Blackboard Africa
Organization Details
Blackboard Africa is a non-profit company registered in South Africa. We are a company that serves young people between the ages 13-25 in predominantly previously disadvantaged
communities across South Africa. We have identified a lack of 21st century readiness from these age brackets and have chosen this particular demographic because they are some of the most neglected individuals in society. Blackboard Africa seeks to combat these growing issues by working with learners to identify purpose and foster leadership qualities that enable young people to be better acting and contributing citizens. Our Youth Leadership Programmes are designed to build both internal resilience and outward social mobility for the African youth to deal with the vast and complex real-life challenges they face in their communities.We promote the culture of problem solving, critical and creative thinking for life and community.
Impact Story
Some major issues facing South African youth are; high unemployment, various forms of
porvety, declining mental and physical health issues, shocking rates of rape, sexual abuse and
other forms of gender- based violence. The dropout rate in South African schools is at a
shocking 48% with increased rates amongst higher grades. This is due to teenage pregnancy,
inaccessibility to schools, lack of funds, lack of career guidance and learning motivators that
essentially leads to poor academic performance.
Our Leadership program is called The Flame and we’ve developed a 4 part module structure that equips youth aged 13-17 to deal with the complex challenges in their communities such as child headed homes, substance abuse, poverty, rape, abuse ect. Our second program, Pass The Baton, is about fostering an entrepreneurial mindset amongst youth. The program looks at getting the learners to think critically about the services, goods and opportunities that there are for them to create a sense of livelihood. In an increasingly digital world we cannot afford to have the rates at which these communities are off the digital grid and unable to compete and participate.This has dictated our focus of the programs to include digital upskilling as we work to help them know how to ideate, create and validate any kind of enterprise that they might seek to launch.
