What an exciting year this has been! In so many countless ways we have been stretched and challenged as a team and are more prepared than ever for the increase in ministry that awaits us in the new year.
This month, we had the opportunity to play our MoneySkills boardgame at a primary school in Brooklyn. This boardgame is a fun way of teaching financial literacy to children (and adults!). We had 100 grade 7’s playing the game, and one of our facilitators, Jacques, gave a wonderful talk on ‘gaining the world but losing our souls’.
Just before this, we treated the staff at Pretoria North High, where we have been running the detention program this past year, to a finger lunch. We also used the opportunity to fill them in on how things have been going this past year. The feedback we received from the staff and school management was very positive.
In this month, we also met with Clapham High and they have agreed to take us on board to run their detention program in 2008. We are very excited about this opportunity to try out the detention program in a new context, but are sure there will also be new challenges and learning curves!
A few Saturdays ago we held a Christmas party for the children at Siyafunda, the Day Care Centre in Soshanguve that we have been marginally involved with, in cooperation with students from the local technikon. Two other orphanages were invited and some 100 children sang, danced, played games and enjoyed a great spread of food and treats.
So its been a busy month, but one that has left us with an anticipation of what lies ahead. Next year, our team will almost double with a few of the young adults joining the 121 team. We will have two schools at which to run our detention program. We will start marketing our MoneySkills game as a way of introducing ourselves to schools. We will keep up our involvement at Siyafunda. And we’ll take hold of every opportunity we get to speak into the lives of young people and plant seeds that we pray will change their vision, minds and attitudes and transform lives.
We hope and pray you all have a blessed Christmas and New Year, and that you too will have an anticipation for what God is planning in 2008!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Looking for that one lost sheep
As we move towards the end of the school year, it’s a good time to evaluate what we are doing and whether it has any worth. At 121, our primary project at the moment is the detention program at one of the high schools in the Pretoria North area. For the past year we have been going to the school every Friday and presenting what we like to call a life-transforming program. This program is built around a theme and is presented on as a powerpoint presentation on a big screen, with activities and discussion points that are worked out in small groups with trained facilitators.
One such presentation had as its theme ‘JUNK’ and looked at the kind of ‘junk’ learners might be carrying in their lives. On the worksheets learners are given to complete they had to explore their junk using metaphors and describe what that junk does to their lives or what role it plays. Here are some responses:
“My junk is like… a hole in my heart. It makes me feel like a disappointment and a failure. It plays a big role in my life because it feels like it is controlling it. I need to talk to someone and ask for help.”
“My junk is… depressing and full of hate. It is one of the reasons why my school work looks as it does and why I feel depressed all the time. I need to convince my mom to leave.”
My junk is like… a fly. It makes me disobedient. It makes me feel like I am not good enough. It makes me do disobedient things.
“My junk is like … a lost cat. It feels as if I am lost and I don't know what is going on with me. I get angry and then cut myself. I don't know how to get out. I don't like hurting myself.”
The response that struck me even more deeply than these was from one girl who has been repeatedly at detention both this year and last year. She always seems distant during the detention session, almost disconnected from what is going on around her. When asked what role her junk plays in her life, she wrote that it did nothing as she felt nothing. More frightening that any of the pain expressed on worksheets over the past few months was this ‘feeling nothing’.
Some people we have spoken to feel we are wasting our time working with teenagers who have no desire to change. Yet we believe that our role is as much to create an awareness of the need to change as it is to actually play a role in the change process. Some people feel we are wasting our time with teenagers who are never going to make it anyway. These people have told us that we should rather focus our energies on ‘the good ones’. Yet it is these learners, that are so often rejected, dismissed, and forgotten, that we feel most strongly called to walk a journey with. It is that one lost sheep that we want find.
Although we don’t have measurable, tangible results for our efforts and we can’t ‘prove’ to anyone that we have been successful, it is the kind of feedback that we are receiving on worksheets that convinces us again and again that some of the teenagers we are working with are desperate and neglected and experience some sort of connection to us and the program we walk them through. Several times, when asked what the best thing about detention has been, learners have written ‘knowing that someone cares’.
We thank every one of you that have supported our work through finances, prayer, emails of encouragement, advice, insight, or assistance, through sitting in and facilitating a session with us or just through being interested enough to read these (irregular, sparse) news updates. We hope to have a more structured communication system in place in the new year. In the meantime, please keep praying for us, and pray especially for those teens whose lives we may have touched but may not always have the opportunity to follow up as we would like.
