Educational Discipline Models

Over these past few months I’ve started doing some more formal research into different discipline models to support 121’s approach. Although what we are doing doesn’t fall neatly into any one model I found resonance with a few of them.

Glasser’s Model: Making Choices

William Glasser makes use of what is called the ‘class meeting’ method, where the class together decides on what behaviour is acceptable or not and what the consequences of negative behaviour will be. This model is based on the idea that learners are rational beings capable of making decisions about their own behaviour, It forces learners to continuously make choices for themselves. When a learner misbehaves they are given a clear choice: You can stop doing that or you can face either this consequence or that consequence. Learners are asked: "What choices did you have? Why did you make that choice? Did you like the result? What have you learned?"

This is an approach 121 makes us of all the time in detention. At the start of every detention session, the main facilitator (which we call the ‘pilot’) walks the class through a process of defining what behaviour is or is not acceptable in the detention session. This is approached in a different and creative way each week. The facilitators then outline the consequences of negative behaviour. Usually these are a series of consequences learners can choose from. For example, if they are disrupting their small group, they may either spend the rest of the session with the pilot at the front of the class, or with the teacher on duty elsewhere in the school. Most choose to sit with the pilot and still be part of what is happening.

Ginott’s Model: Modeling the behaviour you want to see

In this model, key is modeling what you want learners to do. This forms the backbone of our approach at 121. It’s no use having a program on controlling your anger if we as facilitators keep losing our tempers! We also see no point in yelling at learners to keep quiet. Rather than reducing the noise, we would only be adding to it! We make use of silence as a form of silencing the group. The pilot will stand at the front of the room and wait with a silent ‘presence’, catching the eye of learners that continue to talk until the group comes to quietness. This takes longer but saves the pilot their voice and their energy!

Ginott stresses that teachers need to speak to learners as they would want to be spoken to. Sarcasm is seen as hazardous, as is attacking the learner personally. Rather, educators are encouraged to address what the learner is doing as opposed to labeling the learner themselves as being ‘bad’ or ‘disruptive’. “Labeling disables”. Ginott argues that teachers are at their best when they help learners develop their trust in themselves and their ability to control their own behaviour.

There are several other models that we’ll explore in later blog posts. What many of these models have in common is that they encourage learners to take personal responsibility. Rather then needing to rely on external factors to keep them in line, they need to learn self control and, paradoxically, the freedom that comes from imposing limits and boundaries on ourselves.

Update, October, 2008

121 continues to be a growing experience for all of us. Just as we think things are moving in one direction, things change and we find ourselves being stretched into something new. These past few months have held some wonderful ups but also some unexpected downs that we don’t always know how to process. But again and again we are assured of God’s guidance and leading.

New Facilitators on Board

In May we spoke about our detention program at a local church and got eight university students on board to help as facilitators in our detention program. This brought our team to a total of twelve. Between May and September we had two fantastic terms of detention at Pretoria North and Clapham High Schools. It was a good time of growing our team and sharpening our program. Over the past few months we can really see a change in the way we have learnt to handle some very challenging situations with patience and grace!

Alternative Ways to Discipline

One of the lessons we’ve been learning is how to respond to discipline challenges with firmness and love. We don’t want learners to walk all over us but not do we want to be cruel and unkind to people who have been created by a God who loves them and wants to draw them back to Him. In struggling to strike this balance, we’ve learnt so much about alternative ways to achieve a positive atmosphere in a classroom without needing to raise our voices or lose control.

Red Alert Program

We ran a Red Alert program (a three-week program for learners that repeatedly attend detention) with six learners in August which was really successful. Our facilitators felt they really could engage with the learners on a meaningful level and we saw real life change taking place.

Time and again we realize that our program is not a quick-fix solution but something that goes much further and deeper. We have learners returning to detention repeatedly who at first challenge our authority at every turn, disrupting the program in every way they can. But after a few weeks we start seeing a change in them. They start looking at us differently, seeing us as someone worth respecting rather than to opposing. They start listening to what we have to say, and begin to grapple with the issues we place before them.

