IkamvaYouth launched the Community Collaboration Programme (CCP) in 2014, which was established to connect with, train, and support other after-school organisations who share the same goal of enabling young South Africans to pass matric, access post-school opportunities, and secure gainful employment.
Although the CCP has only been in operation for two years, the programme is already reaping the fruits of dedication and hard work from learners, tutors, parents and programme coordinators. In 2015, organisations who were part of the CCP amazed everyone when they collectively achieved an impressive 93% Matric pass rate. Of that, 46% were bachelor passes, 26% Diploma passess, 28% Higher Cerificate and a total 12 distinctions. The organisations included in these results are; Just Grace, Sisaya Phambili, Sozo Foundation,Emagqabini and SALT.
Just Grace, has been receiving training and support over the past 6 months. They have been working with Isilimela Secondary School in Langa, Cape Town, since 2011. The Just Grace team consists of several inspirational staff members and volunteers who have been working diligently to help a cohort of 15 grade 12s achieve the success that they deserve. The support of the school’s management and staff, together with the learners and tutors tireless commitment on Saturday mornings and Friday afternoons has finally paid off. For their first round of matrics Just grace has been able to obtain an 81% matric pass rate. Even more impressively 85% of these learners received a Bachelors pass and a total of 10 distinctions were awarded. 62% of their learners have been accepted to university and over the next few weeks staff will work to ensure that all these learners secure post-school placements and begin the next stage of their bright futures.
Yongama Fayi, Just grace Programme Coordinator said: “2015 was a successful yet challenging year for Just Grace, especially because this was our first year to support the matrics. We didn’t know what to expect, but we are happy with the outcome. We are excited and looking forward to 2016. We are definitely going to do even better!!!”.
Just Grace is yet more proof that with passion, commitment, and hard work anything is possible for the youth that we work with. IkamvaYouth is looking forward to seeing these organisations progress and make a huge impact on the youth of South Africa.
If you would like to find out more about any of the organisations mentioned here or more about the CCP and how you can start, develop or grow a tutoring programme and assist young South African’s to reach their full potential, please get in contact with zoe@ikamvayouth.org or call 0744767965.
Saturday 21st November was the last Parents’ meeting of the year at the Masiphumelele branch.
Besides reporting on learners’ numbers, attendance, kick-outs and extra-murals, we presented the prospects for 2016.
In fact, the Computer Literacy programme will be implemented since January. In order to build learners’ ability to communicate in English, the Book Club, the English FUNdamentals and the preparation for the ANAs will also be run next year.
Regarding the Grade 11s and 12s the focus of the meeting was on liaising with the parents to organise next year learners’ support around the mentoring programme and tertiary application process. Some Grade 11s (see attached picture) came to present their career aspirations through their Vision Boards.
As the learner number will increase from 95 learners to 119 in Masi next year, we also called for recruiting learners and tutors.
Finally 2 parents have been nominated and chosen to be Parent’s representatives for 2016.
We are all ready for the new year!!
As can be seen in our
Annual Report 2014 was the year of growth for us: our matric class was 63% bigger than the previous year, we reached over 1,700 learners and we opened our tenth branch. But let’s not forget why we are here, for most of South Africa’s children, the only way out of poverty is through education. Ikamvanites (IkamvaYouth learners) continue to prove that anyone and everyone – irrespective of the school one attends and the socio-economic status of one’s parents can achieve his dreams and escape poverty.
Please read more in our 2014 annual report about the innovation of our model, why we need more Ikamvanites, hear from the Ikamvanites themselves and why our three largest donors of 2014 (Omidyar Network, Amalgamated Beverage Industries and Capitec Foundation) continue to support us.
It is thanks to these donors and many others that we have been able to achieve the results that we have over the last 12 years. South Africa’s future rests on the success of our children. IkamvaYouth is fundraising to reach even more of South Africa’s children in 2016 and needs your support. Please contact me if you would like to discuss supporting IkamvaYouth or find out more about us.
On the 26th of September, we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Chris Hani High School in Makhaza. The event was well attended, with an audience of more than 300 people; among whom were IY staff, learners, volunteers, parents, alumni, board members and representatives of funders and sponsors.
