The supplement - the first in a series of three - is all about the importance of exploring your own identity on the journey of becoming an active and effective citizen.
It provides both practical tools and inspirational stories to ignite leadership and action and is designed to be used by individuals or groups in formal and informal training contexts.
It is a partnership between Times Media Education and Activate Leadership for Public Innovation, which is a national network of young change makers who are finding innovative ways to lead South Africa into a new era of transformation. Together, the media partner and network are working together in a bid to bring about systemic change at both a local and national level.
Mokgadi Matlakala is an activator who joined the network last year. Speaking about the theme of identity, as framed by the training material and stories in the supplement, she says, "By knowing your own identity, you see that there are people out there with the same goals as you. It means we can work on developing our communities and our country together. By finding yourself and knowing where you stand and where you are going, you can stay on course with others and what we are working towards for our future."
"It's important to us at Times Media Education that we not only support literacy and education, but also foster leadership development too, as this is an essential component to building our country," comments Patti McDonald, publisher of Times Media Education.
"By developing a highly connected, diverse, innovative and motivated critical mass of young people working on different issues and linking up nationally to influence public policy, we can support them as wise and capable leaders who can drive transformation in their communities," comments Chris Meintjes who heads up the network. "We offer support in the form of training, connection hubs and access to opportunities. Through the supplement we are able to spread our knowledge and tools to a wider audience so that even more activators can be inspired into taking action."
