Integrated School Community Development Programme (ISCDP)

The ISCDP interpersonal communication strategy is based on the recognition that change of complex social situations requires integrated interventions that incorporate multiple strategies, which include local leadership and collective action that is supported and augmented by institutional support and systemic change. To this end, educators, school governing bodies, and traditional and municipal leaders, as well as community-based organisations (CBOs) and out-of-school youth, have been invited to participate. The programme is implemented using a participatory learning and action (PLA) research approach in order to enable TVT facilitators to develop a working prototype of developmental practice that is designed to foster meaningful and sustainable social change.

Since its inception, ISCDP has evolved from the integration of two separate, but related, TVT programmes:

1. The "Emotionally Safe Schools" programme, which was initially developed in partnership with a group of educators in Kwa Ximba: This programme trains South African teachers to be more sensitive to the emotional needs of pupils, especially those affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. The project is based on an interactive approach to learning that involves the school, the community, and the family. To that end, the programme aims to foster cooperation between educators, parents, and communities. It offers counselling training to educators and parents, teaches caregivers parenting skills, and gives advice on how to mobilise communities to establish a network of care and support for children. Through personal development and classroom intervention workshops, teachers learn how to develop the emotional and social competencies of their learners and to have the skills to recognise, give basic counselling to, and refer children who need more extensive psychological care. Specifically, teachers attend workshops where they are trained to use a participatory approach to learning, as opposed to the traditional transmission approach. In addition to the Personal Development workshop, a Classroom Intervention Workshop is offered that is based on 3 modules: Character Building Values, Win-Win Classroom, Caring and Sharing. They then apply these learning strategies in their classrooms, developing a culture of values that include positive discipline, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and cooperative group work. Teachers are also guided in how to apply for social grants to help those affected by HIV/AIDS.
2. TVT's leadership programme, which was developed with a group of traditional leaders in the Ethekwini District: Initially, this programme had similar activities to the above-detailed initiative; yet it focused not exclusively on educators, but, instead, on enhancing community leadership by bringing together traditional leaders, elected councillors, union leaders, school governing bodies, and leaders of civil society. Participants in this programme engaged in a process of personal development, and then were exposed to democratic leadership paradigms - acquiring skills for team leadership in creating supportive environments. The purpose here was initially to create a care support network around the school that will provide support to educators, families, and leadership.

Over time, the line between the two programmes became blurred, as TVT came to recognise that all educators, not only school management teams, need to have the capacity to lead and facilitate change, and that community leaders are as much in need of the opportunity to develop emotional and social competence and resilience as the educators. Fundamental to the achievement of this intention is the transformatory/emancipatory principle of creating development processes that enable people to discover and explore the source of power within themselves for choice, decision making, and action. This transformation is then shaped into diverse plans of the leadership groups for implementation of the new ways of thinking and being that are used to further develop capacity through participant implementation, with the support and mentoring of facilitators.

Children, Youth, Education, HIV/AIDS.

According to TVT, in the context of the national transition to democracy in South Africa, rural communities are challenged by multiple complex social risk factors. For instance, Kwa Zulu Natal is a rural area that TVT describes as having a high number of child-headed households and teenage pregnancies, and as being plagued by HIV/AIDS, crime, alcohol abuse, and poverty. In this atmosphere, TVT claims, strong leadership is key to building strong organisations, communities, schools, and families. Organisers explain that "[l]eaders need the ability to share power, to listen empathically, to seek to understand before wanting to be understood, to take advantage of diversity, to create an environment in which individuals are encouraged to develop their own potential, to harness the intelligence and spirit of the people at all levels, and to continually seek and share new knowledge. Participatory, enabling leadership is a critical element in creating environments that support and nurture the healthy development of all children...especially in the young people who are to be the leaders of the future."