Losing and Gaining Schools

One of the major downs that we’ve experienced is that Clapham High has decided to end their relationship with us. This was an enormous blow as we felt we were making good progress there and found the school a fantastic learning ground for our facilitators. The school felt, though, that they wanted a more aggressive approach to discipline. We’ve been marketing our program to new schools and trust that other doors will open.

A Stretching Experience

From the very beginning, 121 has been an organization that has stretched the faith and character of each of us that have been involved. We’ve been stretched tremendously on the strategic and managerial side, having to learn to let go a lot of our own ideas so that God’s plan can take place. We’ve also been stretched significantly in the classroom where our weaknesses are sometimes ruthlessly exposed by teenagers testing our resolve! In all of this, we have found God to be faithful, and to work all things for the good in ways we could not have imagined!

Learning to Choose

One of the themes that runs through much of our detention material is that we can’t always choose our circumstances but we can choose how we respond to them. This is a difficult concept to relay as many of us live in a perpetual state of victimhood.

If we’re struggling with something, more likely than not, we blame our circumstances or people in our lives. If only we had had more opportunities while growing up, we wouldn’t be in this situation. If only people would give me a chance, I could prove myself. If only I had a bit more money or resources, I could really make a difference. Yet, all around us there are people doing amazing things with very limited resources or opportunities.

We don’t want to teach learners that whatever dream they have is possible. Some dreams are unrealistic or selfish. Some dreams are inappropriate or don’t match the particular resources, abilities or gifts of a particular learner. However, we also don’t want learners to have the perception that they are trapped in their circumstances.

This is particularly relevant in the school context, where a lot of things happen that frustrate learners but which they can do nothing about. Our challenge to them is to change in the system what they can change but to learn to work with those things that they can’t. If a school has certain rules to help it function effectively, learners need to learn to cooperate with those rules to their best advantage. If a certain teacher picks on them, and all the ways they’ve tried to change that have failed, they need to find a way to cope with the situation as best they can.

When they leave school and enter the working world they may well encounter a boss who picks on them or organizational rules that don’t suit them, but they need to learn how to cope with that in a way that works. We don’t want learners who passively accept injustice. But we also don’t want learners who aggressively fight a system that they cannot change in ways that are inappropriate and self destructive.

We want them to assess their circumstances realistically. This includes assessing their own abilities and limitations. From here, they can begin to see what choices they do and don’t have. We want them to realize that within the scope of the choices they do have there is actually a lot they can do to make their circumstances significantly better.

I can’t change the fact that when I get to a detention session there may be no electricity so that I can't run our multi-media presentation. The venue may be in a mess. The learners may be overly energetic and rowdy. The facilitators assisting me may be late. All these things I have no control over. But I can choose what to do with these many challenges. I can turn them into a learning opportunity not only for myself, but for the entire detention session and for all those reading this blog!

A Clean Environment Inside and Out

At 121 we run the detention program at high schools. Schools give us a classroom to use and send us learners from grades 8 to 12 who disobeyed school rules during the previous week. Over the past few years we have made an interesting discovery: the cleaner and better organized the classroom, the better behaved the learners.

There is something about a messy classroom that leaves one feeling one should be messy in the way one relates to others and as a group. The entire atmosphere becomes messy and it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain control.

At one of the schools there is a classroom we really appreciate. It is always immaculately clean and neat. It is also very cosy. It has interesting and colourful pictures covering its walls. It has large colour photos of learners enjoying class outings. It also has brightly coloured cards stating the class boundaries. For example, the cards state things like ‘respect each other’ and ‘listen to each other’. The moment learners walk into this classroom we sense a difference. It is as if the atmosphere of the classroom rubs off on all of us as we walk in and we all begin to internalize our environment.

At another school we have noticed something similar. We have used the same venue over a number of years. For much of those years the venue, which is full of books and is carpeted, was badly looked after and messy. Books were strewn all over the place and papers and pencil sharpening littered the floor. But this past year the classroom has been neat and organized. There are interesting posters on the wall. The books have been neatly shelved. There is a sense of respect for books and learning. We have noticed a change in learner behaviour.

