AMANDLA Safe-Hub Campaign – Be inspired
Cape Town & Johannesburg
on-going
Alcohol & substance abuse, Bullying, Children, Crime prevention through environmental design, Gangs, Gender-based violence, Monitoring & evaluation, Public spaces, Urban safety, Youth and violence
Education, Government: provincial, NGOs/CBOs, Research / Academia, Sport / Recreation
Primary prevention, Secondary prevention, Situational prevention, Social prevention
https://www.edufootball.org/en/
17 Jul 2017
In a nutshell
A Safe-Hub is a physically and emotionally safe space where young people access services, opportunities and support from strong role models through a football-based programme system focusing on health, safety, education, and employability. Safe-Hub infrastructures are placed at the center of hotspots of youth unemployment and violence in urban/sub-urban slum areas.
What we do
The foundation of AMANDLA’s approach is the creation of a new world for young people through a ‘Safe-Hub’. Through providing regular and on-going football-based activities, AMANDLA addresses the problem of high levels of youth unemployment and violence while improving education results and supporting young people on their journey into adulthood.
The Safe-Hub provides an alternative to the toxic environment of despair and hopelessness. It’s a place, in which young people’s rights are recognised, their responsibilities are encouraged, and their potential is realised.
How we do it
The AMANDLA Safe-Hub consists of two main components(A/B); a physical place of safety and AMANDLA’s holistic programme model:
A) Physical place of safety:
The Safe-Hub aims to provide a ‘cool’, youth friendly, energetic atmosphere. It consists of an indoor and an outdoor space placed at the centre of urban/sub-urban slum areas and aims to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of slum dwellers. The top-quality infrastructure is a double-story 600m2 building and a 40 x 80m artificial turf field (including floodlights) designed to provide space for multiple service providers. It hosts:
- AMANDLA’s Holistic Programme Model (football-based)
- A Youth Café – Networking Space (free internet)
- A Psychosocial Support Centre
- A Technical and Vocational Training and Career Development Centre
- Integrated and Transversal Office Spaces
- Small Business Units and Support Facilities (incl. changing rooms, kitchen, etc.)
B) AMANDLA’s Holistic Programme Model:
AMANDLA implements simple, effective activities that combine football with personal development, formal education and leadership building.
Through healthy, strong relationships with well-trained coaches, young people are encouraged to explore their independence and individuality, build a core set of values, and strengthen their ability to deal with the challenges they face in everyday life.
The daily programme activities for boys and girls (8-25 years) are:
- 5-a-side Fair Play Football leagues (day- and night-time): promoting positive values and sportsmanship based on a Fair Play point system.
- Life-Skills Training Sessions: strengthening resilience and building social competencies, based on AMANDLA’s curriculum.
- Homework Tutoring Classes: promoting academic excellence through extracurricular tutoring.
- Youth Leadership Programme: building employability through accredited training, practical work experience and personal mentorship (accredited sport administration, football coaching, and child/youth care work learnerships).
Each programme cycle is 11 months long, implemented between February and December. Activities are implemented six days a week (Monday to Saturday), after school until early evening. On Friday and Saturday nights the Crime Prevention Night League runs until after midnight.
What we have achieved
A Safe-Hub hosts approximately 1500 young people per week, each participating in structured after school activity with a minimum of 2 x 90 minute sessions per week.
Official police statistics confirmed a significant trend of crime and violence reduction in AMANDLA’s Safe-Hub catchment area (200-800 meter radius, constituting more than 50,000 people) in Khayelitsha. Between 2008 and 2013, the general trend of an increase in crime in the rest of Khayelitsha is opposite to what is seen in AMANDLA's Khayelitsha Safe-Hub catchment area. From 2008-2013 crime spiked in Khayelitsha (by +29.5% on average), while a reverse trend was recorded within AMANDLA's catchment area within Khayelitsha (-38.2%) within the same timeframe.
Official Statistics of the Department of Education show that since 2008, the pass rate of pupils has improved by an average of 49.2% in mathematics and English after participating in AMANDLA Programmes. In 2012, AMANDLA’s Safe-Hub partner school (Ikhusi Primary School in Khayelitsha) was awarded the Most Improved School in its district.