One such presentation had as its theme ‘JUNK’ and looked at the kind of ‘junk’ learners might be carrying in their lives. On the worksheets learners are given to complete they had to explore their junk using metaphors and describe what that junk does to their lives or what role it plays. Here are some responses:
“My junk is like… a hole in my heart. It makes me feel like a disappointment and a failure. It plays a big role in my life because it feels like it is controlling it. I need to talk to someone and ask for help.”
“My junk is… depressing and full of hate. It is one of the reasons why my school work looks as it does and why I feel depressed all the time. I need to convince my mom to leave.”
My junk is like… a fly. It makes me disobedient. It makes me feel like I am not good enough. It makes me do disobedient things.
“My junk is like … a lost cat. It feels as if I am lost and I don't know what is going on with me. I get angry and then cut myself. I don't know how to get out. I don't like hurting myself.”
The response that struck me even more deeply than these was from one girl who has been repeatedly at detention both this year and last year. She always seems distant during the detention session, almost disconnected from what is going on around her. When asked what role her junk plays in her life, she wrote that it did nothing as she felt nothing. More frightening that any of the pain expressed on worksheets over the past few months was this ‘feeling nothing’.
Some people we have spoken to feel we are wasting our time working with teenagers who have no desire to change. Yet we believe that our role is as much to create an awareness of the need to change as it is to actually play a role in the change process. Some people feel we are wasting our time with teenagers who are never going to make it anyway. These people have told us that we should rather focus our energies on ‘the good ones’. Yet it is these learners, that are so often rejected, dismissed, and forgotten, that we feel most strongly called to walk a journey with. It is that one lost sheep that we want find.
Although we don’t have measurable, tangible results for our efforts and we can’t ‘prove’ to anyone that we have been successful, it is the kind of feedback that we are receiving on worksheets that convinces us again and again that some of the teenagers we are working with are desperate and neglected and experience some sort of connection to us and the program we walk them through. Several times, when asked what the best thing about detention has been, learners have written ‘knowing that someone cares’.
We thank every one of you that have supported our work through finances, prayer, emails of encouragement, advice, insight, or assistance, through sitting in and facilitating a session with us or just through being interested enough to read these (irregular, sparse) news updates. We hope to have a more structured communication system in place in the new year. In the meantime, please keep praying for us, and pray especially for those teens whose lives we may have touched but may not always have the opportunity to follow up as we would like.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
121@VMA Update, July, 2007
The frst half of 2007 has been a really great period of building some solid, foundational stuff for 121@VMA. The past few months we’ve been able to test and refine our detention program, develop our facilitator base and try out some new ideas.
We made the decision at the beginning of this year not to adopt a whole lot of new projects, but rather to focus on the projects at hand and do them really well. Our main focus has been our Constructive Detention program which we’ve been running at Pretoria North High School since about this time last year. We’ve tried and tested various approaches and programs over the past year and are now starting to feel that we have a handle on what works and what doesn’t. We’ve had some really great facilitators come on board, such as Tyler, who is out from the States for a year, and Maryke, who seems to have a natural knack for keeping teenagers in line! Initially, the amount of learners coming to detention was staggeringly high, but those numbers have dropped again towards the end of the term. The reason for this is still not clear. Learners seem to respond well to our small group approach and we’ve been surprised at how openly and honestly they’ve shared about their lives. We’ve tried to keep the material at a stretching and demanding level, as it is after all detention! Learners have worksheets and activities to complete, apart from participating in group discussions and following power point teachings.
We’ve found that certain learners keep returning to detention, and for these learners we’ve developed a program to run concurrently with the normal detention program, called Red Alert. Learners on red Alert are normally learners that the school is considering suspending for repeated offenses. The Red Alert program runs for three weeks (on a Monday), and would include only a handful of learners who work intensively through a program with facilitators. The Red Alert program starts with an in-depth psychological analysis of a learner, and the program is then developed around identified needs identified during the analysis. The feedback from the school with regards Red Alert has been extremely positive and we look forward to more opportunities to work this deeply with learners who have so many needs.
We’re in the process of fleshing our detention program out further through our Peer Facilitation program. Here, senior learners who have previously sat detention will be trained to become assistant facilitators. These learners will be mentored by 121 facilitators throughout the process. The hope is that through becoming facilitators, these learners would internalize our life skills material on a deeper level, and become role models in the school context. These learners would normally not have conventional leadership opportunities in the school system, and this would be an opportunity to develop their potential in a way that might not otherwise happen. The Peer Facilitation program will also free up 121 facilitators to run the detention program in other schools.