Before, learners may not have thought twice about dropping papers on the floor or tearing pages out of books strewn about the classroom. Now they tend to throw papers in the bin and books are handled with care. Before, we saw learners scratching on desks. Now that the desks are neatly arranged and the classroom clean, learners seem more reluctant to graffiti the furniture.

Sometimes we look for major interventions to influence learner behaviour but perhaps all it takes is simple things like keeping the classroom clean.

The Kinds of Adults We’re Creating

Quite often when we describe the alternative approach to discipline in high schools that we use at 121, people ask whether a good caning wouldn’t be the solution to disciplinary problems. Here is our response:

A caning is a great short term solution. If you punish a learner enough with corporal punishment and instill sufficient fear in him then perhaps for the duration of his school years he will tow the line. But the question we ask is, what kind of an adult are we creating? Our interest is not in having a learner be well behaved according to the school system for the five years of high schools. Our interest is in instilling values in a young person that will affect the kind of adult they become long after school is finished.

This kind of intervention is not a quick-fix and it doesn’t happen over night. Values need to be taught repeatedly over a period of time. But more importantly than teaching values ‘from the front’ (as information relayed to an audience) they need to be modeled and lived. It is as we model the values we teach that learners start to take notice.

A prime example of this is learners who test us. There are learners that go out of their way to test our boundaries and see what it will take to make us lose our tempers. They’re not testing us so much as they are testing the values we teach. When we look at the topic of anger, we teach them how to turn their anger into effective communication. Instead of raging at another person they learn to channel their anger to something more positive. Of course, at the first opportunity learners test this on us. What would it take to make us angry? If they were to make us angry enough, would we rage at them, thereby undermining our message? This is where lived values become more important than any information we could relay from the front. It is learning in action.

We would love to influence the way learners behave at school. We would love to see them practicing values that are both positive for them and for the people around them in the school environment. But even more than this, we would love these young people to internalize these values for the long term. We would like to impact lives so that we are impacting the very kinds of adults we are creating.

We could give young people a good smack and assume this sorts out their bad behaviour. But what are we depositing into their lives that they can carry into their adult years? Every intervention we design at 121 has the goal of our broader society in mind. Are we releasing into society young people who are able to make a positive contribution to society as adults? This is the real challenge of all educators.

Interesting Links

There are two interesting links to make note of:

1) 121 is part of a community forum in Pretoria North. We have now been listed on their website and brochure. Throught the forum we stay in touch with what is happening in the welfare world, from government policy down to what local organizations are doing.

2) The Department of Education is putting an 'early warning system' into place in schools in Gauteng in response to the increase in school violence. Named Project Hlayisika (to be safe), this system will include putting up fences and teaching children about conflict resolution. You can read more about it here. Let's keep praying for our school's, and pray for us as we try to make a difference in the school's we are currently working in.

Starting the Year on a High Note

On the 7th of January, while still just waking up to a new year, Ian and Cori presented the 121 detention program to the staff at Clapham High School in Queenswood (Pretoria). The response seemed positive and we’ll be running our detention program there every Thursday afternoon. Along with this we’ll still be running our program at Pretoria North High on Friday afternoons. Ian and Cori also met with Centurion High and are looking to start a program there within the next few months. This is very exciting stuff, to have expanded from being active in one school to now being involved at three schools, with others indicating their interest as well.

As far as our team goes, things have also started on a high note. We met with our facilitators to start preparing for the year ahead last week. Our team has expanded somewhat, with a couple of fresh young guys joining us! Some of our regular facilitators are going to start ‘head’ facilitating the program allowing us to run two teams at different schools. We’ve also been blessed with two sets of equipment (projectors, lap-tops, sound systems etc.) allowing us to be that much more effective.

