The Expanding Horizons Campaign was initiated by final year occupational therapy student, Robyn Wilkinson, during her placement at Facing Up. This student was placed at the local high school in Lavender Hill. This campaign took place with a class of grade 8 learners. This class of learners was performing poorly academically and was known for being ill-disciplined and often in trouble with the school authorities.
She conducted an in-depth exploration, interpreting findings from a context related assessment that involved an analysis of the socio-economic and historical influences in a macro level; dialogues with key stakeholders, observation of occupations in the community and at school; analysis to develop insight into occupational profile of the community using available literature; participation in classrooms with learners. This including how history and race shaped the way occupations were performed in this community (Galvaan, 2010). Her synthesis of her assessment revealed who the learners were as occupational beings and what the character of their contexts was. This exposed that they had few opportunities to engage in a variety of occupations, both in and outside of school. Further to this it highlighted that their current repertoire of occupations provided little or no challenge.
Her assessment findings (implementing stage one of the framework) included that, in South African society:
Facilitators |
Barriers |
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Youth is often the focus of intervention in South Africa, as they offer opportunities to reach larger numbers of the community than any other age group. However, many needs remain unmet. |
High rate of alcohol and substance abuse in the community leads to youth engaging in alcohol use too |
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There are many already established organizations that are already working with the youth in the community, as well as in the school |
Violence and gang related crimes render community safety uncertain |
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The community of lavender hill is quite a tight knit one, where friends and family look out for one another. |
The high rate of unemployment in the community leads to not being able to satisfy all basic needs, as well as engagement in risk behavior. |
