Community Hubs

Pivotal to loveLife’s face-to-face activities and community outreach efforts are our hubs. These are any venues that groundBREAKERs and Mpintshis can use as a face-to-face contact point and base to achieve the following objectives:

• To extend the loveLifestyle and lovingLife behaviour-change programmes to young people at the community level
• To intervene in the cycle of HIV infection in the most marginalised communities
• To expand youth development and empowerment opportunities linked to HIV prevention by building on a youth leadership corps
  

• 18 Y-Centres: loveLife Youth Centres (Y-Centres) are multi-purpose facilities for young people, providing a range of recreational and educational opportunities, as well as sexual health info, clinical services, and skills development.
  
  
• 168 Outlets: These are school-hubs in the most rural and marginalised communities of SA where there are few resources and often no community-based organisations. Through outlets in these communities, loveLife is able to reach young people who would otherwise not be reached.
  
  
• 215 Franchises: Franchise holders are youth-serving organisations in the communtiy that have approached loveLife to be focal points for the promotion of its activities and messages. The franchise holders provide a base from which groundBREAKERs and Mpintshis can implement loveLife outreach programmes, as well as serving as distribution points for loveLife’s print media.
  
  
• 516 Clinics: The majority of our hubs are Youth-Friendly Clinics, which aim to make public clinics more accessible for young people, while improving the quality of service they receive.
  

In addition to youth programmes, loveLife also carries out the Enviro-Ys programme within the hub structure. This programme has been designed to showcase and connect youth to opportunities in the ‘green’ economy, by empowering them with entrepreneurial skills to make a living from cleaning up the planet. It also encourages an environmentally-friendly way of life to help build self-esteem and a positive identity among young people.

Enviro-Ys activities include:

• Organic food gardens
• Recycling (paper & glass)
• Tree-planting programme
• Energy-saving programme (The Wonder Bag)
• Worm factories (Vermi compost & vermi liquid)
• Enviro-Ys Core 2 training
• Enviro-Ys campaigns (activities carried out on world or national environmental holidays, namely the litter programme, debates, competitions, Arbour Week and Born Free Dialogues).