We discovered that there was only one state social worker and one psychologist to service 45 schools and 32 000 (1:32 000 social worker to learner) children in the Cape Winelands. During a research project (Stellenbosch University), the common denominator that we found across all ages was that people ‘needed someone to talk to’. This was particularly evident among the youth. Our intervention ratios are a more realistic 1:990 and when we include our community members, trained in mental health first aid, the ratio drops to 1:440.
We provide layers of support through our c.a.r.e. model. Starting with the "e" we work with the whole school community (100% of the school community) to build an Environment or ecosystem of well-being where everyone feels a sense of belonging and everyone can thrive, "r" are the Referral pathways to specialised services and resources, "a" are our developmental / preventative services where, through Anchoring workshops, participants get to build up their own toolbox of lifelong wellbeing techniques, and finally, we offer professional as well as peer Counselling, crisis intervention, containment and check-ins for those who need the most support (forecast around 10-15% of the school).
Established in 2008, we now partner with 89 schools serving low income communities across South Africa. Our long term goal had been to partner with 100 schools by 2025, but we believe there is, instead, a need to scale into the system and reach every child - leaving no one behind.
In 2023 and 2024, we partnered with National Treasury's Jobs Fund for catalytic growth, adding 44 new schools (across 3 geographic provinces) and creating 64 new jobs. The expansion has been a success and is being sustained. In 2024 we partnered with a foundation who added another 10 sites with the aim of monitoring the impact of our service on literacy and numeracy efforts - with interesting preliminary findings (we hope to share more about these findings soon).
In 2024 we partnered with a foundation who added another 10 sites with the aim of monitoring the impact of our service on literacy and numeracy efforts - with interesting preliminary findings on socio-emotional learning as an important precursor (we hope to share more about these findings soon).
Educators are struggling, particularly in the current social, political and economic climate - and educator wellbeing has a direct impact on learner wellbeing. Through WHO5 subjective wellbeing monitoring, we are tracking and investing in educators. Many adults had their childhood cut short, particularly those from the communities we work in, and connecting with their inner child through play has become a focus for our educator Anchoring workshops. Feedback from school principals has been encouraging. The Principal of Umthombo Primary School, in Mamelodi outside Pretoria, said: “Communication and listening were the main goals of these teambuilding games but I have never seen my educators so joyful, smiling, playful and happy. I got to see another side of them which I never knew and I would like you to host a team building event every year.”
Please contact us to arrange a site visit. Please also download our 2024 Impact Report where we openly share the success stories as well as the challenges and learnings.
Our library of resources is available, at no charge.
Prof Vikram Patel says: "mental health is too important to leave to the professionals alone"; so we train members of the community in mental health first aid equipping them as first responders. We also offer this training commercially to generate income that subsidises our free courses.
