An outcome evaluation of Mamelani Projects' Youth Development Programme
Youths living in foster care homes within South Africa are required by law to leave these places of care when they reach the age of majority (18). To assist the successful integration of these youths into society, services that include mentorship, daily life skills training, housing support, job training, healthcare, counselling services and educational scholarships can be provided to these youths prior to their aging out of care. All these services fall under the field of youth development, whose main function is to empower youths by fostering self-direction and skills development through encouraging personal responsibility in the health and physical, personal and social, cognitive and creative, vocational and civic arenas (Hudson, 1997). To assist male foster care youths living at the Homestead Children's Home in Khayelitsha, Mamelani Projects established a youth development programme named Project Lungisela in 2005. The established programme aims to prepare male youths living at the foster care home aged between 16 and 17 to become independent, responsible and contributing members of society after they graduate out of care (Mamelani Projects Annual Report, 2009). The focus of this outcome evaluation was to determine whether the programme had contributed to the successful integration of these at-risk youths into society. The first phase of the outcome evaluation involved the description of the intervention's activities and the intended outcomes for the youths after programme participation. The programme's medium-term outcomes consisted of the youths gaining work experience through internships and finding suitable accommodation prior to their aging out of care. Long term outcomes consisted of the youths gaining full time employment and living healthy, independent lives after transitioning out of care.
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