enke: Youth Award

Our high school program is called the enke: Youth Award. The enke: Youth Award is a nine-month leadership program where Grade 11 learners develop their personal leadership skills and implement projects of social action in their communities.

Participants are empowered to harness their potential and challenged to inspire & empower others in their own community to do the same. The Youth Award is made up of 3 components: the enke: Forum, Community Action Projects and Support & Recognition.

1. enke: Forum – Kicking off the Youth Award, the enke: Forum is a week of networking, training, and planning. We bring together young people from all walks of life who are united around a shared vision for a brighter future for South Africa.  At the enke: Forum, there is intensive, hands-on leadership training and practical skills to help learners turn an idea for social change into action. Learners will be inspired by their peers, young South African role-models and well-known contemporary thought- and action-leaders.
2. Community Action Projects -  We believe that Community Action Projects (CAPs) are how young people can make their mark.  Using skills learned at the enke: Forum, participants are challenged to take action on the social issues they are most passionate about. Participants have run projects addressing education, the environment, health and other social issues most relevant to them and their communities. They implement innovative projects that show how empowered youth can make a real difference in their communities.
3. Support & Celebration: We provide support throughout the 9 months of the Youth Award.  Support includes access to seed-funding for project implementation, a trouble-shooting hotline and opportunities to engage with the broader enke network. Through the experience participants learn to be proactive, creative problem solvers, developing skills that they carry throughout their lives. We believe that just initiating a project is an achievement well worth celebrating.  At the end of the program, achievements are recognized at the annual enke: Innovation Roadshow.

Impact

Our programs increase the social mobility, social responsibility and individual leadership capacity of young South Africans by reversing the trends of disconnection, unequal access to opportunities and apathy. The programs give participants essential life experiences that will make them competitive in the work place and, better yet, to create their own employment.

Measuring Our Impact

We measure the impact of our programs through our mission to Connect, Equip and Inspire.

enke has developed, in conjunction with Bain Consulting, an extensive impact tracking system.  Our monitoring and evaluation focuses on changes in delegates’ self perception, direct external feedback and longitudinal tracking via the Alumni Network.  Implementation success is gauged by the following:

• Connect: mapping the social networks of participants, we hope to visually represent the relationships of our participants not only to each other, but to their societies. We look at the diversity of networks created and how they are sustained.

• Equip: enke aims to impart key social and emotional skills to its participants. Using a questionnaire to ascertain participants’ perception of their own development in highlighted areas, we track the skill development of our participants throughout the program in key areas such as leadership development, communication, and self management

• Inspire: enke aims to empower youth to become positive change agents in their communities. We want enke delegates to be engaged and excited about overcoming social issues in their communities, society, and country. We measure the transition to entrepreneurial mindset and capacity to create positive change through the implementation of their Community Action Projects. This is a focus on community impact and individual development (e.g. ability to implement an idea, decision making, prioritisation, teamwork)