Mamelani’s Youth Development Programme continues to provide much needed support to young people as they transition from the Child and Youth Care Centers back to their communities. The facilitators have spent the last few months connecting with the young people through individual sessions as well as experiential group activities. The activities have exposed the youth to further education options, career opportunities and have intentionally been used to mark their transitions. Many of the young people have recently completed their internships – entering the world of work. Patrick has gone onto Johannesburg to further his photography work and Phelokazi has been an intern at Beautiful Gate since the start of the year, working towards her dream of becoming a Social Worker.
Mamelani has partnered with the Department of Social Development to facilitate a Capacity Building intervention with 6 of our implementing partners. The purpose of this is to strengthen the transitional support that each Center is able to provide to those in their care. The process started with a series of workshops for child and youth care workers and social workers. The workshops were the launch pad for this process, focussed on exploring youth development practice, adolescent development and deepening understanding of transitional support and ways of building independent living skills. Developing and holding the workshops was a powerful learning process for the Mamelani Team and has left the child and youth care workers inspired and motivated. To see pics from the workshops click herehttps://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152058238361589.1073741846.113484421588&type A work team has now been established in each Center and Mamelani facilitators will be walking alongside them as they design and implement interventions tailored for each of their contexts.
At the end of March the ProSEED camp was held with participants in Bainskloof. The purpose of the camp was for the young people to explore their identities and sense of self. The young people came away from the camp more aware of their strengths as well as their blindspots.