There are usually forty learners at a detention session. We divide these learners into groups of ten, each group with a facilitator. We then have a head facilitator who walks the group through a program of group discussion, activities, games, worksheets that need to be filled out and a DVD clip. The kind of content covered seeks to engage learners on quite a deep level, exploring some of the positive and negative issues that may be underlying the behaviours that land them on detention.

Our term program includes a monthly training session for facilitators and a quarterly fun day where facilitators and their families can get to know each other better and relax after a demanding school term!

Some items for prayer:

• For our facilitators, that they will be well prepared and sensitive to what God wants to do through them in the lives of learners
• For our program, that it will hit the mark and be relevant to learners
• For our equipment and the load shedding which may compromise our power-intensive program!
• For the learners we interact with and the schools we engage, that real and lasting change may become evident
• For sufficient funds to meet our budget needs

Last news update from 121@VMA Catalysts for 2007!

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!

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.

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.

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!

December Break

The 'bosberaad' on 5 December signified the final 121@VMA event for 2006. Board members met together to evaluate the past year and discuss the way forward for 2007.

We thank God for the opportunity to continue working with Pretoria North High school and their detention program in the new year. We are still waiting to hear from several other schools whether we can start the program there or not. Please pray with us around the development of new material and recruiting volunteers to help run the program.

For the moment, we are putting the breaks on the Soshanguve Project as we reaccess the viability of the project and how exactly to apporach the unique challenges there. Please pray with us that we will have wisdom with regards to this.

As the 121@VMA takes a much needed break, please pray that we will be rejuvinated and have new strength, energy and a clear vision for the year ahead.

God bless you all over Christmas and New Year. Thank you again for your ongoing support!

The 121@VMA Team

Lizette Venter directs 121@ VMA. Having worked in the corporate world for many years (IT and Project Management) she felt the strong call to get more involved in community work. This led to her starting up 121@ VMA where she does her utmost to keep the rest of us (young ones!) in line!


Ian Stuart is pastor of the Pretoria North Baptist church. He is actively involved in every part of 121@ VMA from guiding us with his wise council, to daily decision making, to sorting out technical hitches, to facilitating with the detention program.


Cori Wielenga is involved with all the day-to-day runnings of 121. She initiated the project in Soshanguve and is developing material for the detention program. She is currently working on her doctorate in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies, in which she is focussing on reconciliation processes in Rwanda.


Ian Dewbury and Rene Jobse are both on our board and involved with the long term planning and visioning for 121. Ian brings with him enormous amounts of experience in working with children in ministry. Rene's interest is around connecting business and ministry, and was part of a team that developed the fantastic MoneySkills boardgame.

Salome van Niekerk joined our team only a few months ago and is helping out in a hundred-and-one ways, from administrative tasks, to facilitating detention sessions, to training our volunteers in Soshanguve. She is preparing for a six-month missions outreach to Mozambique and is further exploring the possibilities of full-time missions.

Hope Nkadimeng has joined us specifically to coordinate the project in Soshanguve. He has worked for several years in the NGO world in Soshanguve, building relationships with schools and volunteers. He has also assisted with the detention program in Pretoria.

121@VMA Update, November, 2006

PEOPLE
With the last update, we made mention of new people who had joined our team, including William. Unfortunately, William has left us again, having landed a good job with the CSIR in Pretoria. We wish him all the best and thank him for his contribution to 121!

Pray: Continue to pray for the rest of the team as we prepare and plan for 2007.
Financial: At this point, we need R2000 monthly to cover team expenses. If you are interested in contributing to this, please use ‘121 team’ as your reference.

CONSTRUCTIVE DETENTION PROGRAM (CDP)
Last week Monday was our last detention session at Pretoria North High. On Friday we treated the staff to a finger lunch and filled them in on what we’d been doing the past term. The feedback from staff and school management was extremely positive. We’ve been invited to carry on our program there in 2007. We’re also waiting to hear from a couple of schools in terms of getting involved with them next year. During this break, we’re hard at work developing more material to present during detention.

Pray: Please pray that we develop relevant, life-changing material that will impact lives in the new year.
Financial: Developing material for detention programs costs in the area of R500 a session. If you are interested in contributing to this, please use ‘CDP material’ as your reference.

