By Alison Crosbie | CEO
A New Chapter for Learn2Learn
There is something strange about reaching September and realising how quickly the year has passed. It feels as though we have only just begun, yet here we are, already looking back on another quarter of learning, growth and change. For Learn2Learn, however, this period has brought a sense that something much bigger is beginning. The programme has been growing steadily within the community of Eerste River, but over the past few months we have seen that growth take a new and exciting shape. What has been developed here is now beginning to travel into neighbouring schools, carried not only by the programme itself, but by young people who understand its value because they have experienced it.
One of the most significant developments this quarter was the acceptance of Learn2Learn by Lottery South Africa for implementation in two nearby schools. The opportunity will allow the programme to reach approximately 600 learners across these new sites, bringing the same focus on emotional intelligence, self awareness, relationships, resilience and practical life skills into two school communities that have been eager to receive it. For us, the importance of this development is not simply the number of additional learners who will participate. It is the fact that schools are recognising the need for this kind of space within the lives of their young people, and that Learn2Learn is being welcomed as something that can become part of those communities.
The expansion has also created an especially meaningful opportunity for four young people who recently matriculated from the two new schools. Rather than simply moving on from school and leaving their communities behind, these young adults are now being trained as Learn2Learn facilitators. They are beginning a new stage of their own journey, learning how to create the kind of safe, engaging and thoughtful spaces that they themselves have benefited from. Their transition from school learners to facilitators is at the heart of what makes this next phase so exciting. They know the communities they are returning to. They understand the realities faced by the learners who will sit in front of them, and they bring their own experiences of growing up, navigating school and beginning to imagine their futures.
This is something we have seen repeatedly within Learn2Learn. Young people do not simply pass through the programme. When given the opportunity, they carry what they have learned forward. Some become mentors, some become facilitators, and others simply take the confidence, self awareness and understanding they have developed into the next chapter of their lives. The four new interns represent another expression of this process. They are being given the chance to discover that their own experiences and perspectives have value, and that they can use those experiences to support younger learners.
Their training is therefore about much more than learning how to deliver sessions. It is about developing the ability to listen carefully, to build trust, to respond with empathy and to create an environment in which young people feel comfortable participating honestly. These are skills that take time to develop. As we have learned through our existing facilitators, effective facilitation is not about standing at the front of a classroom and delivering information. It is about relationships, presence and authenticity. The young people entering this training are beginning to discover what it means to hold that responsibility.
The excitement around the new schools has been matched by the energy of the young people who will be bringing Learn2Learn into them. There is something particularly encouraging about seeing graduates return to their own school communities in a different role. A school that once knew them as learners will now see them as young adults preparing to contribute to the lives of those coming after them. It creates a powerful sense of continuity and possibility. The learners in those classrooms will not be looking at distant professionals or people who feel disconnected from their experiences. They will be meeting young people who have recently walked those same corridors and are now showing them another possible direction.
This quarter also gave us an opportunity to pause and celebrate the people behind this work when Ms Youmnah, the South African representative of EMpower, visited Eerste River. Her visit was a wonderful opportunity for her to experience Learn2Learn as it actually exists within the community, rather than only through reports or conversations about the programme. She spent time with our learners, saw the programme in action and interacted with previous interns as well as the four new interns who are preparing for the expansion into the two new schools.
There was a lovely sense of connection throughout the visit. The learners brought their usual energy and curiosity, while the young adults who have already come through the programme were able to share something of their own journeys. The four new interns were able to meet someone who has supported the work and, more importantly, to experience the feeling that what they are preparing to do matters. It was a joyful day, filled with conversation and laughter, but it was also a reminder of how many different people are now connected through Learn2Learn.
Seeing former interns alongside new interns and current learners made the progression particularly visible. Each group represents a different point in the same journey. The younger learners are discovering themselves and developing new ways of understanding the world around them. The interns are beginning to take greater responsibility for themselves and for others. The young adults who have already facilitated are able to look back on what they have learned and recognise how far they have come. Together, they demonstrate that a programme can become part of a community's fabric when young people are given opportunities not only to receive support, but eventually to provide it themselves.
This is especially important in a community such as Eerste River, where young people are growing up amid significant social and economic pressures. A school can be a place of academic learning, but it is also one of the few places where young people gather consistently, form relationships and begin to develop their sense of who they are and where they might belong. Creating space within that environment for conversations about emotions, identity, relationships, choices and the future is therefore not an additional concern. It is part of supporting young people as whole people.
The expansion into two new schools feels like a natural next step in that work. We are not leaving behind what has been built in Eerste River. Instead, the experience gained here is creating an opportunity for other young people in nearby communities to benefit from the same approach. The challenge now is to support the new facilitators carefully, to listen to the new schools and to allow the programme to develop in response to the learners who will participate in it.
As the year moves towards its final months, there is a great deal ahead. Four young adults are finding their feet as facilitators. Two new schools are preparing to welcome Learn2Learn into their communities. Existing facilitators continue to deepen their experience, and the learners already participating in the programme continue to shape it through their questions, personalities and willingness to engage.
Perhaps the most encouraging part of this moment is that the growth feels organic. It has come from relationships that have been built over time, from young people who have taken what they received and turned it into something they can offer others, and from schools recognising that their learners need opportunities to develop not only academically, but personally and socially as well.
The year may be moving faster than any of us would like, but Learn2Learn is moving with it. What began as a space for young people to learn, reflect and grow is becoming a growing network of young people who can create those spaces for one another. As new learners enter the programme and new facilitators begin their journeys, the hope is that the same sense of belonging, possibility and connection that has developed in Eerste River will continue to find its way into every new classroom.
This quarter has reminded us that growth is not always about becoming bigger. Sometimes it is about seeing what has been nurtured in one place take root somewhere new, carried forward by the very young people it was created to support.
By Chine Crouch | Project Manager
By Alison Crosbie | CEO
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