A Hanover Park teenager has managed to change her life by taking part in the Youth Impact and Sustainable Solutions (YISS) programme at Crystal High School.
Cilene James, 18, hopes that she will inspire others to do the same.
Before she joined the programme she was a troubled teenager who stayed out late at night, drinking and partying with her friends with not a care about where her life was going.
Last Thursday, YISS held its graduation at which 12 youth received certificates in hairdressing and hospitality. They had completed the courses between November last year and February.
Cilene will be graduating with a certificate in hairdressing in the next few months.
YISS offers a 35-day programme and the students get breakfast and lunch. In the first 25 days they receive technical training, which is followed by a five-day business skills course and the last five days are dedicated to life skills training. The life skills cover a broad range of topics including rape education and HIV/Aids workshops, how to manage your life, learner driver’s licence classes, career guidance, stress management, anger management, trauma counselling, love and relationships, racial integration, as well as gang and drug awareness.
In the business skills component, they are taught financial management, how to draw up a business plan and create their business profile, as well as entrepreneurial development training. They are also introduced to the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), which offers grant funding.
After completing the course, the students go into an aftercare programme with a mentor. All this is offered for free, but the students, after completing all aspects, then owe YISS 200 hours of volunteering a year, for three years.
Cilene said now she was able to live a more fruitful life by taking part in enriching activities at the YISS hub and staying at home rather than having her mother look for her late at night.
“I joined the group in November last year. YISS changed my life. Now I know that there are people that care about me and love me. I started hairdressing at home and now I am continuing it through the programme. It has taught me so much discipline and about life skills as well and now other people that know me in the area also want to do it and my parents are very proud of me,” she said.
On the same day as the graduation, the youth treated about 40 seniors from the Fairy Godmother seniors group to a Valentine’s Day lunch.
Social worker supervisor for the Department of Social Development, Anita De Jongh, thanked the elderly for playing a vital role in society. She said that seniors have so much passion and patience and the youth could learn a thing or two from them. “We have to learn that when we can’t control things around us we must learn to control ourselves. More young people are out of school and YISS is a good project to avoid that. There is good in this community and it takes a community to make things like these succeed,” she said.
She said the youth had proven themselves by transforming into determined adults who were ready to take over the world. “We give up on our children too quickly but we need to keep having faith and we will see the small changes along the way,” said Ms De Jongh.
She encouraged parents to take control of their children as the future adults and take responsibility for their shortfalls and achievements.