PROJECT SOSHANGUVE
We’re still training our volunteers in Soshanguve on a weekly basis. There are about twelve regulars who we are both discipling and equipping in terms of being effective facilitators. There are numerous challenges related to working in Soshanguve, from communication, to a secure venue for training. Although schools we’ve approached are excited about our program, again, communication is a challenge and we still need to finalise what schools we will be working in, and the logistics around that.

Pray: Pray for the volunteers, that they will fully understand 121’s vision and mission and become deeply committed to following Jesus. Pray for ease of communication, both with the volunteers as well as the schools. Pray for Hope, who continues to coordinate the project in Soshanguve for 121.
Financial: Training the volunteers in Soshanguve has a weekly cost of around R200. If you are interested in contributing to this, please use ‘Project Sosh’ as your reference.

TRAINING
On Saturday, Edgar Ramsami from Sonlife in Johannesburg, took us through a fantastic training program that looked at the character of a youth worker, understanding the world of a young person and exploring the difference between punishment and discipline. It was great to have both our team in Pretoria North and our volunteers-in-training from Soshanguve together for this event. At the end of November, we’re planning a training with Scripture Union.

Pray: Pray for the training at the end of the month, that it will be meaningful, equipping our volunteers for the task ahead.
Financial: The training with Scripture Union will cost R1000. If you are interested in contributing to this, please use ‘training’ as your reference.

‘BOSBERAAD’
On the 5th of December, the 121 board and team will have a getaway day to strategise and plan for the year ahead.

Pray: Please pray that we will have a productive time together, that we will be able to communicate effectively and be continuously aligned with what God would have us be busy with.

THANK YOU again to all our supporters, all those who pray and care and support us financially or through an encouraging word or email. This past month we have been truly blessed by so many people who have assured us again that they are praying for us. We often feel so overwhelmed and small in the light of such enormous challenges and need; so ill-equipped and weakly-financed for such a great task. Yet with a team of supporters like yourselves that extends across the globe, and with our eyes on Jesus, we know we can continue to walk on water, as the impossible becomes possible through Him.

Yours,
Cori, for the 121 team.

Our Bank Details
Name: 121 At VMA Catalysts
Bank: Standard Bank
Account No: 011351470
Branch Code: 010445

121@VMA Update, October, 2006

New Team Members
This last month has seen a lot of changes and challenges. For one, our team has expanded, and with that the organization is becoming progressively more structured. Whereas before we have been working on quite an informal, from home, over-the-phone-and-email basis, we now have a team meeting three times weekly to run the administrative and training side of 121. This has meant that we have been able to up the level of a lot of ‘organizational’ type things (fundraising, marketing, etc).

Pray that we will work well together in a team, and become more and more the kinds of people that God can use to impact the lives of young people.

Training in Soshanguve
In terms of training, we have been going through to Soshanguve every Wednesday to train local volunteers to run our life skills programs in the schools there next year. It has been great interacting with these twelve-odd young adults, discussing some challenging issues as we explore what Jesus is asking from us in the context of impacting the lives of young people.

Pray for these volunteers, that they will grow in understanding of what is expected of them in terms of working with 121, and especially that they will become a strong team, committed to changing lives for Jesus.

Constructive Detention
We’ve still been running our detention program at Pretoria North High and are still very excited about the impact it’s having on learners. Facilitators, working in small groups, have had the opportunity to really speak into lives, as learners have opened up and shared their struggles. We have been surprised at how much learners have enjoyed these two-hour sessions, and the very positive feedback we have received from the responsible member of staff from the school side as well.

Pray for the facilitators, that they will have wisdom and compassion when responding to their small group. Pray also for the learners, that the seeds that have been planted will take fruit.

Breakfast
Early in the month, we held a breakfast to inform people about what we’ve been up to and raise awareness and support for what we are doing. We were encouraged by the positive atmosphere and the opportunity to testify to what God has been doing in and through 121.

