A novel programme to transform a community by positioning a neighbourhood school as the hub of a collaborative network

1. Cowan GOOD to GREAT
Programme
Prototyping an innovative new collaborative
approach to CRIME PREVENTION
… via EDUCATION, ART and
LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

2. Breaking with convention
• A depressed local economy with rampant
unemployment is a breeding ground for crime
and violence.
• New Brighton, where Cowan High School is
situated, is one of three police precincts in the
Eastern Cape (South Africa) that have seen
sharp rises this year in crime, with car
hijacking, house burglaries and business
robberies showing the sharpest increases.

3. Reducing dependency
• Conventional Social Crime Prevention wisdom regards the
alignment of the programmes of different government
departments and civil society as a key contributor to
improved community social cohesion.
• However conventional logic is flawed and seemingly
ignores one VERY key issue … people cannot survive
without a sustainable source of income. Social grants are
not an answer … they increase rather than reduce
dependency.
• The challenge which the Cowan GOOD to GREAT
programme faces is reducing dependency by opening up
opportunities for income generation and sustainable
livelihoods ... for both graduating students and the
community at large.

4. A New Paradigm
• We believe there is a need to look BEYOND
‘alignment’ and ‘integration’ and explore
outside-the-box solutions;
• We need to shift from our traditional
“Western” way of thinking to embrace a new
paradigm;
• The traditional African ethos of UBUNTU,
which is all about COLLABORATION for mutual
benefit … provides a better answer.

5. The challenge …
The increasing crime and violence in New
Brighton challenges us to address social
fragmentation … by developing a cohesive
community with a common vision of the future
and a WORKABLE PLAN to achieve that vision.

6. Collaboration … differentiating the
G2G Programme
• Well known examples of how collaboration has been
applied on a massive scale include ‘Wikipedia’ and the
‘Linux’ computer operating system … open source
initiatives that tap into the Power of the Crowd.
• What differentiates our approach is that we are
proposing a system that enables people to profit from
their involvement in an on-going and sustainable way.
They are not simply helping someone else to solve a
problem … they are materially benefitting THEMSELVES
by provide answers.

7. The potential of Collaboration
A ‘collaboration’ approach changes the power dynamics in the
community … enabling the emergence of a new business model based
on co-ownership rather than the traditional employer/employee
model.
• It recognises that each contributor offers something of unique value
(be it know-how, skills, contacts, money, or whatever) which can be
channelled towards the ‘common good’ of participants;
• It realizes that “community” need not be restricted to the
“terrestrial” level only … but benefits by removing geographic
restrictions and operating in a ‘open’ manner.
• This capability to tap into the wisdom know-how and skills of our
‘own’ global team of experts offers us the potential to recruit
whatever expertise and support is necessary. The Power of
UBUNTU!

8. Social Networking
• Before the advent of social networking, assembling a
collaborative team of this nature was virtually impossible.
• With the advent of Facebook and Twitter (in particular) we
have unlocked infinite potential to build community-based
business structures … providing we have a sufficiently
cohesive social networking infrastructure to bring the
players into direct communication with one another and
manage this interaction.
• Through our ability to plan in a creative but systematic way,
it is possible to trigger the development a cohesive, self-
sustaining local community economy.

9. Hypothesis: The school as the hub of
a global community:
• Every school is a unique institution, drawing together a large and random
crowd of people … and moulding them into a “community” based on
their shared experience of school life;
• ‘Pride in one’s school’ invokes our first sense of ‘loyalty’ (beyond the
immediate family) … it is the glue that binds a disparate set of individuals
into a unique “community”;
• Eventually, former students will spread their wings and develop their
own individual networks … but still remain forever anchored and
emotionally attached to their school … the ‘safe space’ that shaped their
formative years;
• School is a powerful emotional anchor for many of us … it is from these
roots that a great tree will grow.
• The extended school community provides a huge resource pool of
imagination, skills, know-how and experience … it is the school’s unique
“Crowd” … a global network that, if we can effectively harness it, has the
potential to provide answers to virtually any problem we’ll ever need to
face.

10. Cowan High School : Introducing our
Pilot Programme
• The Cowan G2G Programme is an initiative
conceived in collaboration with a great bunch of
kids from Cowan High School in New Brighton.
• Cowan High School is an impoverished but
inspirational township school in a struggling
community ... located within line of sight of Port
Elizabeth’s iconic 2010 World Cup soccer stadium.
• Cowan has a proud history … and instead of being
satisfied with being ‘average’ the Cowan
Community consciously decided to be the VERY
BEST that they could be.

11. The school as a Open Collaborative
Networking hub
The success of The Cowan High School G2G concept depends on our ability
to nurture and develop a local “community” with global outreach.
We choose to anchor our community to a local school because we believe
that a school has several unique attributes from a networking perspective:
• Every school is the hub of its own unique community.
• As we connect up the school’s community we initiate an ever-expanding
social network, whose ‘reach’ is global.
• Using social networking principles, we can grow , inter-connect,
structure and manage ‘our’ school’s community.
• By ensuring that goals are agreed, individual programmes and projects
are aligned … we’ll all work together to mutual advantage
Think about it … the ‘old-boys club’ of upper-class ‘establishment’ schools
shape the future success of everyone who passes through those hallowed
portals. Although our motives are rather more altruistic, this is clearly a sound
theory to build on.
We simply speed up and formularise the process.

12. Cowan’s Unique Strengths and
Opportunities
• The school’s most obvious current ‘strength’ is in the
performing arts, where they have a number highly talented
vocal performers in the school’s sublime (and award-
winning) choir;
• The school’s financially-challenged neighbourhood
community offers a wealth of accessible skills and know-
how (particularly in the area of manufacturing … thanks to
industrial lay-offs and a weakening local economy) that can
be translated into marketable products;
• The Cowan Kids through their rapidly developing social
networking skills, hold the key to expanding the focus from
the local to the global market.

13. Modelling our approach
The Cowan G2G Programme focuses
attention on three separate areas:
• Education;
• Art; and
• Entrepreneurship
Each is an independent open innovation
Academic Art and
project in its own right, but their Culture
objectives are closely aligned and
designed to interact holistically to achieve
the common vision and the broader aims
and objectives of the programme.
In our model, Integration happens
horizontally, vertically an laterally, and
from a right-brain, left-brain and total- Entrepreneurship
brain perspective … to encourage a cross
pollination of ideas across different
disciplines

14. Programme Aims
• Academically, we WILL transform Cowan into a
great educational institution with results that
rival and even surpass the finest “elite” schools in
the area;
• Artistically, we WILL develop the latent talent
present in the area and the surrounding
community into a world-class incubator of
original artistic thought and expression;
• Entrepreneurially, we WILL kick-start a new kind
of vibrant and cohesive local community
economy, with everyone supporting one another
… in the TRUE spirit of UBUNTU.

15. Programme Objective 1: Academic
• To retrain every Cowan educator in modern interactive,
experiential teaching methods to internationally recognised
standards … thereby empowering them to practice their skills
using available resources and within the budgetary constraints
imposed on all public high schools.
• In recognition of the fact that 50% of matriculants will not find
jobs in the formal sector by the age of 24, to prepare all
Cowanites for a different future … via a rounded education
that values thinking skills, artistic expression and
entrepreneurial effectiveness.
• To adapt the curriculum to address not only academic
effectiveness … but simultaneously to look at the practical
needs of the students and how these can be aligned to the
outcomes of the other legs of this programme.

16. Programme Objective 2: Art and Culture
• To identify talented members of the school’s “art
community” in all disciplines and nurture, develop
and hone their skills to the highest international
standards:
• To provide a platform to expose these emerging
talents to a global market … and help them to
exploit opportunities to the benefit of the
individual artists concerned;
• To simultaneously raise funds for various
innovative collaborative initiatives linked to the
Cowan G2G programme in the areas of Education,
Art, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

17. Programme Objective 3: Entrepreneurship
• To empower the Cohen Community to uplift the school and its
neighbourhood by developing and activating the
entrepreneurial skills and resources of its COMMUNITY, both
local and global.
• To unveil and pilot a unique UBUNTU-inspired COLLABORATIVE
entrepreneurship model that spurs REAL Local Economic
Development at community level with the aim of transforming
the local economy and making it self-sustainable and able to
absorb much of its existing and emerging manpower.
• To position our projects to tap into a large existing reservoir of
funding geared towards youth entrepreneurship and SMME
development
• To offer financial benefits in proportion to each member’s
inputs ... not as employees, but as shareholders in a series of
innovative, sustainable and profitable new ventures.

18. Current Status of the Programme
• The G2G Programme has the keen support of the
school’s ‘establishment’ including the principal, Trevor
Dolley, the School Governing Body and the teaching
staff;
• The G2G Programme has an active and enthusiastic
presence on Facebook involving mostly present and
past students;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/119830591493230
/?fref=ts
• Our global group of “Friends of Cowan” are actively
involved with the planning and implementation of
various projects;

19. Immediate Challenges to confront:
• With a strong core group in place, our first challenge is
to persuade the broader Cowan Community of the
concrete benefits of constructive participation in the
programme, how it will benefit themselves personally
… while transforming their old alma mater, Cowan High
School … from GOOD to GREAT.
• Our second challenge is to enable effective
collaboration … by Crowdfunding the development of
the web-architecture to successfully connect the
Cowan G2G core-group with our Community on
various levels … from local to the school’s global
diaspora, via Facebook and our own unique
collaboration platform.

20. Funding the G2G programme
• With regard to the ‘Academic’ leg of the programme, we
are seeking donor funding from an institutional source. To
that end the proposal is with Shanduka’s “Adopt-a-School”
Foundation.
• For the other two legs, the plan is to rapidly achieve self-
sustainability status by self-funding via a combination of
(1) building on Cowan’s existing resources and skills, and
(2) appealing to our Crowd.
• We plan to kick-start the process by seeking a seed-grant
of €15,000 from a empathetic funding partner. A
breakdown of the programmes requirements in this
regard follows:

21. Seed-Funding Budget Summary
1. Community support Support thus far has been stimulated € 4,860.00
and buy-in via the Cowan G2G Facebook group.
We plan to facilitate a series of
meetings, workshops, focus groups
discussions, etc. to extend buy-in to
ALL key stakeholder groups.
2. Crowdfunding Beyond the initial seed-funding € 3,350.00
Campaign request, our focus will be on getting
our Crowd to fund the various
activities of the programme. We seek
financial assistance to prepare and
implement the campaign
3. Administrative Running costs , administration, travel, € 6,780.00
Support sustenance, stipends: Nov. and Dec.
2012
TOTAL Requested €14,990.00

22. Core Management Team (1)
• Ian Bentley: Visionary Innovator and social-entrepreneur. Ubuntu
Entrepreneurship originator. Strategic Planner and Concept
originator. G2G group moderator on Facebook … Role: Programme
Integrator and Co-ordinator.
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=32423647&trk=tab_pro
• Tony Pearce: Passionate UK-based educationalist and experiential
teaching expert. Doctoral dissertation on education in New
Brighton, Driving force behind “Red Location Choir”… Role: Project
Co-ordinator: Academic Leg.
• Yvette Dubel: Celebrated American Artist and Innovator. Cultural
Fusion and Community Change Management expert, Specialist
in“Applied Art-based Solutions”. Founder – “Context Magazine” ...
Role: Project co-ordinator: Art and Culture Leg.
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4004093&locale=en_US&trk=tyah

23. Core Management Team (2)
• Tiberius Brastaviceanu: Based in Montreal, Canada. Global
authority on collaborative business practice, p2p economy. Expert
on value networks, open innovation. Community and ecosystem
architect. Mentorship and support ... Role: Project Co-ordinator:
Entrepreneurship.
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=12912528&locale=en_US&trk=tyah
• Deborah J Boyd: Based in Washington DC. Information technology
expert. Education expert. Super-connector. Fund raising strategist.
Organisation Architect … Role: Fundraising Co-ordinator.
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=12912528&locale=en_US&trk=tyah

24. Conclusion:
• Currently South African education consists of students being force-
fed a series of facts and expected to memorise them. If successful
this will get the student to university. If not he will be on the street
searching for a job. Either way the future does not look rosy.
• Our approach is holistic. We will empower our children to be the
very best that they can be, providing a rounded education, with
problem-solving skills on a par with anywhere in the world!
• Students with artistic talents will be taught how to utilise them …
likewise those who demonstrate entrepreneurial acumen. Project
teams built around a combination of passion, skill and know-how
will begin to change the way that business is done.
• Ultimately, we offer a solution that will turn around not only a
school … but with it a community. A win/win solution where all who
actively participate will share in the long-term benefits.
• It’s a DREAM whose time has come.