Turn The Tide Expansion
Coastal communities in South Africa are disconnected from the ocean in tangible and damaging ways. Despite the ocean’s vital role in providing significant social, economic, and environmental benefits, many children and young adults in under-resourced coastal areas lack access to it, missing out on essential swimming and ocean safety skills.
We have developed a unique programme that uses the ocean as a therapeutic tool to connect children with the ocean and to themselves. Our programme has the potential to also address similar concerns globally by reaching coastal communities all over the world to reduce drowning, improve access to the ocean, and develop the next generation of ocean guardians.
Sentinel Ocean Alliance has created this programme to impact youth in South Africa, but has designed it to be easily shareable globally as well. The fundamentals of the programme are easily translatable and shareable to communities in coastal settings around the world.
Our Turn The Tide Programme has been successfully packaged into a train-the-trainer tool that we are able to scale and share globally. We have held trainings in Jeffreys Bay, Mozambique, Panama, and the Dominican Republic in the past year and we are currently planning additional trainings in Mauritius, Madagascar, Namibia and Chile
As part of the Turn the Tide expansion, we hope to achieve the following:
- Expand the footprint of our programme beyond South Africa by partnering with like-minded organisations who want to reduce drowning and improve local access to the oceans in an accessible way.
- Assist partners with navigating the initial phases of programme delivery, impact measurement, report-writing, and advocacy for long-term sustainability.
- Build a global network of partners who are improving access to the ocean and iterating our programmes in creative ways.
- Reduce incidences of drowning, improve access to oceans, and develop the next generation of ocean guardians around the world.
We propose to share our teaching and training methodologies with partner organisations and conduct face-to-face training workshops either in Cape Town or at the partners’ location. After initial coach and core team training, we will set up online calls and WhatsApp groups to mentor our partners through the tricky phases of programme delivery, impact measurement, report writing, and advocacy for continued programme support.
This ongoing support will allow our partners to implement our lesson plans effectively and provide them with the curriculum content and training support needed to set up and manage the programme efficiently.
To partner with us, or for more information, please contact turnthetide@sentineloceanalliance.org
