About the Phoenix Youth Centre
The Phoenix Community Centre was set up in 1989 to undertake development in Phoenix and the surrounding region. Over a 20 year period, the PCC has managed to establish itself as a leading NGO that has built a multi million rand community development centre and has undertaken numerous development programmes aimed at the youth, women, sport and early childhood education.
What the youth centre will do
1. Youth Leadership Training Programmes
Leaders from youth organizations, RCL’s, religious organizations etc. would be brought together to participate in training in areas around public speaking, conflict management, how to chair meetings etc.
2. Extra Tuitions
Maths, Science and English
Learners especially in Grades 10,11 and 12 face serious challenges coping with the above subjects. Extra lessons would be provided to those learners who need extra tuition.
3. Drug Abuse and HIV/Aids
Drug abuse and HIV/Aids have emerged as critical areas for attention especially amongst the youth in our community. Ongoing educational programmes will be run at the youth centre together with other NGO and Government departments.
4. Career Guidance
Many of our learners have difficulty making correct decisions regarding choices about their subjects at school. Qualified personnel would be available at the youth centre to guide students with advice and mentorship.
5. Training of Representative Council of Learners
Many of the schools that have elected RCL’s see a huge need for training so that they could fulfill their duties as representatives of the learners.
6. Life Orientation Skills
Many of the youth today grow up under very sheltered conditions. As a result these youth lack simple and basic life skills and need to be assisted.
7. Youth Newspaper
Young people would be encouraged to use their creative abilities to write stories and to take photos of everyday happenings. This would be used to produce a monthly newsletter for the youth.
8. Summer Camps
Groups of youth will be invited from time to time to participate in youth summer camps. Participants will be expected to be away from home for up to a week and to work with other young people and to learn through fun activities.
What do we hope to achieve?
- Building the Youth Centre
Involve the youth in the building programme and maintenance of the Youth Centre that would offer various programmes and projects that meets the needs for the youth in general. The active involvement of the youth (fundraising and participating in the planning of the centre) will ensure that the youth become part of the process of developing the youth centre from the very beginning.
- Youth Leadership Training Programmes.
Participants for this programme will be drawn from youth organizations, social clubs, sports and civic associations and RCL’s based in all secondary schools in the Phoenix and surrounding region. The Love Life Programme, which currently operate from their headquarters in Phoenix, have in principle, agreed to work with the PCC to develop and run a leadership training programme for the youth.
The programme will include training around public speaking, debates, democracy, current affairs, conflict resolution, non-racism and non-sexism, politics and business.
- Educational Programmes
Education is one of the cornerstones of the development of our country. Although our democracy is now twelve years old, we still continue to experience major problems with especially our matric results. Many students simply fail whilst many others do not achieve the necessary grades to enable them to study at universities and technikons.
A large part of the problem is the inability of students to access extra lessons in maths, science and English from experts in the field.
The PCC has engaged in discussions with the Department of Education, the Phoenix Principals Forum and SADTU in order to address this issue. The PCC hopes to use the premises at the Phoenix Youth Centre to offer free lessons in Maths, Science and English each Saturday morning. Lectures will be provided by teachers who are experts in the field and handouts will be provided to every student that attends the programme. The quarterly reports of the students will be used to track the progress of the students to ensure that the programme makes a positive impact.
- Drug Abuse and HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS and drug abuse has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa. Our youth in particular have become the most vulnerable because of their sexual activity. Since a vaccine would not be developed in the near future, the only alternative is to educate our youth so that we could secure their future.
Whilst our government and NGO’s battle to bring this pandemic under control, lots more need to be done to address the damage already done and to prevent more people from contracting the HIV virus.
The PCC believes that every individual and organization has a role to play in order to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Our organization is in a strategic position to intervene in about 100 schools in the Phoenix and surrounding region. The partnership with the Dept. of Education and the relationship with the principals’ forum and SADTU will allow the PCC access to thousands of young students from primary as well as secondary schools.
We believe that our best chance to reverse the damage done by the HIV/AIDS scourge is to educate our youth through programmes that are interactive and which would encourage our youth to obey the golden rules when fighting HIV/AIDS ie. Abstinence, Be faithful and Condomise.
- Career Guidance
In the absence of guidance educators in schools, career guidance has emerged as a serious challenge facing many students who are required to make choices of subjects in grade ten and when they prepare for post matric study. Very often students tend to choose subjects without considering their future plans and therefore cannot gain entry to universities and colleges.
