WCG launches enrichment portal for afterschool practitioners

To thrive every child needs access to at least one caring adult in their lives. In almost every no and low fee school across the province, there exists a network of dedicated individuals and organisations who work after school each day.

They develop learners’ passion for education through academic, sport and creative arts activities. These coaches, practitioners and teaching assistants are a key resource to supporting children’s holistic development and often become the caring adult in learner’s lives.

Over the past few years, the After School Programme Office in the Western Cape Government has sought to develop a range of capacity building initiatives to support these Humans of the After School to ensure that they enrich their personal well-being, and to build their skill base.

The most recent addition to this basket of support is the enrichED portal, a partnership with the Community Chest, which is further brought to life through partnerships with other capacity building initiatives in the sector.

The enrichED Practitioner Resource Portal seeks to provide enriching support to the frontline staff of the extended education sector, during covid-19 and beyond.

Resources on the portal are divided into three categories namely, personal well-being; professional development resources and tools to enrich your programme.

The portal was shared during the first practitioner-focused Community of Practice event, held on the Zoom virtual platform, reaching practitioners across the Western Cape. Using the portal as a resource guide, the practitioners were engaged in discussions about how their work has been affected by covid-19 and the related school shutdowns.

Staying true to the resilient nature of the sector, Cassandra Carels, from School of Hard Knocks reflected that, “while running programmes during covid-19 context has been challenging, this time has also offered us a window more directly into our learners' lives. This will certainly help as we think about programming in the new normal”.

To access the portal visit: www.enriched.org.za