Please continue to pray for our finances, and especially that we will never need to hold back in any aspect of our ministry because of financial constraints.

Thank you to everyone who prays and supports us. We realize more and more how dependent we are on the greater team of people, who although not necessarily directly involved in our work, nevertheless play a pivotal role in holding us accountable, keeping us motivated and encouraged, and most importantly, engage in the important work of prayer on our behalf.

Updates on 121 Activities, September, 2006

The past few months have been busy ones at 121, with training events, activity around the Constructive Detention Program (CDP), changes to the 121 team, growth around Project Soshanguve, and networking with potential partners.

Training Events
On the 29th of August we held our first training event for all volunteers involved with CDP. We were excited to have a team of twelve people who are enthusiastic and committed to getting involved with us. We spent the afternoon looking at how to facilitate a small group and discussing the challenges of working with young people.

Two of our new volunteers, Hope and William, joined Cori at a Proposal Writing workshop held by another NGO in Pretoria. This was really productive in helping us put together a good proposal for securing funds.

Constructive Detention Program
The CDP has been coming along well these past two months. We were involved in Waterkloof and Garsfontein high schools in Pretoria East and Pretoria North high. Hettie Orffer was running the detention sessions during August, but has now left our team to start her own project, and has taken Waterkloof with her. We really wish her all the best and thank her for her contribution to 121.

For September, we used material developed by Cori Wielenga which explored some of the deeper questions in life. It was great to see the teens responding to it in their small groups, as they engaged in fairly intense dialogue with our volunteers.

We also made use of Rene Jobse’s great MoneySkills boardgame which challenges learners in the area of money and value.

Project Soshanguve
The last few months have been focusing on setting things up here to start running a life skills program in the schools from January next year. We are working with Hope, who is from that area and has extensive skills and experience in working with young people.

At the moment, we’re developing, preparing and training a team of volunteers to carry the program in the schools in Soshanguve.

Networking
Ian, Lizette and Cori have been hard at work meeting and networking with others involved in youth development and social upliftment projects. We have been excited about the possibilities of working with Scripture Union, Sonlife and Nieu Communities. We are also praying about the way ahead around the possibilities of starting an adult education centre.

From the Boardroom, September, 2006

Lizette Venter
Commitment is Key
Coming from a commercial background you often think that running an NGO or non-profit organization should be somewhat different, and we tend to forget that what we need in business, we also need in a non-profit environment. The normal stuff like contracts and documents should be there to ensure that the organization is protected, but more than that, we need commitment.

Committed Volunteers
Firstly, we need commitment from our volunteers, and here the Lord has provided us with more than we deserve. We have a team of 12 volunteers that are prepared to offer their time, expertise and knowledge for nothing more than a thank you, with no guarantees of any promotion, high end salary or status. They’re doing this because the have a passion for young people and want to make a difference. So to all our volunteers: thank you for your commitment. May you be blessed.

Committed Partners
Secondly we also need commitment from our partners, and here once again the Lord has provided. We have been dealing with people outside the organization that are willing to train our volunteers, provide us with material and to support us in every way that they possibly can. Thanks to all who share our vision and who are willing to invest in 121.

Committed Schools
Thirdly we require commitment from the schools we deal with. It was so amazing that the Lord confirmed our purpose and calling in schools specifically this week, when we needed it so badly. The needs in schools are huge, and there are teachers who are willing to allow us insight and input into their full disciplinary processes. Thanks to our first schools who were prepared to give us a chance to test the programs in their schools, at risk to themselves.

Committed Sponsors
Thanks for the commitment from our sponsors, who although knowing very little of what we are busy with, are still prepared to give. The Lord provided a projector and some speakers for us to use during our programs, finances to pay our debts, and the necessary funds to purchase some material and to employ our first semi-permanent youth worker in Shoshanguve. We thank all of you who made this possible.

Committed Prayers
Lastly thanks to those who promised to pray for us and provide their commitment in the still of the morning or the late of the night as they talk to God. We know that your input into the organization is not always visible, but without this, we would probably not have survived the past few weeks. The positive impact we are seeing we contribute to the time you spend in prayer.

