Facing Up
Facing Up is an occupational therapy practice setting addressing the needs of marginalized groups. Facing Up operates as a practice learning site at mainstream schools for Occupational therapy students. Occupational therapy services at Facing Up are aimed at challenging the inequalities faced by youth. The approach to practice at Facing Up emerged out of a concern for how Occupational Therapy should be contributing to the occupational realities of youth who experience occupational injustice. Utilising theory drawn from key pieces of occupational therapy and occupational science research (Galvaan, 2000; Galvaan, 2010; Peters, 2011; Rudman, 2010; Wicks, 2005) and 11 years of experience working within marginalised contexts, we have developed a way of engaging with young adolescents. The intention of this practice is to liberate creative ways for young adolescents to think about their own situations and the issues that they face (Galvaan, Peters, Cornelius & Richards, 2012).
In the occupation-based community development approach applied at Facing Up, occupational therapy aims to challenge the structural inequalities faced by youth in Lavender Hill. Lavender Hill is situated on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, South Africa and is one of the areas to which Coloured people were relocated when they were forcibly removed from District Six during the Apartheid years in South Africa (Group Areas Act, 1950). As a result, the community lacks the infrastructure required for people to flourish and there is a perpetuated lack of opportunities for growth for youth in this community (Peters, 2011). There are few structured opportunities for enriching participation within the school and community context. Youth's occupations are historically predicated by dominant ways of thinking and acting that maintain their low socio-economic status in their community (Galvaan, 2010). Furthermore, many people living and working in Lavender Hill have been influenced by Apartheid ideologies and this still frames how they view the possibilities for people living here. These deep-rooted mindsets constrain the potential of youth in this context. For example, their plans for progressing from primary to secondary education and into the world of work are often poorly conceived. Occupational therapy practice at Facing Up operates on the premise that youth will be enabled to thrive as citizens and shape their futures as productive citizens through fundamentally changing what they are able to do in everyday life.
Click here to view the Lavender Hill gang wars video
