Founded in 2017, the School of Hard Knocks (SoHK) is an award-winning non-profit organisation that uses sport, a research-based curriculum and in-depth mentoring to help vulnerable young people improve their physical and mental well-being. By combining an “evidence-based life skills through touch rugby” curriculum with mental health services we give vulnerable youth from under-resourced communities tools to better deal with the adverse childhood events that they have suffered, reducing the likelihood they will engage in risky or destructive social behaviours.
We work with 400 learners in “commuter” schools, with majority of students traveling by public transport, to school from outside the Cape Town CDB, including some of the most impoverished areas (Gugulethu, Llanga, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Hanover Park). In 2023, SoHK will be working in 5 schools: Harold Cressy High School, Sea Point High School, Queen’s Park High School, Good Hope Seminary, Trafalgar High School. Each leraner participates in a 20-week programme, that takes place across the school year.
Recently, SoHK has launched two new projects: NextGenMen and NextGenWomen. NextGenMen is a 6-week intervention aimed at reducing violence perpetrated by men – and, in particular, to reduce violence against women. The programme works with men and boys to address and dislodge embedded notions of toxic masculinity and improve mental wellbeing and self- regulation. NextGenWomen is a 6-week programme designed to provide women and girls with the mental health resources to deal with the challenges they face today.
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