The social enterprise BuildBack and the homeless support charity U-Turn have teamed up to create jobs for people who are getting back on their feet.
South Africa (09 July 2024) – Formerly destitute people are finding their feet and getting the chance to make a real difference at the same time. Programmes linking U-Turn Homeless Ministries and BuildBack help people in need learn useful skills and become job-ready; they even find full-time employment and give back to charity!
Founded in 2005 by Keith Robbertze, BuildBack’s idea was to create jobs for people who needed to learn and uplift themselves. He invested all his energy into creating a one-stop construction company with trustworthy individuals, training them to catch their own fish and providing for their families. The concept behind BuildBack is to help people Build Back into their communities.
U-Turn’s aim is to help the homeless community access social workers, homeless support workers, Occupational therapists, counsellors, trainers and life coaches. These people work through various programmes that cater to the needs of the homeless community and help them reintegrate into society, get off the streets and seek the treatment needed to combat addiction.
Many of the people who come into U-Turn’s programmes end up at BuildBack. Keith shared that they provide employment and skills development as well as counselling services to people who have been unemployed, homeless, caught up in addiction, gangsterism or simply ended up on the street because of circumstances.
He shared that the programme they are a part of has an 83% success rate, where people who were once on the street, after 6 years of follow up data are still working, housed and sober.
The participants in the joint project, have been doing work to give back too. They have been making dog kennels for animal welfare organisations. The U-Turn team were over the moon the they received 10 fully made kennels for animal welfare.
Between the two organisations, lives are being changed in a real way.
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