Building afterschool spaces that protect: how we brought the sector together
Every afternoon across the Western Cape, coaches step onto fields, courts and beaches with children in afterschool programmes. What happens in those sessions can shape a young person’s future. At Waves for Change, we believe every one of those coaches can create a space where children feel safe, cared for and able to cope.
That belief is why we partnered with the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) to design and co-host Beyond participation: Shaping the experiences of youth in the afterschool programme space, alongside the City of Cape Town’s Recreation and Parks Department. Scheduled to coincide with for this year’s global Lights On After School campaign, the event brought government, researchers, coaches, civil society and young people together. Our goal was clear: to show civil society what quality afterschool spaces can achieve for children’s mental health and wellbeing and how Take 5 can help any organisation build them.
A shared commitment
The evidence is clear. Planet Youth’s research shows that many young people in the Western Cape take part in sport, but sport alone doesn’t protect them. What makes the difference is the quality of the experience, the environment, the relationships with coaches and other adults, and the way sessions are run.
Take 5 is our answer to that challenge. We developed it to get the most out of the coaches already working with children, so that every session becomes a safe space where children experience caring relationships, find respite from stress and learn skills to manage adversity. Built around a simple, repeatable teaching routine and nine evidence-based helping skills, Take 5 gives coaches simple, practical tools to keep sessions with adolescents fun and engaging.
Our flagship Take 5 partnership in South Africa is with DCAS’s MOD Programme, which reaches more than 70,000 learners a year through 315 centres and 400 coaches. The coaches are already in place; Take 5 helps them make every session count. In a 2025 pilot with DCAS we found that Take 5 reduced harmful coaching behaviour by 59%, increased child attendance at MOD programmes by 66% with over 90% of children reporting improvements in social connections, new coping skills and feelings of happiness and stress relief.
“Thank you to our partners at Waves for Change and your awesome Take 5 model,” said Danielle Manuel, Director: Sport Development at DCAS. “The importance of breathing, self-regulation, finding your voice and your own power.”
ALIVE: putting Take 5 to the test
We believe Take 5 is effective, and now we’re working with DCAS to prove it. At the seminar, W4C introduced ALIVE, a randomised controlled trial with the University of Cape Town that will test the efficacy of Take 5 when it is integrated into DCAS school sport programmes.
Over three years, 2027 to 2029, ALIVE will investigate the long term health and behaviour outcomes of adolescents in participating schools and test whether including Take 5 reduces the incidence of mental illness. The aim is to move Take 5 from a promising model to one backed by rigorous evidence, so that schools, Government and funders can invest in it with confidence.
Where we go from here
We left the seminar energised and hopeful. Provincial government, the City, researchers and civil society are asking the same question: can the programmes that already reach thousands of children do more to promote their mental wellbeing and protect their mental health?
Many of us remember a favourite coach or a favourite teacher, and how they were the difference for us,” Paula Yarrow of Waves for Change. “Partnerships like this one make sure some of South Africa’s most vulnerable children have the best chance of meeting that coach or that teacher. It really matters, and we’re excited to grow the reach.”
“We believe we have the opportunity to facilitate change through upstream investment. When we make this investment, we reduce the downstream costs, and we give learners the opportunity to be the best versions of themselves and to thrive in a psychologically safe space,” added Danielle Manuel.
That is what we’re working towards: every afterschool session led by a coach who knows how to make children feel safe, valued and eager to return to the after-school programme.
Events like this are central to how we grow awareness and uptake of Take 5, so more organisations can bring it to the coaches and children they already reach.
If your organisation works with children after school and wants to strengthen what you offer, we’d love to bring Take 5 to your coaches.