Portfolio

The residency, called the Duneside Boro Residency (called DB by everyone at the res), is the next iteration of our work in Mitchells Plain. Once someone graduates from our learning hubs and from high school, employment is the biggest hurdle for them to overcome. So we set out to create an intentional-living space where young people between the ages of 18-25 can connect and develop. We living into being an authentic community as we better understand what that means. They are invited to growth experiences in their understanding of who they are in this world, who they are made to be, and technological training to access tech jobs. We also intentionally engage with the surrounding homes, building relationships, and learning and teaching together. Our intention is that everyone involved, including ourselves are impacted by the love and presence of God.

Our vision is to have an established digital agency that will be a place for our future graduates as our learning hubs to work at. We have a passion for creating impact through digital solutions, and remote-working economic opportunities are increasing so this makes so much sense. We have two areas of focus. One is creating helping our clients create authentic online communities. We host these sessions and hold a space for leaders to grow and develop together. The second is helping through teaching 21st century leadership and management principles. We have a high emphasise on embracing technology through the process. This is mostly with leaders who are often wary and unconfident around all the technology options out there.

A strategic attempt to foster a supportive community within with Grace Cafe can flourish was to launch a community group in November 2020. About 10 community members from across the road from Grace Cafe meet twice a month to offer their gifts to foster a better sense of community. This has been one of the most exciting community development projects I have ever been apart of. The community have become friends and we learn together. I see a developing methodology unfold for the approaches I used in fostering this deeper sense of connection. In this short time, with lockdown challenges, community members already regard our group an amazing success!

Grace2Learn operates our flagship learning hub in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain. The name of the learning hub is Grace Cafe. From Jan 2019 till Jan 2021 I have been focused on developing an independent education model that prioritises the local community individuals. These include relevant 21 century learning pedagogies, governance system deployment and systemising multi-generational and multi-cultural engagement. For the rest of 2021 my focus is in setting systems in place and handing it over to the local church and its community.

The BK Leadership Residency is in the heart of Stellenbosch university town. It is geared toward emerging leaders and aspiring leaders to do life together to amplify their current character abilities and priorities to impact the communities they are already working in (for me, under-resourced communities in Mitchell's Plain.) My role was developing healthy rhythms in the household for communal living and assisting one aspiring leader in academic, technical and emotional development.

During my time employed and freelancing for the School in a Box organisation, I managed all the tech educational centres across the Western Cape. This entailed ensuring they were using the tablet technology correctly, that best-practice learning methodologies were being employed and growing the number of active centres. The School in a Box are one of the few EdTech companies, trying to address the issue of inclusive hardware educational resources.

My work at the Philippi Village was around connecting with potential collaborators in the broader Philippi, Crossroads, Nyanga communities. This was no easy task and while there were pockets of inspiration and cocreation, the project largely did not take off in my time there. My hope is that the deep engagement sessions that were hosted, formed a platform and small steps forward for future collaboration. Trust was the key building block I aimed to development with key leaders in the community. We walked together through a process and methodology called TheoryU with the aim of sensing what our greater intentions were, where there might be overlap for action and starting with micro actions to test if it works or not. From an experiential and trust building component this was a successful project. With more time, it might have resulted in deeper more systemic projects for collective impact in the communities we all worked in. I've learned a lot through this experience and have carried many of the lessons with me into current projects.