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Education Enhancement of diadvantaged youth
G4S Care and Justice Services (South Africa)
South Africa

The Problem

G4S Care and Justice Services is a shareholder and operator of the Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts that runs the private-public partnership correctional facility, called Mangaung Correctional Centre, in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Ikhwezi Community Trust is also one of the shareholders of Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts. The dividends as a shareholder are utilised amongst others for the provision of educational programmes to school learners in historically disadvantaged communities. The community in which the community trust dominantly operates, is situated nearby the correctional facility and characterised by poor socio-economic circumstances and a high level of unemployment by the parents of the school learners.

The education programmes focus specifically on the facilitation of additional education and skills (maths and science) and entrepreneurial skills in order to empower the school learners to be more educated and successful to progress in their school career.

One outstanding programme that has now been running for more than eight years is the provision of maths classes to about 650 Grade 10, 11 and 12 scholars in this community. This programme is called the Saturday-school programme and is fully endorsed (not financially) by the Dept of Education in the Free State. During the June-holiday a two-week maths programme is conducted for the school learners in order to empower them to progress.

The economical recession that was experienced worldwide, also resulted in a drop in dividend payouts to the Ikhwezi Community Trust. The lack of obtaining additional funding resulted in the inevitable that the June-holiday two-week math’s programmes are threatened of not taking place at all or not being able to accommodate the learners it usually accommodates.

G4S Care and Justice Services as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme and because of having business ventures in the Bloemfontein community, decided to provide support in terms of financial support as well as skill development to allow the Ikhwezi community trust to continue with this holiday programme.

G4S Care and Justice Services supported the programme in the following manner:
- Payment of educators for the facilitation of the maths classes for ten days
- Provision of crafts training directly to learners that can enhance learner’s skills to establish a small home crafts business as part of entrepreneurial business development. (candle making, leather work and recycled paper crafts)
- Provision of training material for the crafts training

