Supporting Vulnerable Children to become Youth Leaders in South Africa: Shaping the Future of the Isibindi Safe Park Model Nationally

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This project will apply the research findings from AH/P007511/1 (Troubling the National Brand and Voicing Hidden Histories: Participatory Filmmaking as a tool for International Development and Community Empowerment) in a new context, in order to generate significant new impact at community level, on the one hand, and at national policy level on the other. In the original research, we explored how community-led arts interventions - in particular participatory filmmaking projects - could be used to challenge the way national level 'soft power' narratives are used to 'brand' the nation internationally in 3 ODA-recipient countries. Specifically, we aimed to support particular communities in these countries who feel themselves to be excluded from these narratives: the 'Denotified Tribes' in India, the 'Quilombos', or ex-slave communities in Brazil and the 'undocumented children' of illegal migrants in South Africa. Here we were particularly focussed on the potential of participatory filmmaking as a tool to support grass-roots advocacy to raise awareness of these groups' precarious place in society. This follow-on project will focus on South Africa. We will apply our original research findings to:1) use the model of grass-roots (in the case of South Africa, specifically youth-led) advocacy that emerged over the course of the previous project to develop an arts-based 'youth-leadership' programme to support the work of a number of Isibindi Safe Parks (ISP), community-based organisations that help vulnerable children and young people across Ekurhuleni Municipality in South Africa. In the process we will significantly extend the community-level impact of the original project, engaging new groups of young people.2) generate significant national-level policy impact in South Africa by working with the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW), who have approached us with the aim of using our research to inform the national standards of the ISP programme, and to deliver training to support the implementation of these standards. In the process, we will also deliver a child-led advocacy campaign to support NACCW's efforts to raise awareness of the ISP programme and its value nationally.Thus, our project will make a significant contribution the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in South Africa, in particular SDGs 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality), 16 (Peace and Justice Strong Institutions), 17 (Partnerships to achieve the Goals). These are of course interrelated. However, this project also takes cognisance of the tension between them. To what extent, for example, can a focus on the creation of 'strong institutions' (SDG 17) in practice work against a focus on 'participatory decision-making at all levels' (SDG 16), or 'gender equality' (SDG 5)? How might the construction of a 'peaceful' society be challenged by the need for an 'inclusive' society, where everyone's voice can be heard and respected (SDG 16)? Understanding the intersections and tensions between the SDGs, as they are realised on the ground, was central to our original research, and our learning from this earlier project in this regard will be important to the success of this follow-on project. Moreover, our project will also support delivery of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically Article 12: 'Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously.'