Joza Youth Hub
The Joza Youth Hub is a community centre in the heart of the Joza Township here in Grahamstown. It accommodates five NGOs, each with different vocations and alignments. The Joza Youth Hub provides township communities - mostly schools - with access to an integrated array of education, communication and IT training services. We also have a Reading Club, a Chess Club and a Toy library. The organizations are namely: Village Scribe Association (VSA), UPSTART, Centre for Social Development (CSD), Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE) , Access Music Project (AMP!) and the Joza Reading Club.
The Joza Youth Hub is made up of a number of youth-focused organisations.
The VSA is a local, non-governmental organisation in Grahamstown, South Africa, that works with underprivileged public schools to improve computer literacy amongst students. In 2010, they developed a social eLearning platform called awarenet, an eLearning platform and social media tool that offers our learners a personal networking space, tools for blogging, online discussions and project work. They learn how to present themselves online, how to connect and communicate, how to upload pictures, create slide shows and videos. The online projects are always combined with offline activities like participating in sport events, organising public concerts, social engagements and the writing of newspaper articles to apply what we have worked on with the students and to make the programme sustainable.
Center for Social Development
CSD is a self-funded institution of Rhodes University. We provide training to Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Community Development (CD) practitioners. We also have a Toy-Library which is situated at the Joza Youth Hub (JYH). Monthly workshop are hosted at the JYH where the ECD practitioners and or parents from the local community are able to attend. The focus of the workshops are on ways to stimulate the potentialities of the learner with disabilities. We draw on work from psychologists; Occupational therapists, speech therapists and lecturers from the Education Faculty.
The Joza Reading Club
The Joza Reading Club is the latest addition to the projects running at the Joza Youth Hub. Started in March 2015, the Reading Club aims to get young children in the community hooked on books! It does this by linking literacy development to the oral abilities of the children. So story-telling, indigenous games, songs in both IsiXhosa and English, and many other fun-filled activities make up a typical reading session at the Club.
Access Music Project
AMP!’s vision for South Africa's youth is to have access to education, industry, cultural heritage and creative possibilities. We want to enable young musical people, who would not otherwise have the opportunity, to realise musical futures by providing a solid and competitive music education towards the development of outstanding musicians, performers and creative professionals. The project was founded in 2011 as a music education centre providing practical music, music literacy, music theory, general music knowledge, composition and music technology tutelage for which learners undertake formal music exams with recognised examination boards.
Social Innovation Hub
RU Community Engagement aspires to give access to information technology to marginalised Makhanda community members, promoting an independent and knowledgeable community. In this era of accelerated change, we believe that access to information technology is one of the ways in which disadvantaged communities in Grahamstown can empower themselves.
Last Modified: Wed, 02 Mar 2022 18:55:03 SAST