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
620 Grade 10 – 12 learners from the historically disadvantaged community attended the Ikhwezi winter school project during the June 2010 school holiday to enhance their Maths and Science skills despite the World Cup Soccer Tournament hitting South Africa as well as freezing temperatures during the winter season in the Free State. For 10 days during the winter school holidays they were attending school and working hard to acquire advanced skills on mathematics and science subjects.
G4S Care and Justice services has strengthen the efforts of the Ikhwezi Community Trust to run their education programme to a enhanced capacity by paying the salaries of these 20 dedicated educators for this project and also presented hand skills training such as leather work, box making and paper craft to a further 225 learners.
This is a value-added benefit that a PPP correctional centre can brought to the children of the Free State in South Africa. In this manner G4S Care and Justice Services empower children to become contributing citizens and not turn to crime and end up in a correctional centre.
Prevention is always much more benefitial.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Chairperson of the Corporate Social Responsibility, who is also the Director: Operations and Solutions showed initiative in the vision to enhance education for younger children and wanted to enable the Ikhwezi Community Trust to run the already established project to its full capacity.
As part of the initiative of funding the project, the project was enhanced by Vocational Instructors employed at the correctional facility to engage with the school children and teach them elementary hand skills. These skills may assist the school learners to start a small business from home as a young entrepreneur.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
G4S Care and Justice Services (South Africa) as part of their corporate social responsibility programme has entered into this programme due to business ventures in the Bloemfontein community, to provide financial and skills transfer support to the Ikhwezi Community Trust to continue with an educational holiday programme during June 2010.
Ikhwezi Community Trust is a shareholder of Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts. The dividends as a shareholder are utilised for, amongst others, the provision of educational programmes with specific focus on scarce skills (maths and science) and entrepreneurial skills. An outstanding programme that has been running for more than eight years is the provision of maths classes to about 620 Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in the Bloemfontein community – all from the historically disadvantaged communities. This programme is called the Saturday-school programme and is fully supported (not financially) by the Dept of Education in the Free State.
During June 2010, G4S Care and Justice Services has strengthen the efforts of the Ikhwezi Community Trust, by paying the salaries of the 20 educators during the Winter School and added the provision of crafts training directly to learners that can enhance learner’s skills to establish a small home crafts business.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The services provided by G4S Care and Justice Services can be summarised as follows in chronological order:
• The payment of educators for the facilitation of the classes for ten days specifically for the maths and science programme
• Provision and facilitation of crafts training directly to learners that can enhance learner’s skills to establish a small home crafts business by trained vocational instructors. (Box making, leather work and recycled paper crafts)
• Provision of training material for the crafts training as part of a starter kit to the small home craft business.
• Sponsorship of G4S Care and Justice Services (Bloemfontein) employees’ children to attend the Saturday school programme and Holiday programme (R200 per learner registration fee) from June 2010 to November 2010.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
This project contained limited risks due to the sustainability that was already obtained through the 8 years of operation of Ikhwezi Community Trust. The proposal for the project was approved according to the corporate social responsibility policy guidelines and the company makes financial provision to enter into projects that qualify according to the set guidelines in the mentioned policy.
The project leader followed a systemic approach by bringing the relevant stakeholders together and submitting a well-prepared business plan. The timelines of facilitation was aligned with the school holiday and the correctional centre could avail the vocational instructors without jeopardising the operational requirements of the contract.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
G4S Care and Justice Services are committed to the investment in the social development of the people of South Africa and especially committed to the development of the communities closest to our operations, such as the correctional centre in Bloemfontein.
The analysis of the resources utilised can be summarised as follows:
.
Payment of Educators: ZAR57 000 (20 educators for 10 days)
Cost of G4S crafts training facilitators: ZAR6960 (3 employees at Cost to Company X 4 hours x 10 days)
Cost of crafts material: ZAR10 000
Transport of craft facilitators: ZAR3 000
Employee children Sponsorships: ZAR1 600
Total ZAR R78 560
G4S Care and Justice Services availed 3 vocational instructors from the Mangaung Correctional Centre to be part of the 10-day programme to facilitate basic hand skills in terms of leather work, box making and paper craft to 225 learners.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The measurable results were that 620 learners participated during the winter school in order to enhance their knowledge and skills in the learning areas of maths and science.
G4S Care and Justice Services invested in the learners as this is regarded as a scarce skill in South Africa and furthermore introduced entrepreneurial skills as part of the small hand skills venture, to curb the enormous effect of unemployment and poverty in the previously disadvantaged communities.
Benefits
• Contribution to the provision of much needed skills regarding maths and entrepreneurship to South African youth
• Entrance into the Dept of Education Free State for the support and provision of programmes regarding youth.
• G4S Care and Justice employees children whom fits the age and skills criteria will be supported to attend this annual programme.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
G4S Care and Justice Service have supported an existing project to expand the facilitation of a winter school to enhance the maths and science aptitude of Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners.
The dismal Grade 12 results, especially on mathematics and science, of 2009, exacerbated by the statistics on school drop out rates of scholars between Grade 10 - 12, the case for assisting in the co-sponsoring of the Ikhwezi Winter School project, was not a difficult decision for G4S Care and Justice, South Africa to make.
The committed 620 Grade 10 – 12 learners from the local Bloemfontein Communities were not easily distracted from the maths and science classess whether it is the World Cup Soccer Tournament hitting South Africa or freezing temperatures in the middle of a South African weather.
G4S Care and Justice Services has partnered with Ikhwezi Community Trust to assist in presenting this Winter School to the committed learners by paying the salaries of the 20 dedicated educators for this project and also presented hand skills training such as leather work, box making and paper craft to a further 225 learners.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   G4S Care and Justice Services (South Africa)
Institution Type:   Public-Private Partnership  
Contact Person:   Leana Goosen
Title:   Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   051-3410600
Institution's / Project's Website:   051-3410604
E-mail:   leana.goosen@za.g4s.com  
Address:   Kent Road 17, Dunkeld Gardens, Dunkeld
Postal Code:   2121
City:   Johannesburg
State/Province:   Gauteng
Country:   South Africa

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