Focus on: George Municipality Youth Offices

GEORGE NEWS - National Youth Month is celebrated annually during the month of June, with National Youth Day celebrations taking place on 16 June.

The focus of the youth offices at George Municipality, including Uniondale and Haarlem, will be on empowerment and mental and physical wellness.

Several activities will take place during this month, including job readiness training sessions, information outreaches, sports activities with the focus on overall wellness, mental health and gender-based violence, NGO capacity building, parental awareness sessions, and support provided to youth organisations with their youth month programmes.

National Youth Day celebrations this year will include a leadership summit for youth on the Changemakers programme and interactive programmes including sports and entertainment in Uniondale, Herold and Haarlem.

The Youth Offices in George, Uniondale and Haarlem also offer different services available to the youth, throughout the year. Its primary role is to play a strategic enabling role for organisations, departments that are working within the youth sector.

The Youth Office forms the bridge between access to local government services, products, and advice to civil society.

Some of the services that the Youth Office provides are listed below, but are not limited to:

assistance with tertiary applications (universities and colleges),
assistance with NSFAS applications,
assistance with EPWP unemployed database: George Municipality and Garden Route District Municipality,
assistance with Chrysalis Academy applications,
career readiness programme – includes assistance with CVs, cover letters and job applications, including other opportunities such as learnerships,
assists unemployed youth with photocopies, ID copies, copies of matric certificates for job-seeking purposes or other opportunities,
assistance with SARS e-filing registrations (Uniondale/Haarlem),
arrange workshops on information that is relevant and related to the youth, such as entrepreneurship, life skills and leadership training, career-pathing and more with different stakeholders, like the national youth development agency,
does referrals of young people to different stakeholders for assistance from the government, non-governmental organisations and other institutions,
assistance with school assignments (research and photographs),
assistance to fine-tune raw ideas into project proposals,
motivational and career sessions are being held at schools and with unemployed youth,
parental support programmes with stakeholders,
aftercare, holiday and weekend programmes,
skills transfer workshops, for example, beading, sewing, decoupage and upcycled goods programmes,
strategic support to stakeholders and role players in the youth development industry,
the youth offices offer general information outreaches in different areas,
facilitation of public participation in youth forums,
logistical support provided in programme/project roll-out,
youth ambassador programme to assist community organisations,
SRD assistance (Uniondale/Haarlem),
PSIRA claim profile assistance (Uniondale),
Universal bank assistance (Uniondale),
Referral of social issues to Department of Social Development (Uniondale/Haarlem).