On the side, 121 has had a hand to play in networking between various organizations to get a project at a Day Care centre in Soshanguve off the ground. Students from the Student Christian Organization (SCO) at the technikon in Soshanguve have been going to Siyafunda Day Care centre every Saturday to impart life skills to children from child-headed households or children otherwise affected by HIV and Aids. Although 121 has not become directly involved, we continue to offer support in terms of training, life skills material and coordinating between organizations and funders. This has been a very successful project, both for the technikon students, who have been stretched by their roles, and the children, who have had love, fun and wisdom imparted into their lives.
At this stage, 121 has been tremendously blessed through the generous financial gifts from corporate sponsors and several individuals. For the first time, we can confidently say that we are in a secure financial position. However, we still have the need to broaden our support base so that we don’t become overly dependent on one or two sources. Please pray for this. Please also pray for our facilitators, who often need to deal with some difficult teen issues. Pray for the teens we work with, that the seeds we plant will take root and grow into good fruit. Pray for the organization, as we continue to feel our way forward. Thank you for your continued support and interest in our ministry.
May God bless you!
Cori, for the 121 team.
We made the decision at the beginning of this year not to adopt a whole lot of new projects, but rather to focus on the projects at hand and do them really well. Our main focus has been our Constructive Detention program which we’ve been running at Pretoria North High School since about this time last year. We’ve tried and tested various approaches and programs over the past year and are now starting to feel that we have a handle on what works and what doesn’t. We’ve had some really great facilitators come on board, such as Tyler, who is out from the States for a year, and Maryke, who seems to have a natural knack for keeping teenagers in line! Initially, the amount of learners coming to detention was staggeringly high, but those numbers have dropped again towards the end of the term. The reason for this is still not clear. Learners seem to respond well to our small group approach and we’ve been surprised at how openly and honestly they’ve shared about their lives. We’ve tried to keep the material at a stretching and demanding level, as it is after all detention! Learners have worksheets and activities to complete, apart from participating in group discussions and following power point teachings.
We’ve found that certain learners keep returning to detention, and for these learners we’ve developed a program to run concurrently with the normal detention program, called Red Alert. Learners on red Alert are normally learners that the school is considering suspending for repeated offenses. The Red Alert program runs for three weeks (on a Monday), and would include only a handful of learners who work intensively through a program with facilitators. The Red Alert program starts with an in-depth psychological analysis of a learner, and the program is then developed around identified needs identified during the analysis. The feedback from the school with regards Red Alert has been extremely positive and we look forward to more opportunities to work this deeply with learners who have so many needs.
We’re in the process of fleshing our detention program out further through our Peer Facilitation program. Here, senior learners who have previously sat detention will be trained to become assistant facilitators. These learners will be mentored by 121 facilitators throughout the process. The hope is that through becoming facilitators, these learners would internalize our life skills material on a deeper level, and become role models in the school context. These learners would normally not have conventional leadership opportunities in the school system, and this would be an opportunity to develop their potential in a way that might not otherwise happen. The Peer Facilitation program will also free up 121 facilitators to run the detention program in other schools.
On the side, 121 has had a hand to play in networking between various organizations to get a project at a Day Care centre in Soshanguve off the ground. Students from the Student Christian Organization (SCO) at the technikon in Soshanguve have been going to Siyafunda Day Care centre every Saturday to impart life skills to children from child-headed households or children otherwise affected by HIV and Aids. Although 121 has not become directly involved, we continue to offer support in terms of training, life skills material and coordinating between organizations and funders. This has been a very successful project, both for the technikon students, who have been stretched by their roles, and the children, who have had love, fun and wisdom imparted into their lives.
At this stage, 121 has been tremendously blessed through the generous financial gifts from corporate sponsors and several individuals. For the first time, we can confidently say that we are in a secure financial position. However, we still have the need to broaden our support base so that we don’t become overly dependent on one or two sources. Please pray for this. Please also pray for our facilitators, who often need to deal with some difficult teen issues. Pray for the teens we work with, that the seeds we plant will take root and grow into good fruit. Pray for the organization, as we continue to feel our way forward. Thank you for your continued support and interest in our ministry.
May God bless you!
Cori, for the 121 team.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Good Start to the New Year
The new school year has started with a few challenging and exciting detention sessions at Pretoria North High school. Cori developed some new material which challenges learners around confronting and solving problems in their lives. Ian Stuart, Ian Dewbury and Hannelie Buitendag have been helping with facilitating the small groups. The interaction in our small groups remains our strong point, with facilitators sharing stories of some very meaningful conversations with learners about everything from family problems to the meaning of life!
