Train the roots to hold the tree
Become an Ubuntu Mentor
Develop the knowledge, facilitation skills and supervised practice to create safer, more reflective and participatory spaces in schools, organisations and communities.
Ubuntu Mentor Training prepares youth leaders and practitioners to use Ubuntu-rooted, arts-based methods with structure, care and responsibility—helping people find expression, understand different perspectives and identify constructive ways forward.
What is an Ubuntu Mentor?
An Ubuntu Mentor is someone who has developed the ability to create structured spaces in which people can participate safely, reflect honestly, understand one another and identify constructive ways forward.
Ubuntu Mentors do not arrive with ready-made answers. They help groups recognise the knowledge, relationships and capacity already present, while holding the process through skilled facilitation, safeguarding and clear professional boundaries.
They may work with children, young people, colleagues, families, practitioners or community groups, depending on their role and setting.
An Ubuntu Mentor learns to:
Ubuntu Mentor is not simply a title. It is a practice of helping people feel heard, participate safely and move from reflection toward responsible action.
Who can become an Ubuntu Mentor?
Ubuntu Mentor Training is designed for people who already hold—or are preparing to hold responsibility for others within a community or institutional setting.
Applicants should be willing to reflect on their own practice, receive feedback, work within safeguarding boundaries and learn through both participation and supervised experience.
What you will learn
Roots:
Ubuntu, Self and Ethical Practice
Practice:
Safe and Participatory Facilitation
Delivery:
Turning Method into Implementation
How the training works
From learning to competent practice
Ubuntu Mentor Training is available as an intensive learning experience or a longer blended pathway with guided practice and reflection. Dates, contact time, entry requirements and delivery format are confirmed for each cohort.
Build knowledge in Ubuntu philosophy, safeguarding, facilitation, emotional literacy, group process and arts-based practice.
Rehearse methods, facilitate activities and learn how to respond to different forms of participation and group dynamics.
Use the learning in a structured practice setting or supervised programme environment.
Receive feedback, participate in debriefing and use documentation and reflective assessment to strengthen practice.
Apply the learning within a school, organisation or community, or move toward additional programme-delivery and specialist facilitation pathways.
What grows through the training
Where the pathway can lead
Ubuntu Mentor Training can strengthen how participants work within their existing roles and may also support progression into further practice
From training to opportunity
In one facilitator-development cohort, 26 unemployed young creatives received Voices of Ubuntu training, gaining practical, work-ready skills and a pathway toward paid opportunities within the creative and community-development sectors.
As they learnt to create safe and engaging spaces for others, participants were also supported to reflect on their own experiences, reconnect with creativity and grow in confidence.
This example demonstrates the dual value of the model:
Accreditation and Recognition Pathways
Ubuntu Mentor Training is currently offered as applied professional development and supervised practice.
Jika Uluntu is developing formal accreditation and qualification pathways for Ubuntu Mentor Training and related occupational learning.
Every cohort or proposal will state clearly whether the offer is: