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CENTRE FOR INNOVATIVE EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY SERVICE |
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CENTRE FOR INNOVATIVE EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY SERVICE |
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“Learning to Serve”
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The South African Education and Environment Project (SAEP), in collaboration with four student service organizations at the University of Cape Town (UCT), is creating a Centre for Innovative Education and Community Service in Cape Town. The Centre will support, improve, and expand SAEP’s ongoing education and community service programmes, with the objective of being fully operational by the beginning of 2008.
The Centre will provide the infrastructure and support needed for SAEP’s growing educational support and youth development services in Cape Town’s townships and expand the opportunities for community service that SAEP offers to individuals and groups from South Africa and abroad. It will be an incubator for new projects as volunteers in existing projects see unfulfilled community needs and create new projects or adapt existing ones to meet them, as in the case of two student projects discussed below, TeachOut and Inkanyezi, which developed out of another (the Township Debating League) developed in partnership with SAEP. The Centre will sponsor community-based research and evaluation for educational and other community development projects. Finally, it will enhance SAEP’s capacity to discharge its original missions -- to promote environmental awareness, improve environmental conditions in Cape Town's township communities, and advocate for sustainable use of South Africa’s natural environment.
The programmes on which the Centre will be built have developed over a ten-year period in response to community needs and in partnership with the schools, pre-schools, and community organizations. They have been implemented in partnership with other organizations that provide human resources, expertise, energy, and ideas. Their value has been demonstrated, and the need for them continues to grow. After extensive consultation with our US and South African governing bodies, we have adopted the Centre concept as the ideal vehicle for their development.
Major Functional Components of the Centre
There would be three:
Creation and Delivery of Innovative Educational and Other Community Services · The creation, development and testing of innovative educational and community service support programs for South African townships. · The delivery of community services to township children and young people within the context of these innovative programs. · Development of academic excellence and strong, community service-based leaders among South Africa’s youth.
Fostering of a Future Generation of Community Service Professionals · “Experiential learning” in the field through the delivery of community services for persons (both local and foreign) interested in pursuing a career in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) · Non-credit seminars/workshops and practical experience in NGO development and management for persons interested in a career in NGOs.
Evaluation and Replication of Innovative Concepts Developed by the Centre · The evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the innovations fostered by the Centre. · The documentation of methods and results for innovative educational programs and outreach and promotion of these methods throughout South Africa and beyond.
SAEP’s Community Educational Services
High School Support Programme. Since 1999, SAEP has been providing innovative academic support and extra-curricular enrichment activities in township high schools in the Cape Flats. The first programmes involved environmental education and awareness. Beginning with a single high school, SAEP now serves three of them in a wide range of activities and reaches over 20 others through special programmes in debating (through the Township Debating League) and academic and career counselling (Inkanyezi).
In academic support, SAEP concentrates on mathematics, science, and English. This year its support for maths and science is supported by a grant from The Shuttleworth Foundation. Its primary partner in the provision of after-school teaching and tutoring is TeachOut, a UCT service organization, which will expand next year from these core subjects into biology, accounting, and economics.
In extracurricular activities, SAEP provides not only debating and career counselling but also training and activities in journalism (in partnership with The Media School outreach group from UCT’s Varsity newspaper), poetry and creative writing, and other programmes in the arts. A three-year partnership with the Mountain Club of South Africa has offered monthly climbs on Table Mountain and environmental education to groups of 15-20 learners at a time.
Gap Year Programme. In 2003, SAEP launched, at the request of a group of recent matriculants from Sinethemba High School, a pioneering bridging programme (“gap year”) for promising scholars and leaders who need an opportunity to develop their academic and life skills and explore tertiary education and career options before continuing their studies. Twenty young men and women have participated thus far in this programme, which is serving as a model for the development of similar programmes in South Africa and Australia. This programme is supported by the Cape Town City Council.
Pre-School Programme. In 2003, under the leadership of Jane Keen, an experienced Cape Town social worker and NPO manager, SAEP also launched a programme of support and fundraising for ten struggling crèches in Philippi township that serve over 800 children aged six and below. This programme has been highly successful in fostering the development of their physical facilities, managerial capacity, and educational programmes.
Community Service Opportunities
Since its inception, SAEP has been, from the top down, a volunteer organization. It has provided opportunities for community service to students and other volunteers from Cape Town and abroad. Beginning in 1997, SAEP has hosted interns from colleges and universities in the United States, the UK, continental Europe, Australia, and elsewhere who spend two to three months working in SAEP’s educational programmes. More recently, SAEP had begun to host groups of volunteers from abroad who spend two intensive weeks of community service in SAEP’s pre-school, high school, and gap year projects. This programme has great promise for expansion. Finally, SAEP has played a significant role in opening up volunteer opportunities to South Africans and plans to offer a new option for South Africans to spend six months to a year in community service upon graduation from university.
Need for the Centre
SAEP has been operating out of residential premises in the suburb of Rosebank, but is being required by the City Council to seek space elsewhere. Its programmes are growing faster than its existing organizational infrastructure can support. It can no longer operate solely with volunteer staff, but must have paid professional leadership and provide greater support and supervision for its growing networks for volunteers. It must also increase its research, evaluation, and publication with respect to the pilot projects it has undertaken and will continue to develop. All this will require substantially larger premises for SAEP and its partner organizations.
SAEP promotes what it sees as a growing ethic of community service among students and recent graduates from South Africa and abroad. Tertiary educational institutions in the United States and elsewhere are increasingly urging their students to study and serve abroad. SAEP is uniquely qualified, by its experience and the nature of its community involvement, to host student interns, researchers, and volunteers from overseas.
The Centre will provide greater cohesion, and a sound research/evaluation framework, for its existing intervention programmes and provide a laboratory in which new ones can be developed and implemented.
Scaled Development of the Centre
The Centre will operate in its first year on a scale commensurate with the funding that can be obtained over the next six months and expand, over the following two years, to its full contemplated scope. It is envisioned that all current and future SAEP programs would be incorporated and administered within this umbrella organizational structure. What would not change would be the focus on helping children and young adults in South Africa’s historically disadvantaged township communities have a fair chance to develop their academic and life skills, obtain productive employment, and contribute as leaders to the economic and social development of their communities and their country. |
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How the Centre Will Build on SAEP’s Existing Programmes
High School Support and Enrichment
Gap Year (Bridging Program)
Pre-School Support and Education
Community Service Opportunities
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