Building Safe “Third Spaces”: Take 5 at the 2025 Regenerative Surf Conference

Last year, Waves for Change’s Take 5 team participated in the 2025 Regenerative Surf Conference, bringing the Take 5 model to trainers and coaches from Latin America working to create safe, supportive spaces for children beyond home and school.

The conference brought together programmes offering children safe “third spaces” — environments where they can connect, play, and build healthy relationships with peers and caring adults. The aim was not only to share knowledge but to equip trainers and coaches with practical tools to create and sustain them within their own programmes, deepen their understanding of how positive experiences shape children’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.

The Waves for Change (W4C) team facilitated two days of training with 75 practitioners from community organisations across Latin America. The Take 5 team introduced the five-step Take 5 routine, alongside facilitation techniques and coaching skills, supporting coaches to intentionally create positive experiences that encourage positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviours — reflecting the core aim of Take 5: to foster environments that promote children’s overall wellbeing and resilience.

Participants reflected on how the Take 5 model can positively strengthen their existing programmes, noting that:

Learning is more effective when it is fun
Students do not need to be serious to learn
Breathing practices can calm both body and mind
Meeting participants where they are emotionally matters
Being authentically yourself builds confidence over time

The translation and co-facilitation process was also a highlight. Translators and co-facilitators noted significant growth in their facilitation skills over just three days, boosting their confidence and passion for the work they do in their communities.

One participant highlighted the importance of simple, human responses when someone is having a difficult day:

Acknowledge their feelings
Thank them for sharing bravely
Check in again later

Through the Regenerative Surf Conference, Take 5 strengthened connections across countries, reinforced the importance of safe third spaces, and equipped trainers with practical, adaptable tools rooted in care, play, and positive experience.

Participants also shared unforgettable moments from the training:

“When I saw so many instructors putting the Take 5 into practice. It was a moment that deeply moved me. I was truly touched to see so many social agents in one place, training to do better work for their communities. I am very happy to have taken part. I felt emotional seeing so many changemakers united and sharing experiences.”

“Being on the beach in a circle, playing with Jose with the three groups, each singing a rhythm and then all at the same time, creating energy, living that moment of laughter, rhythm, and joy, building synergy and good vibes — forgetting everything else and being completely present — lifted my soul and made me laugh from deep within. It was a beautiful and joyful moment.”

Strengthening the Work Already Happening

Developed by Waves for Change (W4C), Take 5 is a teaching framework that uses sport and play-based activities to support children’s social and emotional development. Rooted in child rights, the model helps create spaces where children feel heard, respected, and protected, while learning simple stress management and self-regulation techniques that build confidence, resilience, and long-term wellbeing.

By centering fun, inclusion, and relational coaching, Take 5 supports programmes in creating environments where children — and the adults who support them — can learn, regulate, and thrive together. From Kenya, Morocco to South Sudan, our studies show that sport strengthens short-term protective factors that reduce long-term vulnerability to mental health disorders and risky behaviours, addressing adolescents’ needs holistically.

About Take 5

The Take 5 model was developed by Waves for Change (W4C), a South African non-profit organisation with a focus on improving the well-being of adolescents growing up in high-stress environments. Using sport as a tool for social and emotional development, Take 5 provides community safe spaces where children feel heard, respected, and protected. The model also uses play-based activities to teach simple stress management and self-regulation techniques, helping children build the confidence and resilience needed to support their long-term physical and mental wellbeing.