28 Feb 2022

Urban Rhythm Youth Centre on Thursday held an open day event to share with stakeholders the organisations’ journey in empowering and nurturing young people in Lobatse since its formation 10 years back.

Outlining the operations of the centre, director of Urban Rhythm Mr Shannon Shores said Urban Rhythm was formed in 2012 with an objective to empower youth after realising that young people needed help with various challenges they faced such as alcohol abuse, poverty, gender based violence, pregnancy and others.

He said the centre used a variety of programmes such as Leaders 4 Life Internship, Reach 4 Life Clubs, Friday Night Ignite, Saturday Spark, Man Up, Who We Are, and Ladies of Legacy, to nurture, guide and mentor young people.

He said they also had a football club for boys and girls, adding  that they held camps at the centre to inspire and motivate young participants.

Mr Shores said they had created a welcoming environment at the centre to take youth away from the streets and assimilate them into their programmes.

“We have a system of discipleship and mentorship that we call ‘One To One’ where we literally give every single youth we come in contact with a mentor to teach them the positive and healthy ways to live.

Not only that, we actually look to train every youth to be a mentor and a positive impact in their community,” he said.

He said they reached around 700 youths with their programmes on a weekly basis and the focus was on peer to peer approach.

“We are planning to extend our reach both here in Lobatse and outside.

Here in Lobatse we would like to open an educational computer lab to help youth learn computer skills.

Secondly, we would like to start an out of school feeding programme to help pupils with their homework and meals,” Mr Shores said.

He said resources permitting, they would like to extend their youth centres to places such as Kanye, Jwaneng, Maun, Francistown, Selebi Phikwe, Serowe, Mahalapye and Gaborone.

Chief finance officer of Urban Rhythm, Ms Lindsay Shores said the centre needed about P60 000 every month to keep going.

She said they spend P6 000 to P8 000 per month on the feeding programme, for which they sometimes received donations.

Despite the challenges, Ms Shores said their motivation was on the need to transform lives of young people in the community.

The programmes coordinator Mr Emmanuel Motsemme said their programmes, such as Man Up, focused on teaching young boys how to become responsible men.

He added that the Ladies of Legacy programme focused on women empowerment.

“The centre operates throughout the week except on Mondays,” he said.

Mr Motsemme appealed community members to come forth and assist the centre in any way possible; be it by donating resources or time to spend with the youth and mentor them.

He said transforming young people would result in a better society in the future. ENDS