UPliftment Programme celebrates 18 years of bringing joy

Cape Town - Cape Town-based UPliftment Programme (UP) celebrates its 18th anniversary of sparking moments of joy in often difficult spaces through artistic and musical interventions.

Having worked in helping foster socio-emotional wellness across the country for so many years, the programme believes that creating joy is an often-overlooked aspect of community development.

According to the founder of the UP, Nicola Jackman, over the 18 years of existence, the programme has visited settings that are not always associated with happiness, such as hospitals, orphanages and community centres and ran numerous "UPs" that helped create moments of joy for the elderly, adults and children in need of mental support as a result of stress, rape and trauma, via artistic and musical interactions.

Jackman said: ‘’The programme uses professionally trained "joy facilitators" who run artistic and musical interventions in order to spark some joy and emotional upliftment in a variety of settings. In South Africa, only about one in four people who need mental health support receive it, and supporting existing initiatives with joy sessions can be a part of closing that gap.

‘’We have been actively sharing joy for all these years, and when participants are given a healthy dose of joy, they’re better able to deal with the emotional and mental challenges they are faced with,’’ he said.

Jackman further said that recently they have been working with groups of youth both online and face-to-face and found that most of them seemed to respond with similar requests. Their requests were the need for safe spaces to be together, to share their pain and dreams and as well as skills for them to manage stress.

Gerhard Swanepoel, a criminologist, victimologist and specialist counsellor with a focus on Community and Health Psychology, said that communities need programmes such as the UP to also reduce the number of suicidal deaths, especially by youths.

“We need more of this type of creative intervention. I can attest after attending many sessions and campaigns with the UP that joy is definitely a workable outcome and part of the solution to South Africa’s mental health crisis. The inter-art and music platform techniques used by the programme really helps participants conquer their fears.

‘’As a result, the UP has been developing the Youth JOY Circles programme to address this identified need. The Joy Circles programme compliments many psycho-social interventions and contributes towards the youth’s sustained joy,” Swanepoel said.

Jackman added: “As we draw close to The UP’s 18th birthday, we are calling on all those inspired to be mentors and financial supporters to join UP - ensuring an inspired and successful roll-out of this inspired new Youth Joy Circles programme in 2022.”

Weekend Argus