Greater Durban YMCA

Empowering young People for Life, Leadership and Service

The Greater Durban YMCA is a Non-Profit organisation affiliated to the SA YMCA and the Africa Alliance and World Alliance of YMCAs. There have been various iterations of YMCAs in and around Durban, which were drawn together into the Greater Durban YMCA in 2011. We have a staff complement of 5, 3 who coordinate programmes, one who does the administrative work, and a part-time General Secretary. We describe ourselves as a group of people who do not work for the YMCA, but who are the YMCA and we work for the communities we serve. Our goal is to empower young people for life, leadership and service

We have three main programme focus areas:
Y-Zone:
An After school care Programme that is offered to communities where After-care is not usually available, but very necessary. The key ingredients are: a safe space for kids to be after school; homework supervision; life-skills; and some fun. The Programme is offered at three schools in Umlazi, one school in Kwa Mashu, a community hall in G-Section Kwa Mashu and a creche in Luganda. The community hall and creche allow us longer hours, and more time with the children. Through their interaction, the children grow to trust the volunteers and feel safe to share areas of concern to them.Civic Empowerment and Local Action Groups:
This Programme engages various communities in dialogue regarding service delivery issues, educates people about their rights as citizens, addresses issues with the Local Councillors, and then the Local Action Groups, which are composed of young people from each community, develop programmes to address the service delivery issues that have been raised. This is aimed at converting people who have been conditioned to think of themselves as subjects into active, concerned, and participating citizens.Youth Justice:
This Programme has a variety of activities from providing life-skills courses in Westville Correctional Centre to working with parolees to engaging with high school learners on GBV and transformative masculinity. The idea of engaging with high school learners is a means of prevention from engaging in unhealthy and illegal activities, which will see them end up in prison.

Back a Buddy Campaign

https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/y-zone-after-care-programme

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