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Greetings all. I am a community development practitioner based in Midrand, Johannesburg, Gauteng province in South Africa. In 2013, we set up an asset-based community development practice under the auspices of Jazz 4 Social Transformation & Empowerment Platform and called it by the acronym, STEP. Our departure was stimulated by the debilitating flow of drugs and substance abuse in the vulnerable communities accompanied by rampant domestic crime.
We sought to find alternative solutions to the usual rehabilitation centres that were bursting at their seems and could not handle the numbers. It was our humble opinion that the vast jazz appreciation societies is a captive platform to draw these young people, facilitate and provide a creative rehabilitation wherein they are exposed to monthly camps with a programme that involve motivational talks, teaching, project development, qualification enhancement through skills transfer, entrepreneurship and job placements.
We sold the idea to many venue owners and developed partnerships, secured collaborations with some of the community-based organisations, invited professional associations and the police services. However, we learnt that the problem was broader and more of a social system affected by poverty, unemployment and inequality which prompted alternative responses to these direct impacts consequent to the deteriorating. Companies were confronted by digital challenges against minimum skills supply; cheaper products penetrating the market; and thus laying off staff without absorbing new entrants.
As a result, the jobless helplessly roamed the streets in the hope of opportunities emerging elsewhere; except to exploit the saturated recreation and entertainment sector which ironically draws and packs patrons despite the lack of financial liquidity among the poor. To this end, herein lay an opportunity to help local communities identify hidden and undervalued innate resources, galvanise and use their passion to create and co-ordinate scalable and sustainable economic activities in collaboration with other community entities.
These are held locally, regionally and within the municipality challenges towards a provincial challenge preceded by formations of focus hubs who spearhead, administer community branding on behalf of the community, conduct symposia, commission requisite training and development; and subsequently accept, appraise and showcase historical legends followed by the appreciation of talent and skills.
Participating communities bid to host the challenges, at the various levels, ensure a clean, secure and stable environment that is attractive to enable administrative resources and investors. Our campaign is rotational over eighteen (18) month and conditional to the Covid regulations will now become hybrid and therefore increase to digital resources for live streaming and in person audiences. We are happy to share details of the campaign with anybody willing to collaborate and transform these communities into better social space and improved livelihoods for the Gauteng community.