Youth Development Programme Statement or Need
I was facilitating in schools in Khayelitsha in 2005 as a peer educator. I saw many kids drop out of school because of the lack of discipline, self confidence and the lack of self esteem. Most of them ended up on street corners in the township. Some of the learners may pass their Matric Exams (Grade 12) and then they feel hopless in finding employment end up doing crime and abusing drugs and alcohol as an escape.
In Khayelitsha learners have a tendency to drop out of school because of peer pressure and become gangsters or are involved with alcohol and drugs. Boys in particular face a huge challenges in school and in society at large. They find it difficult to cope with the pressure.
Mostly boys are being raised under the norms disguised as culture or tradition of what it is to be a man. They are being taught that to be a man you must have a job and money. A man is the head of the family and that his wife must submit to him at all times. That it is okay to beat up his partner/ wife if she does not obey him.
Too much burden has been put on the shoulders of these boys as the result they drop out of school and end up on street corners or in jail.
Buhle Msipha
How do we involve youth in social issues and gender equity?
Many social issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, rape, and crime indicate a need for programmes that develop the envisioned culture of MensTrust and thus fulfill the social need that this violence is a symptom of. MensTrust has found that there are only a few male activists or programmes that involve men to help end these issues.
Gender education and equity programmes are targeted at women, and have failed to include men and boys in assisting with the development and unfolding of and the implementation of these programmes.
The majority of after school programs that exist; deal more with games and sport. These programmes do not deal with issues that children are faced with in their homes or school but provide outlets for more competition,violence and abuse. MensTrust does not believe that these approaches are effective enough. Programmes need to be developed that promote life skills and positive relationship skills that help recognise the behaviors and encourage people to seek assistance in bringing about change. These skills then can be utilised when taking part in games and sport activities.
We believe that not enough creative thought has gone into programme design or that honest and effective research has been carried out with implementation of these programmes. The youth have not been consulted or contributed enough themselves in the design of these models of intervention.
Youth do want to be involved in solving social issues and all that they require are the skills and tools to help them become supportive to these issue.
Boys, in particular, tend to be trapped in stereotyped roles determined by social conditioning and are struggling to cope with changes in society and in life in general.
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Preventing Criminality Among Young People
by
Ingrid Palmary & Catherine Moat
Extracts from a resource book for local government, December 2002.
Education and schools
Internationally, the amount and quality of education that a young person receives, as well as their academic success, has been strongly linked to whether they choose to commit crimes or not. Targeting 'out of school' youth has been a popular strategy for crime prevention in South Africa.
Primary reasons for people no longer attending school are:
• Poverty
• Pregnancy
• Children caring for households and younger siblings when parents or older caregivers become incapacitated with illnesses
It is interesting to note that schools were first introduced in the United States as a crime prevention project. It was suggested that schools had the most "potential agency … to root up vice [and] to lessen crime". Although the functions of schools have changed over the years, schools are still intended to be arenas of safety, discipline and productivity for young people.
However, much of the violence seen and perpetrated by young people takes place in schools. The nature of school violence has been alarming in the last two decades. Schools have become locations for the sale of drugs, gun violence and violence against girls. The most common form of crime that takes place in schools is petty crime such as vandalism and interpersonal conflict between pupils. However, increasingly it is being recognised that school violence can be and has been extremely serious and that it is often indicative of young people's involvement in violence and crime outside of the school environment.
Schools do not fall within the mandate of local government, but, as schools provide a space where young people can be consistently and easily reached in order to implement criminality prevention programmes, partnerships between municipalities and schools are critical to effective youth crime prevention.
Incorporating youth crime prevention in local government programmes.
Youth crime prevention programmes need to happen where young people live, go to school, work and socialise. Local government's responsibility to provide safe and secure environments as a human right needs to be mainstreamed into all its community development initiatives. This section looks at a range of interventions that have been shown to be successful in youth crime reduction. These community-based strategies bring together local partners with local governments. These programmes signify a shift from crime prevention as "something the police do", to the broader idea of community safety, which is a community responsibility.
This section is divided into segments that address three key factors that give rise to youth criminality.
1. Poverty and its impact on quality of life
2. Weak interpersonal relationships
3. Experiences of violence
Schools and safety
School-based violence prevention has been tackled by a range of service providers in South Africa. Although education is not a local government competency, there are instances in which local governments have developed school safety programmes in their area, such as the former City of Durban and the former Centurion local council. Working with schools requires a collaborative approach with schools and district and provincial Departments of Education and the SAPS. Multi-agency co-operation is key to successful crime prevention programmes. School-based programmes may take on a range of activities in response to the specific problem. These may include conflict resolution training for learners and educators, family-based programmes, and after-school programmes.
After-school care.
After-school programmes traditionally focus on providing games and sports. However, programmes that offer decision-making skills, interpersonal competence, cultural awareness, self-esteem and drug and alcohol prevention have resulted in better family bonding, more pro-social behaviour, self-control and emotional awareness, assertiveness, co-operation and confidence in the young participants. Targeting these social competencies is shown to have a marked impact on reducing youth criminality.