In order therefore for 121@VMA to exist and to function as an organization we need committed people. If you want to offer your commitment in any of the above ways, please feel free to contact us. We always need more hands, more material, more money, more prayer.

Pray for 121@VMA, September, 2006

121@VMA has been going through an exciting, yet challenging time, with a lot of changes and new opportunities. Our primary activity these last few weeks has been the detention program at various schools around Pretoria. This has become a time where we have really been able to impact on learners lives.

- let us thank God for the work accomplished in the last few weeks
- that God will open many doors to other schools also, according to His will
- that God will make a way to openly talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel
- that we as facilitators will be open to the guidance of the Holy Spiri
- that we will be good sowers of the seed (His Word) - Matt 13:1-23
- that He will prepare the ground for the seeds to fall on good ground (hearts of learners we deal with)
- that the learners will hear and understand (Matt 13:23) the Word, so that it can bear much fruit
- that God will lead and guide us with regards to finances - who to ask for sponsorships, and that He will open their hearts for us

Some thoughts on praying:
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psa 51:13 Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You.

Although the Lord Jesus has called each of His children to “go and make disciples of all nations”, we should make sure that we are in right standing with our Lord and Father before we do that. As we see in verses 16-17 of Ps.51 the real and true offering to God is a broken spirit - to know that we are in great need of Him for our own spiritial growth and consecration. It pleases God when we enter His presence by asking Him to give us a clean heart and to make our spirits steadfast. We will be able to teach other people His ways better, when we are restored in our souls with His joy. The joy that springs from knowing we are saved and have eternal life.

Psa 51:16 For You delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; You find no pleasure in burnt offering. [I Sam. 15:22.]
Psa 51:17 My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.

May we receive more of God’s true love, the love that makes it possible for us to truly love Him and other people. May this love in us abound more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge, insight and discernment. So that we can surely learn to sense what is vital, and prize what is of real value. So that we can be untainted and pure, with hearts sincere and certain. To be able to approach the day of Christ knowing that we did not stumble and did not cause others to stumble.

Erika, for 121@VMA
_______________________________

Our Bank Details
Name: 121 At VMA Catalysts
Bank: Standard Bank
Account No: 011351470
Branch Code: 010445

Thank you for your contribution!

How it all began

121@VMA was the seed sown in the heart of Lizette Venter, a project management consultant who wanted to make a difference in her community. Together with Ian Stuart, pastor of the Pretoria North Baptist church, Lizette began to network and explore the viability of various ideas and projects over a period of several years.

The dream of a youth drop-in centre, (2004)
Their first dream was to open a drop-in centre in Pretoria North where young people could come after school or on weekends and spend time in an environment that was safe and also conducive to personal development. Such a centre would have resources available on a variety of issues facing young people, as well as people on hand to counsel, tutor or mentor them. It would be a hub where various youth organizations could run programs and courses on issues relevant to young people.

For a variety of reasons, this centre never came off the ground. This was a point of major frustration for Lizette and Ian, who had a variety of resources and programs available, and had already started networking with a number of youth organizations in the area. They then thought to bring their programs, resources and network to where the youth already are: the schools.

Six months of strategising, (August 2005)
Following this decision, Cori Wielenga and Rene Jobse joined the team, and what followed was six months of intense strategizing and thinking around a product to take to the schools. The central issues were that we didn’t want to duplicate what was already out there and we didn’t want to offer a product that didn’t address the schools actual need.

It needs to be remembered at this point that all five of us in the team were (and are) working on a part-time, voluntary, basis, and that 121@VMA had no office or facilities. Meetings were held at one of our homes or else over coffee in restaurants.

The Year of Grace
We came up with a product we called the ‘Year of Grace’ (YoG) which was largely a whole school development program based on Christian principles and thinking. It would include an intensive analysis on every level of the school community (management, parents, staff, learners) to ascertain exactly what the needs were. This would be followed by workshopping with key stakeholders in the school to come up with a joint solution to these needs. We would ‘project manage’ the implementation of this solution but by and large it would need to be carried out by those in the school community in order to ensure sustainability.

