By THOMAS MCLACHLAN

Business Correspondent

SOCIAL entrepreneurs, who value social change over turning a buck, are sorely needed in this country, says Julian Hewitt of the Gordon Institute of Business Science, “especially in a country where people are beginning to realise that government isn’t the only solution and that there’s a limit to what government can do”.

The institute last week recognised individuals making a difference in their communities through its Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. “The youth are not the leaders of tomorrow, they’re the leaders of today,” said Glen Steyn, winner of the ‘On the Brink’
category as the most outstanding social
entrepreneur.

Steyn, a reformed gangster who grew up in the gang lands of Cape Town, now runs the successful youth organisation Conquest For Life, which addresses the needs of those growing up in previously disadvantaged areas.

The organisation identifies youth with strong leadership skills in troubled communities and recruits them into its system. Once trained, they go back into the communities to recruit other people, in the same way a gang might. “We are run for young people, by young people between the ages of 18 to 30,” said Steyn.

One programme, Youth At Risk, helps the many young adults who are grappling for opportunities that never seem to materialise. It has received huge acclaim and Steyn has been asked to assist with programmes overseas.

“We focus on young people in and out of school or work, who are often involved in gangsterism, but want to make a change in their lives. We take them out of their normal environment and send them to one of our two farms; in Vereeniging and Magaliesburg.

“Here we run a three-week life-skills process with (participants) in a camp setting. Then we put them back into their community,” he said.

An independent monitoring system has recorded an 80% success rate for those leaving the programme and re-entering their communities to take up opportunities in further education and employment.

“What you need to understand is that the young people who are involved in gangs already have leadership skills,” said Steyn.

“They have to get rid of the things they steal as soon as possible and this makes them very entrepreneurial.”

The problem, he said, was that these skills had not been channelled in the right manner, but with training they could be honed and used successfully.

He said that getting them to realise they could do something positive with their lives was the easiest way to convert them. “What makes me do what I do is when you see the change in people — when you convert a minus to a plus, or (someone) gets a job, when you see change happen in front of you,” said Steyn.