At the end of February we held a training workshop with all our facilitators where we were reminded again of what we’re all about: creating a space for significant life change in the lives of learners, through challenging their visions, minds and attitudes. This is no easy task, when dealing with learners from a diversity of backgrounds, who are often sitting on detention perhaps because of a lack of vision for their lives, or negative attitudes towards the school system and the world around them, or an unwillingness to take responsibility for the situations they find themselves in. But we have facilitators on our team with such a deep passion for young people, and with really caring hearts, and we have not yet met a learner who isn’t moved by the compassionate commitment of facilitators!
At the beginning of March we also had a board meeting, or what we’ve dubbed a ‘half-time’, to reflect on where we’ve come from and realign ourselves with where God would have us go. One thing that was identified in terms of this, is that our focus has been more around ‘soul-support’ – really challenging learners fundamental beliefs about themselves, others, the world around them and their futures, and bringing healing and emotional help - rather than teaching them specific skills, as we had planned to when first starting our program. This may change in the future, but for now, we all felt that our greatest impact in the lives of learners is through this ‘soul-support’.
A major challenge we continue to face is being creative in our disciplining. The entire detention session is, of course, a form of creative, alternative disciplining. But within the session, while running the program, incidences of unruly behaviour do sometimes arise, and we’ve made it our focus this year to develop our ideas and skills around creatively handling these situations. We hope to develop these ideas in such a way that they can also be helpful to teachers at the schools where we work. We’d love to hear your stories and thoughts, experiences and insights concerning alternatives to discipline. We’re also planning for an event –or a series of events - where ideas around ‘creative discipline’ can be workshopped. Let us know if you’re interested in being part of something like that.
In terms of prayer, we’re still waiting on a few schools who are discussing implementing our program with their governing bodies and the like. Please pray that the right schools will come on board at the right time. We’re also a little stretched in terms of facilitators and could really use a few more dedicated hands. Pray that people with a real heart for young people and a commitment to the vision of 121 will come on board. Lastly, we just want to thank God for his incredible financial provision, which has allowed us to employ a part-time administrator, and financially compensate others who are dedicating time and effort to 121.
We’re excited about what we’re doing. We’re excited about what God is doing with and through us. We want you to be in on this great thing! Join us in dialogue around how to really transform the vision, mind and attitude of young people in our country today so that they can become responsible contributors in the future!
At the end of February we held a training workshop with all our facilitators where we were reminded again of what we’re all about: creating a space for significant life change in the lives of learners, through challenging their visions, minds and attitudes. This is no easy task, when dealing with learners from a diversity of backgrounds, who are often sitting on detention perhaps because of a lack of vision for their lives, or negative attitudes towards the school system and the world around them, or an unwillingness to take responsibility for the situations they find themselves in. But we have facilitators on our team with such a deep passion for young people, and with really caring hearts, and we have not yet met a learner who isn’t moved by the compassionate commitment of facilitators!
At the beginning of March we also had a board meeting, or what we’ve dubbed a ‘half-time’, to reflect on where we’ve come from and realign ourselves with where God would have us go. One thing that was identified in terms of this, is that our focus has been more around ‘soul-support’ – really challenging learners fundamental beliefs about themselves, others, the world around them and their futures, and bringing healing and emotional help - rather than teaching them specific skills, as we had planned to when first starting our program. This may change in the future, but for now, we all felt that our greatest impact in the lives of learners is through this ‘soul-support’.
A major challenge we continue to face is being creative in our disciplining. The entire detention session is, of course, a form of creative, alternative disciplining. But within the session, while running the program, incidences of unruly behaviour do sometimes arise, and we’ve made it our focus this year to develop our ideas and skills around creatively handling these situations. We hope to develop these ideas in such a way that they can also be helpful to teachers at the schools where we work. We’d love to hear your stories and thoughts, experiences and insights concerning alternatives to discipline. We’re also planning for an event –or a series of events - where ideas around ‘creative discipline’ can be workshopped. Let us know if you’re interested in being part of something like that.
In terms of prayer, we’re still waiting on a few schools who are discussing implementing our program with their governing bodies and the like. Please pray that the right schools will come on board at the right time. We’re also a little stretched in terms of facilitators and could really use a few more dedicated hands. Pray that people with a real heart for young people and a commitment to the vision of 121 will come on board. Lastly, we just want to thank God for his incredible financial provision, which has allowed us to employ a part-time administrator, and financially compensate others who are dedicating time and effort to 121.
We’re excited about what we’re doing. We’re excited about what God is doing with and through us. We want you to be in on this great thing! Join us in dialogue around how to really transform the vision, mind and attitude of young people in our country today so that they can become responsible contributors in the future!
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