A career guidance facility, which will be staffed by career counselors and educators, will operate from the youth centre and will offer: students proper guidance when choosing subjects at school and universities, advice on skills that are required within industry and government and give information on access to bursaries and other financial assistance to students. Assistance will also be given in terms of completing forms for application for study and for financial aid; preparation of CV’s; how to handle interviews, etc.
- Training of RCL’s
There are some 30 secondary schools situated in the Phoenix and surrounding region with each school electing a Representative Council of Learners to represent the students on the School Governing Body. The powers and functions of the RCL are defined by a constitution and the South African Schools Act and the RCL’s do more than attend meetings of SGB’s ,as they are also involved in peer mentoring and peer counselling.
The PCC has initiated a programme that will engage RCL’s in leadership training programmes, debates, sport and community upliftment projects. These programmes will be run at the youth centre by leaders from community based organizations.
- Indoor Sports
Over the years, sports has begun to play a pivotal role in uniting our people and bringing together our youth. As part of our programme, we will be engaging our youth in their leisure time to participate in in-door sport viz. indoor soccer, pool, chess, darts etc.
A sports development programme as well as competitions amongst participants will be encouraged in order to sustain and to grow the various codes of in door sports. School children as well as various youth and social clubs will be encouraged to participate.
- Youth Newsletter
As part of our programme of empowerment, we plan to provide opportunities to our youth to express their creative thoughts and ideas through a monthly newsletter. Each month an eight-page tabloid style newsletter will be produce and will reflect a selection of articles around current affairs, matters around education, sport, music and news about all spheres of government.
The aim of the newsletter is three fold:
– To provide opportunities for budding journalists and desktop publishers to come together to produce a newsletter each month.
– To provide a platform to publish the good work that government and other organizations succeed in undertaking from time to time.
– To educate our youth and the general community on issues that are relevant and that can shape their creative thinking.
- Life Orientation
With the new FET syllabus introduced in secondary schools, Life Orientation is one of the compulsory subjects for all learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12. This subject requires learners to be involved in empowering themselves by developing skills in tasks such as first aid training; applying for Identity Documents and participation in community upliftment projects. The PCC will work closely with Life Orientation educators to ensure that learners have the opportunities to fulfil the demands of the subject.
 |
Guest of Honour: Ms Maggie Govender(M.E.C – Human Settlements & Public Works-KZN) |
I spent much of my time here in Phoenix learning the craft of community organizing from my elders that include Pravin Gordhan, Yousuf Vawda, Pravin Kooblall, the late Mr Dan Maharaj and Mrs Fatima Seedat. It was at the Phoenix Gandhi Settlement where we learned much of our values that informs our politics.
The opening of the centre represents the culmination of many years of hard work. The Centre has come into being primarily as a result of the spirit of volunteerism that has been displayed by its founder members. This is something that must continue.
There is a proud history to this institution as it has enjoyed the support and involvement of many of our leading community members and activists. Let us hope that the youth of Phoenix and its surrounding areas build on this tradition and continue the work that has commenced. The Centre is also a concrete example of how partnerships between the community, government and business can benefit the community. In this instance, funding was provided by the Ethekwini Council as well as from local business and the community.
This centre will provide a home for youth from diverse communities and can provide a place where young people can meet, engage in social activities in a safe environment as well as build a culture of respect, non-racialism, non-sexism and tolerance. It can contribute to the development of tomorrow’s leaders. However, it is the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure that the centre and its resources are placed at the disposal of the community and are utilized in a responsible fashion. I am certain that this centre will grow from strength to strength and will serve as a much needed community resource.
 |
Mayor Of DurbanOBED MLABA |
The successful completion of the Phoenix Youth Centre marks another significant milestone reached in terms of advancing youth developmental agenda, which falls amongst the key priorities in our government’s programmes.
We congratulate the people of Phoenix and surrounding areas, with a hope that they would utilise this facility to the benefit of our youth in these areas. Our country is faced with major societal challenges including skills shortages, unemployment and health-related challenges. These impacts negatively on our societies, especially to the youth.
Therefore, we remain optimistic that this facility would assist in addressing some of these challenges through its recreational youth developmental activities. Such facility is also crucial in assisting towards regenerating moral precepts in our societies through various forms of constructive activities. We commend all those involved in making this much-awaited centre a reality, and we believe that it would effectively bring together youth from different social and political backgrounds while playing a role in shaping their future for the better. We regard such a youth facility as a way of honouring our South African youths.
VISIT OUR YOUTH SECTION
Click the above image