.

» Monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment

We monitor and evaluate the impact of our work to ensure we are meeting the needs of the people we serve, and to facilitate evidence-based practice and programme development.

» Model interventions

Many of SAEP's programmes are urgently needed across the country. We aim to analyse and consolidate our work so we can share replicable, scalable models for other education interventions.

» Resource development

SAEP has developed many resources in-house, especially in the areas of life skills and academic and career counselling, that we will formalise and share.

» Programme incubation and adaptation

Many of our programmes were formed in response to specific needs shared by our beneficiaries and identified by staff and volunteers. The Centre incubates new projects and helps existing projects adapt to community needs.

» Cultivating service leadership

SAEP aims to develop young people who use their success to give back to their communities. Learners in our youth programmes participate in community service activities, and our alumni often return to contribute as tutors, mentors and programme staff.

SAEP's Centre for Innovative Education and Community Service is supported by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF).

To find out about other projects supported by the NLDTF,
visit the National Lotteries Board website.