STUDENT COUNCILS (RCLs) 

Bottomup helps students to engage with school policy, leadership and change in a manner that prioritises justice, love, dignity and respect.

We facilitate RCL workshops and residential camps which help to cultivate and strengthen the following capacities:

    • Critical imagination- the knowledge and tools to understand how power works in society.
    • Civic literacy –  the knowledge and tools to actively participate in society
    • Social imagination – the ability to learn from history and to imagine alternative social realities.

Workshops we run include:

    1. RCL 101 – An introduction to the role and purpose of RCLs
    2. YPAR for RCLs – Using youth participatory action research as a method
    3. Critical Sociology for RCLs – Understanding Power & Oppression in School & Society.

Schools may contact us to book an on-site workshop:

Helene Rousseau

Email: [email protected]

THE STUDENT ASSEMBLY

The Student Assembly is a network of high school students who connect around collective social justice issues facing their schools. 

We provide students spaces to:

  1. Network and work together with students from other schools.
  2. Seek support from facilitators and peers through our moderated WhatsApp groups.
  3. Participate in interest-based workshops that build on the tools young leaders need to effect change
  4. Grow and learn about societal issues from community activists, critical scholars and professionals.

High school students in Cape Town who would like to join The Student Assembly may contact Helene Rousseau on 084 702 4733.

EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE

Everything Must Change is an annual youth event that brings together high school students from across the city to talk about social justice, education and society, and to encourage inter-school collaboration.

More than 100 high school students meet together for a three-day summit. At this summit, students participate in intergenerational dialogues with seasoned community activists and scholar-activists to talk about various social issues such as climate justice, education, anti-racism, anti-ableism, gender justice, and several other local and global concerns. Students also have the opportunity to participate in arts-based workshops where they are able to learn new skills and consider how they can be used to promote social justice.

RESEARCH COLLABORATION

Bottomup is open to research collaboration in education, arts and humanities, in projects that aim to contribute to informing more socially just and equitable policy and practice. 

Bottomup has participated in one major research project from 2020-2022 in partnership with the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education through the Changing the Story network, a global research project funded by the AHRC. We also successfully won a follow-up funding research grant with Changing the Story. Two of the high school students involved in the project were selected to participate on the project’s Youth Research Board.

The organisation has also collaborated with the Political Economy of Education Research (PEER) Network on the ‘Everything Must Change’ youth summit.

If you are interested in collaborating with us please email Ashley Visagie – [email protected]