Challenge
Secondary schools in places of high unemployment can be breeding grounds of helplessness, drugs, gangs, young teen pregnancies and drop-outs. Few who start in secondary school finish with a matric pass. Columba Leadership was founded in 2009 to help youth become alive to their potential and lead change in their own lives, their schools and communities. This was being achieved by an intense focus on youth leaders and educators to adopt core values which could cascade through the schools.
Funders often asked whether this approach is less cost-effective than broad-based programmes.
Process
Freedthinkers was asked: -
- to develop a model of change
- to facilitate a shared purpose that would inspire and guide all stakeholders
- to investigate quite different school environments and understand if and how the Columba programme was received differently
- to facilitate a deep reflection on how the organisation’s values show up in practice
We blended desk research, stakeholder insights, and dialogues with leadership.
Together, with Columba, we built a measurable model of change that moves from human capital to social capital. We facilitated a purpose that has evolved to become "Awakening the leader within to change lives and their communities". The school comparison project refined segmentation.
Impact
"We provide our investors with social return on investment of R4 for every R1 spent.” www.columba.org.za
The model now has the data to measure value for money.
Growing the culture, the value proposition and business case together, with internal and external stakeholders, is a fundamental for growth
“freedthinkers excel at synthesizing complexity into compelling but simple statements and visual representations. This assists not only communication with external parties but aligning internal stakeholders as well.”
Tracy Hackland, CEO Columba Leadership