The programme for the AGM consisted of the presentation and approval of the 2014 Audited Financial Statements; approving the appointment of Grant Thornton as our 2015 auditors; the appointment and ratification of 3 new board members, and the presentation of our 2014 Annual report.
“If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s not big enough”, was the message from one of the outstanding alumni, Sinethemba Kameni, who provided a heart-warming account of his journey with IkamvaYouth. We were encouraged by his and other alumni’s stories; the progress they have made in their lives, and their willingness to come back and inspire the learners who are making their own journey with IkamvaYouth. Zukile Keswa shared his philosophy that says, ‘In life you need to start somewhere’, emphasising that his life’s work is about the impact he is making in his community. This resonated with our findings that 65% of our learners want to come back and become tutors, as our director, Joy Oliver pointed out in her report.
The crowd was entertained by IkamvaYouth learners and tutors who performed moving songs, enthralling dance and inspiring poetry at various intervals during the AGM.
For detailed information on the event, please refer to the minutes accessible the following link: AGM minutes
Please see the attendance register on the following link: AGM attendance register
Are you an after-school education organisation working in Gauteng?
Do you want to join a community of organisations working together, to deliver collective impact: improved academic achievement for learners in townships and rural areas, ensuring excellent matric results and access to tertiary, learnerships and jobs?
Would you like to receive training, support and funding to achieve this impact?
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM
The Learning Trust (TLT) and IkamvaYouth have partnered to develop and expand the Collaborative Community, to ensure the delivery of high quality after-school tutoring programmes for South African youth living in township communities.
The Collaborative Community Programme (CCP) is a growing network of after-school programmes, where members are provided with knowledge, skills and resource-sharing opportunities. CCP aims to increase the number of high impact, sustainable tutoring programmes in South Africa.
You can get involved in various ways:
1) Become a member of the wider collaborative community, where you will be invited to take part in networking, skill sharing and targeted training sessions every other month and access a 2 day IY model introductory workshop and on-going tutor training.
2) Receive a grant for a full year of intensive training and support from The Learning Trust and IkamvaYouth. This programmatic training and support, bespoke capacity support in all areas of organisational development, such as the areas of strategy and M&E, fundraising and governance, and financial controls, as well as programme funding will enable organisations to implement the full IkamvaYouth model and increase their impact (*see criteria below).
3) Join the movement to track and monitor collective impact: use the customised database for monitoring and tracking, and become part of an ongoing independent impact evaluation.
All are welcome; please inform us about your programme and your needs. The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 2nd November 2015. We will be in touch in the first week of November.
To apply please download the application form HERE and return it to zoe@ikamvayouth.org.
Criteria and Eligibility
*The following criteria need to be met by any organisation wanting to receive intensive training, support and programme funding:
- Be a registered NGO/non-profit
- Have a Board established, with regular Board meetings
- Have a secured venue for your tutoring programme that has the capacity for 80+ students
- Have at least 1 full-time salaried person or a committed founder/co-founder who has been involved in the programme for at least one year and is committed to making the programme work.
- Have an assistant (can be a volunteer); and a committed team of volunteer tutors
- Have a track-record of some consistent quality service/programme provided for at least one year
- Be willing and able to use database or excel spreadsheet template for standardised attendance and outcome tracking
- Have a collaborative mind-set and dedication to capacity building and team and wider community development
- Align closely with the 5 core values of IkamvaYouth and The Learning Trust’s values of humility, diversity, honesty and a commitment to learning.
- Be an emerging community based organisation or a more established organisation looking to improve or change its tutoring model.
In order to receive this support, organisations will also be expected to comply with IkamvaYouth’s minimum standards of quality implementation:
- Commitment: Learners need to meet a minimum 75% attendance requirement to keep their place in the programme
- Individual attention: Learners engage in small group peer-to-peer learning, striving towards a 1:5 tutor: learner ratio
- Consistency: 3 tutoring/homework sessions held per week
- Sustained support: Working with learners in grades 8 – 12; but not enrolling new grade 12s (ensuring 2 – 5 years’ involvement for each learner)
- Impact: Willingness and ability to recruit a cohort of at least 30 grade 10s and 20 grade 11s as of January 2016
- Learning how to Learn: Applying tutoring methodology rather than traditional teaching methods
- Enabling access to post-school opportunities: Each grade 12 learner is paired with a mentor who helps them to apply for tertiary education, learnerships or jobs and ensures that they enroll in a post-school opportunity after matriculating
- Democratic decision making: through inclusive forums and tutor meetings constructive feedback is received from beneficiaries and volunteers
- Parental involvement: A minimum of 3 parents’ meetings held per year
Application Process
If you meet the above criteria and are committed to work towards implementing a tutoring programme as outlined above, please indicate as such on the application form.
Deadline for applications is Monday 2nd November 2015. Applications will be reviewed and you will be contacted for a follow-up telephonic interview in the week of the 2nd November 2015.
Successful applicants will be informed of next steps, which may include a site visit and a meeting with key programme, managerial staff and board members. The preliminary dates for these visits is 16-19 November.
Any organisations selected to receive programme support grants will then be required to submit a separate funding application directly to TLT in December.
The 5 Day training will take place at end of March/beginning of April 2016 and two members of staff from selected organisations must be available for the full training. Dates and attendance will be confirmed with organisations in November.
If you do not meet the requirements outlined here but are interested in working towards them or you would like to discuss your application and specific needs please contact Zoe Mann on 0744767965 or email zoe@ikamvayouth.org.
Someone once said, nothing great was ever achieved from a comfort zone and this proved to be true when over 300 learners woke up early on cold winter mornings to attend IkamvaYouth’s 2015 Winter School.
The morning of 29th June was filled with excitement and anticipation when 320 learners and tutors from Makhaza and Nyanga branch journeyed to the University of the Western for their two week Winter School. An entourage of 6 buses arrived at 08:30 and the Winter School kicked off with an opening and welcoming, which was done by Busiswa Dayimani and Nokukhanya Mchunu, Makhaza and Nyanga Branch Coordinators.
The lecture hall was filled to capacity by energetic bright sparks who were ready to take on their academics and to channel all the energies in the room, the learners broke into song to officially start the day. The excitement generated, inspired some talented learners to perform some acts and Aaron Mzayiya, a grade 11 learner, performed a poem for the crowd, while another group of grade 10 learners sang their hearts out for the audience. The highlight of the morning, was being joined by Neptal Khoza from Capitec (Marketing and Corporate Affairs) as our guest speaker. He delivered a talk about the importance of having a vision for your life and the significance of having people that share the same vision in your life. These are a few words from the speech given by Neptal, “Having a vision alone is not enough, what you need to do is work on a plan, a framework, of what it is that you need to do in order to achieve that. That will include the time that you need to put into studying, the time you need to attend programmes such as IkamvaYouth, the time that you need to get as much information from various sources that will help you become what you want to be.”
The first week was filled with intensive tutoring, the days began with an assembly at 08:30, where the timetable for the day was shared and tutoring commenced from 9am to 4pm. On each day tutors were given flexibility in terms of changing the timetable to accommodate the demand from the learners. In every room you spot serious faces, confused faces, determined faces and ones so engaged in the learning process.
During the lunch hour every day the tutors and staff assembled for a feedback session, which allowed the identification of problem areas that needed attention for the smooth rolling out of the programme for the remaining days. In this way the impact made was greater as focus was shifted to the subjects that learners required maximum support in.
The second week kicked off amazingly, with most matric learners joining in the fun at UWC. The timetable changed slightly as workshops were included in the afternoon schedule. Many of the learners were filled with excitement and were in awe by some of the interesting facts shared about social media, leopards and financial skills amongst many. We would like to thank Capitec for hosting a financial skills workshop with our grade 11 learners. The Cape leopard Trust, Mxit Reach, R-Labs, Robotics, Sunstep and many other individuals who shared their insight in their various areas of expertise with our eager learners.
Last but not least a huge thank you to our tutors who were incredible in the management of learners and tutoring sessions, their dedication to the mission and goal is recommendable.
(Tutors)
We admire the time, the effort, the dedication and passion that was shown by the learners, volunteers, guests, workshop facilitators, caterers and everyone who was involved to ensure that Winter School was a success.
What an exciting event to experience!
Lloyd Lungu