More about myself:

I have in-depth experience of community mobilisation, community development, and conflict resolution. Having been involved with higher education transformation for the past 31 years offered me the opportunity to fuse community development with one of the core functions of a university, namely community engagement.

My role mainly involves the following:

• Strategic leadership
• Coordination of institutionally engaged scholarship programmes and processes
• Building and supporting sustainable partnerships

We are privileged to be part of a team that ensures that the university is committed to its mission of building an institution that is engaged in finding sustainable solutions to societal challenges in partnership with different communities.
 
 

More about myself:

I believe that engaged scholarship aims to co-create new action-oriented knowledge, and that it integrates, shares, applies, and mobilises knowledge for positive social change towards the common good and well-being of people, profit, and planet for establishing a caring, democratic, socially just, and responsible future for all.

My key roles and responsibilities in the directorate include:

• Liaison with local to global stakeholders for the advancement of engaged scholarship and social justice for the common good of society
• Capacity development and support to advance the performance of quality engaged scholarship in community-university research partnerships
• Quality management, monitoring, and impact evaluation of engaged scholarship

The function of Community Engagement at the university adds value to people’s lives daily, and that pleases me. Engaged scholarship (ES) enables the application of academic scholarly work and professional expertise, with an intended public purpose and mutual benefit that demonstrates engagement with external (and non-academic) constituencies to address societal challenges for sustainable development and social justice. Community engaged scholarship includes the teaching, discovery, integration, application, and engagement involving academic staff, students, and partner communities in a mutually beneficial partnership. It is characterised by clear goals, adequate preparation, appropriate action-oriented methods, and significant results.

More about myself:

I believe that our directorate already has a positive impact on the lives of people in the community. The directorate has been delivering services for many years, and we have managed to sustain all our partnerships.

Moreover, I also saw how people’s lives were changed through our Community Engagement programmes, enabling individuals to start sustainable businesses. These individuals now not only support themselves and take care of their families financially, but they also grow their businesses in such a way that they could create jobs, making it possible for other persons to also take care of themselves.

My three main responsibilities are:

• The coordination and facilitation of socio-economic development programmes, forming partnerships with funding agencies, and developing business incubation programmes.
• Monitoring and evaluating projects in Community Engagement, especially the income-generation projects initiated during a training session on socio-economic development. I am also involved in building social cohesion in the wealth creation programme, which is in line with the National Development Plan.
• Coordinating the management and implementation of citizenship programmes between the UFS and the communities.
  
  
  

More about me:

I see myself working mainly behind the scenes. Sometimes it is challenging but I enjoy it, because I work and learn at the same time.

I am mainly responsible for the following: 

• Ensuring that the Community Engagement fleet is clean, safe, and reliable, thus not only ensuring that my colleagues have a safe experience, but also adding to the positive reputation of the university.
• I am also responsible for booking and issuing clean vehicles to my colleagues.
• Ensuring that all vehicles are serviced on time and are ready to use.
• Ensuring that all faculty kilometres are logged, captured, and sent to the relevant person on a monthly basis.
• Attending to any defects on any of the vehicles.

I would like to see Community Engagement spreading its wings to change the lives of more people, including young people, adults, the disadvantaged, as well as people in rural areas. My hope for the latter is to be given an opportunity where they can obtain more skills that will enable them to get jobs or to create their own employment.
 

More about myself:

I am excited about the role I am playing to close the gap between the university and the community, contributing to our student’s graduate attributes, and having a positive social impact on society.

I work towards creating an enabling environment for Engaged Scholarship on the Qwaqwa Campus. My main responsibilities and duties include providing support to staff and students on the campus regarding Community Engagement activities. I also liaise with our people in the communities, establishing and promoting effective partnerships with provincial structures, the town of Phuthaditjhaba, and our stakeholders. Moreover, I monitor and maintain different sustainable projects, and create platforms for social entrepreneurship and wealth creation programmes for a positive social impact.

My vision for our campus and its community is to be a place where social entrepreneurship is promoted. I believe it will eliminate poverty and promote economic growth.