Western Cape After School Game Changer

The After School Game Changer (ASGC) is a strategic coordination model in the Western Cape, South Africa, designed to prevent youth violence by enhancing the quality and accessibility of afterschool care. Rather than a single program, it acts as a mechanism to align government departments, NGOs, and the City of Cape Town to provide academic, sporting, and cultural activities for learners in low- and no-fee schools. The report argues that the ASGC functions as a violence prevention tool by disrupting risky behaviors through the social ecological model, focusing on individual, relationship, and community-level interventions. Key achievements include increasing the number of registered learners to 134,380 in 2017/18, though the report notes a lack of budget transparency and a need for better reporting on how the intervention specifically addresses violence risk factors.

• The ASGC is not a standalone afterschool program but a strategic coordination model designed to support civil society and government partners in providing safe and stimulating afterschool care.
• The initiative targets learners aged nine to 25, specifically those from no-fee or low-fee schools, with a goal of reducing risky and violent behaviors and improving safety and life skills.
• The ASGC operates as a violence prevention intervention by applying the social ecological model to disrupt risky behaviors at the individual level through relationship and community-level interventions, such as providing safe spaces during vulnerable after-school hours.
• The program has seen significant growth in participation, with registered learners increasing from 49,000 in 2015/16 to 134,380 in 2017/18, and the percentage of those attending regularly and consistently rising from 36% to 56% over the same period.
• The ASGC utilizes four core components of practice: Edu-collaborate (an online platform for identifying services), a customized suite of training programs for practitioners and managers, a library of resources, and networking platforms like the Community of Practice.
• The Grade 4 Academic Support Programme is a specific intervention within the ASGC that uses unemployed youth (18-25) as tutors to help Grade 4 learners in 16 schools across the Cape Winelands, Metro East, and Metro North districts.
• The total approximate cost of the ASGC for the 2018/19 financial year was R215 million, including infrastructure costs, though approximately R130 million of the reported R160 million direct cost is not clearly reflected in budget votes.
• The success of the ASGC's coordination is attributed to high-level political buy-in, adequate resourcing, and a skilled core team of four staff members who are mandated to experiment and remain flexible.

APA

Parenzee, P. (2018). Western Cape After School Game Changer. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar20-1.pdf

Chicago

Parenzee, Penny. Western Cape After School Game Changer. Institute for Security Studies, 2018. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar20-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Parenzee |first1=Penny |title=Western Cape After School Game Changer |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=December 2018 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar20-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{parenzee2018western, author = {Parenzee, Penny}, title = {{Western Cape After School Game Changer}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar20-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }