Dear Amandla Supporter, We’re finally seeing some green shoots of Spring in Cape Town, but we’ve been keeping it warm all winter with a great deal of
Dear Amandla Supporter,
We’re finally seeing some green shoots of Spring in Cape Town, but we’ve been keeping it warm all winter with a great deal of activity.
The Philippi Collective has been busy gathering data from the youth on barriers to learning. We’ve learnt a great deal about what distracts them from learning and are using that knowledge to align the work of community stakeholders and to empower families to get the support they need. This is an extremely important step in being data-driven and able to measure success from a solid baseline. Having named the resources it has to work with in Philippi and articulated its vision of success for its young people, the Collective can start expanding resource access by linking students to what they need at each stage of their journey.
Community-Generated Baseline Assessment
Members of the Collective worked together to survey about 500 students about obstacles to learning. Although we know anecdotally what the concerns are, we needed to hear in the young people’s own words what holds them back and to what extent. Armed with this knowledge, the community can mount campaigns to tear down those barriers to learning. Special thanks to iKapa Data, Southern Hemisphere Consulting and the University of Cape Town for their help in gathering the data!
As one fieldworker put it, "It’s like kids are burning to tell their stories, and this was their chance.”
Expanding Resource Access
We know that many learners come to school hungry or otherwise unprepared to learn. So we set out to understand the extent of the problem and why they're not connecting to some existing resources there to help them. We completed 300 diagnostic surveys in two schools to pilot our approach to expanding resource access in schools. Similar to our community survey, we wanted to establish what obstacles to learning are present in schools and also the extent to which the students utilise what’s available to them. We discovered that most of the young people don’t know what resources are out there, and when they do their access is often limited. So we’re crafting a programme to increase their knowledge and access and also their sense of empowerment to seek help and make use of what’s there.
Special thanks to RaramuriDesign for developing the diagnostic database!
NYC Benefit
Up next for Amandla is a celebration of this progress in New York. The benefit concert will feature Max Wild, food by Madiba Restaurant, and an open wine/beer bar sponsored by KWV, Solms-Delta, and Brooklyn Brewery. If you’re in the area on Thursday, October 10th, come out and join us! You can RSVP here!
Special thanks to Max Wild, Madiba Restaurant, KWV Wines, Solms-Delta Wines, Brooklyn Brewery, and Cue Art Foundation for making the benefit possible. And, of course, to our all-star host committee for all their work making it happen!
As always, to follow Amandla’s work more closely, you can follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook. We sincerely thank you for your support this year and look forward to continued partnership with you. Baie dankie! Siyabulela! Thank you!
