Efficiency over growth

2022 marked a rebirth of sorts for us at POPUP. After two years of mass disruption in the way we think about and deliver education, last year’s primary objective was consolidation. We grappled with some of the consequences of leadership transitions and charting a path forward in the midst of uncertainty. We opted to focus primarily on our efficiency of execution to ensure we maximise impact returns for our funders.

Shifting Plates

It was a year full of hidden surprises. Like tectonic plates shifting, new mountains rise up, new valleys form. Weather patterns change. Suddenly, it’s raining in the desert and highways emerge in the seas. Our internal landscape changed significantly.

• Our sites in Tshwane halved in 2022.
  • POPUP Moot was mothballed due to a shift in strategy regarding ideal locations.
  • POPUP Raslouw was closed for infrastructure improvements. (Opened in October.)
• We experienced a 30% staff turnover during the first 6 months of the year with the leadership transition and change in season.
• 80% of our management team stepped into new roles last year.
• We executed a significant change in our learnership strategy to align to our mandate.

Reinforcements

Clarity is incredibly powerful. In a world fraught with ambiguity, moments of clarity pierce through the noise with conviction and certainty. Once we achieved this clarity regarding the way forward our team grew. Reinforcements showed up to make our hands strong.
We are deeply grateful for an almost complete management team that brings the necessary experience and capacity to our work. We were also fortunate to invest R800k in the Raslouw revamp project that brought that site back on-line for the last quarter of 2022.

Cast every hinderance aside

“let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” *
This was our mission statement in 2022. Let us cast of the weight. The burdens we carry that do not serve us in our race. Our ‘River of Hope’ clarifies our role and mandate. This is our Theory of Change, our role in the eco-system of our cities, and our contribution to seeing our cities made whole.

 River of Hope

1. Depicts the journey of a learner from Hopeless Consumer to Positive Contributor.

   

2. This is depicted metaphorically as a river split into three phases.
   1. Phase 1 – The consequences of social pain – A polluted river in the desert.
   2. Phase 2 – POPUP as the process that cleans the river.
   3. Phase 3 – A healthy river with a flourishing delta.

Phase 1 – Desert

Our Inputs – the drains are sources of social pain dumping waste into the river making it unhealthy. This affects the landscape making it arid and unfruitful.
Phase 2 – Farmlands

Our Process– the gears that we turn to ‘clean the river’, i.e., address the social pain:

1. Character – Our Life Skills Process where we address Identity, Calling and Contribution.
2. Capacity – Here we increase our learner’s capability to contribute to the working world.
3. Competence – Here we address specific practical skills that will help learners find employment.

The farming imagery is used for two reasons:

1. In the process of extracting pollution from the river, we repurpose it to create fertilizer (Value). That which seems worthless is turned into life giving produce.
2. To keep the desert at bay, we first create rigid structure and process (farming), an intensive, controlled process that ultimately allows the forest to flourish in a natural, unforced rhythm of grace in the delta.

Phase 3 – Forested Delta

Our Outputs – that which our work produces. Here the river splits into three channels as the river flows out into a flourishing Delta:

1. Advanced Skills – Because learners went through our process, they are now able to go onto further skills development with advanced providers within and outside of our eco-system.
2. Job Placement – Through our eco-system and industry specific interventions we place learners into employment, i.e., opportunities to make a positive contribution and earn money.
3. Entrepreneurship – Entry into our Incubation Process to further develop business skills and ultimately create their own sustainable income streams.

The trees are all different types and sizes because each learner is different. They have become the ‘Oaks of Righteousness’ that restore the desert into a flourishing eco-system where each person is valued –
A City of Wholeness where every person is:

• treated with dignity,
• contributes positively and
• lives with significance

Partner with us for 2023

We would love to become your Impact partner in 2023. There are several ways to get involved:

• As an Individual:
  • Select POPUP as a beneficiary on your MySchool Card
    • This donates 1% of your spend every month
    • Choose up to three beneficiaries so no need to stop giving to your kids schools.
  • Commit to a debit order
    • If you want to give to a cause in addition to your church giving.
  • Sponsor a Learner
    • The average learner journeys with us for 214 teaching days.
    • You can change a learner’s life by helping to fund this journey.
  • As a company:
    • BEE Spend – Learnerships, Skills, Enterprise and Supplier Development and Socio-Economic Development Spend
    • Section 18A Donations
    • Offer opportunities for workplace-based learning or job placement for our learners.
    • Offer Enterprise and Supplier Development
    • Get involved in funding our infrastructure.
    • Payroll giving

Contact us

For more information or if you would like to get involved, please get in touch. We would love to hear from you.