The Pilot Project, (January, 2006)
We decided to pilot the project in one high school in Pretoria North to test our idea, in 2006. We spoke with a few principals of various schools, and one principal agreed with enthusiasm that we could pilot the project at his school.

Almost immediately, several of the pitfalls of our model became apparent. The central pitfall is that we had not planned for the time-consuming and contentious issue of staff buy-in, assuming this would be taken care of by school management. Carrying out the initial phase of analysing the school became a near-impossible process without the full support of the staff. At the end of the first three-month term of the school year, when we had expected to have analysed every level of the school community, we had only been able to analyse the learners who were on detention and the leaders of the school.

Changing Focus, (April, 2006)
When we assessed the situation in April we decided that as we had only been able to analyse those two groups (the leaders and the detention learners), perhaps we needed to focus our energies one those two groups. Lizette and Ian presented the results of our findings to the school board, and also gave an outline of a possible program we could offer to both these two groups of learners.

The decision of the school was that we could take over the detention program. That was all. From a whole school development program at which those in the school community would be responsible for developing their own solutions, we were now left with needing to run a program for the detention classes on Monday afternoons.

However, this coincided with Hettie Orffer joining our team. Hettie had already done some work in offering personal development programs to young people. She was prepared to develop material for the purposes of running the detention program.

The Constructive Detention Program, (June, 2006)
By June, 2006, when we reassessed the situation, Hettie had informed us that several schools in Pretoria East were interested in having us run our detention program there as well. Suddenly, we were making the shift from the Year of Grace to running detention programs in high schools.

Coinciding with this was our coming into contact with some youth workers in Soshanguve who were looking for support in running personal development programs in schools there. Although we weren’t yet ready to make the shift from what our initial product had been to this new product, it was becoming more and more obvious that the one product we had ready and which was in demand was what we decided to call the Constructive Detention Program (CDP). Especially when in July, another five schools, primary and high, indicated interest in the CDP.

From the Boardroom, July, 2006

Lizette Venter

Taking an overview of the past few months, it has become apparent that we as a team have much to be thankful for. We have a very strong team, with strong-willed individuals, all prepared to give of themselves their time and resources, to promote God’s work amongst our Youth. Even financially, God has provided what we needed thus far. By God’s grace, the last few months were exciting, but also challenging, and most of us felt out of our depth! I figure that if it was easy, we would not have needed God as much as we needed him in the past, but also in the future.

One of the highlights these past few weeks was that we decided to take a bold step for God in everything that we do, being it the Detention classes, or the NGO leadership training. It is of no value if we hide behind humanitarian plights while neglecting our purpose to declare God’s Year of Grace to all we touch.

Good news was the feedback from Mr Drescher at Pretoria North High, that the numbers of learners on detention from last year, this time, to this year, has dropped, increasing the excitement around our detention offering. With this, a thanks to the team, specifically Hettie, Ian and Cori for the work done there.

The challenges that we are facing in the last half of the year are immense and we desperately need your prayers. We are ill equipped to handle what God has placed in our hands. Luckily the Lord also stated that when we are weak, He is strong, and therefore we put our trust and hope in His mighty hands. Pray that we will be guided through His word, that we will obey irrespective of the cost and that we will be provided with wisdom, empathy and love for a dying nation.

There is plenty of opportunity for you to become more actively involved. We require help in the following areas:

• Marketing people who would assist in obtaining sponsorships at a 10% commission structure.
• Somebody that would assist in the admin work of 121 at the church office (Pretoria North) at least 2 half days a week.
• Prayer partners that will commit to spending time with God in prayer for 121.
• Detention support facilitators, who will be prepared to train in handling small groups during the detention at any of the three schools we are currently involved with.
• Business advisors that will be able to assist 121 in becoming an efficient and structured organization.
• Those with journalistic/writing skills, to assist in bringing out this newsletter on a regular basis.