02. Economic Growth & Job Creation
Creating paid work through programmes that strengthen communities
Every community programme needs people to bring it to life. Jika Uluntu creates paid work by recruiting, preparing and employing local facilitators, performers, Ubuntu Mentors, programme assistants, coordinators, administrators, community mobilisers and media practitioners to deliver programmes in schools, organisations and communities.
This connects socially useful work with income, practical experience, skills development and pathways to further earning opportunities—particularly for young people and creative practitioners who face barriers to formal employment.
Why this model matters
South African communities need both quality services and meaningful work opportunities.
Schools, public institutions and community organisations need people who can facilitate, perform, mobilise, coordinate, document and support programmes. At the same time, unemployed and underemployed people need paid entry points into work, practical experience and opportunities to develop recognised competence.
Jika Uluntu brings these needs together. Programme budgets are used to pay local people to deliver work that creates public and community value.
From work opportunity to longer-term earning pathways
People may enter through public employment, funded programme delivery or training. From there, they gain experience, develop competence and move toward further work, learning or enterprise.
The Model
Our job-creation model has four connected pathways.
PATHWAY 01
Public Employment
Entry through EPWP and related programmes
Where a project is supported through the Expanded Public Works Programme or another public-employment mechanism, Jika Uluntu recruits and employs participants in defined programme roles.
Depending on the project, these roles may include community mobilisation, participant support, programme administration, logistics, communications, documentation, performance or facilitation support.
PATHWAY 02
Paid Programme Delivery
Earning through work that creates community value
When a school, government department, NPO, company, foundation or other partner commissions or funds a Voices of Ubuntu programme, the delivery budget includes the people required to implement it professionally.
This creates paid roles for facilitators, artists, Ubuntu Mentors, programme coordinators and support teams. It also ensures that programme preparation, safeguarding, delivery, documentation and follow-up are carried by people who have been properly prepared and remunerated.
PATHWAY 03
Training and Supervised Practice
Learning while doing the work
Participants do not simply enter a short placement and leave with no progression.
They receive induction, role-specific preparation and supervised workplace experience. Depending on the pathway, participants may develop skills in facilitation, safeguarding, performance, community engagement, administration, documentation, communications or programme coordination.
Within Voices of Ubuntu, people may progress into programme-assistant, facilitator, Assistant Joker, Joker or Ubuntu Mentor roles according to their interests, competence and the opportunities available.
Assistant Joker and Joker are specialist facilitation roles within Forum Theatre. The Joker guides audience participation, asks reflective questions and helps a group rehearse different responses to the challenge shown on stage.
PATHWAY 04
Further Earning Opportunities
From a first opportunity to repeat work and progression
EPWP and programme-delivery roles are treated as entry points rather than final destinations.
Depending on the person, the experience gained and the opportunities available, progression may include:
- repeat Voices of Ubuntu programme work;
further training; - employment with Jika Uluntu or a partner organisation;
- freelance facilitation or creative practice;
- enterprise development;
- institutional or community-development roles; or
- progression into Ubuntu Mentor practice.
We do not separate job creation from service delivery. We employ and develop people to deliver the programmes their communities need.
The people who bring the programme to life
Depending on the programme, funded project or commission, paid roles may include:
What the model is designed to create