Mental Health Project

Young people should be able to move into opportunity with a sense of stability, confidence and direction.

But for many in South Africa, this is not the reality. High levels of unemployment, poverty and exposure to violence place ongoing pressure on young people’s mental health.

In our work, we see how this affects how young people show up, how they make decisions, and how they engage with opportunities. Without the right support, it becomes difficult to move forward.

Mental health is not separate from education, employment or entrepreneurship. It shapes whether young people are able to access and sustain these opportunities.

Our work focuses on strengthening how the youth development ecosystem responds to this.

What we focus on:

Building awareness

We emphasise the importance of mental health and psychosocial support in youth development work.

Supporting practitioners

We work with youth development practitioners to strengthen how they support the mental health of the young people they work with.

Sharing what works

We identify and share approaches to psychosocial support that are grounded in practice.

Contributing to broader change

We explore what is needed at a systems and policy level to improve access to mental health support for young people.

Our work to date:

Over the past four years, we have:

Run workshops across the country to support youth development practitioners
Delivered a national awareness campaign
Conducted an ecosystem analysis of available mental health resources
Produced the Youth Mental Health Services Directory
Developed a national call to action on youth mental health

Resources:

We have developed and curated a range of resources to support practitioners and organisations working in this space: