VC's Distinguished Award for Community Engagement 2022: ADC Counselling Hub

The winners of the 2022 Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Award for Community Engagement were presented with their Medals at the Graduation session on Thursday 14:30. RUCE is so proud of the work they have achieved - a dynamic team indeed! Well done to Prof Megan Campbell, Nqobile Msomi, Dr Duane Booysen, Christine Lewis and Mandisa Ndabula who have engaged with community leadership to establish a much needed facility, the Joza ADC Counselling Hub in Makhanda East amongst other mutually beneficial service learning and engaged research projects. Well done to the Psychology Department and the Faculty of Humanities for embracing teaching and learning and research which brings about societal change.  

The ADC Counselling Hub at Rhodes University is the result of successful partnership building and collaboration between the Assumption Development Centre (ADC) in Joza, the Rhodes University Psychology Clinic, and the Rhodes Student Counselling Centre. This initiative is rooted in a rich history of partnership building, dating back to the founding of a smaller counselling service by Prof Jacqui Akhurst for pupils at Nombulelo Secondary and Joza Youth Hub. During the COVID pandemic, Ms Nqobile Msomi provided online counselling support sessions for school leaders, teachers, and pupils, which led to the development of the ADC Counselling Hub. This project is an excellent example of the team members' profound understanding of partnership building as a crucial aspect of community engagement in higher education.

 

The Hub has transformed the Rhodes University space by implementing the principles of community psychology and community-based service learning within the Masters in Counselling and Clinical Psychology programs, as well as in the internship year completed by Counselling Psychologist Interns at the Rhodes Student Counselling Centre. The Hub provides counselling and psychological support beyond the university space, while also developing the key skills of university students and academics.

Over the past eighteen months, the Hub has successfully achieved its goals of providing mental health resources, such as individual counselling and psychoeducational groups/workshops, for people living in Joza and accessing services at the ADC, particularly Makhanda youth. It has also facilitated community-based service-learning training opportunities in community psychology for the Masters in Counselling and Clinical Psychology students at the Rhodes Psychology Clinic and the Counselling Psychology Interns at the Rhodes Student Counselling Centre.

The project's specific understanding and implementation of community engagement and service learning to facilitate the teaching and learning of community psychology at Rhodes University through a collaborative partnership are commendable. The Masters in Counselling and Clinical Psychology program provides students with a theoretical lens, framework, and orientation towards psychological intervention that challenges typical Western hegemonic biomedical conceptions of health and wellbeing. This theoretical approach promotes an understanding of mental health needs and priorities within a cultural context of social action and social liberation models that recognize and emphasize the impact of social and structural inequalities.

The inclusive, participatory partnership development process of the Hub, the trust and commitment that exists between the diverse partners, and the existing impact of the Hub on the youth of Makhanda are significant indicators of a sustainable, purposeful community engagement program. The team responsible for the Hub's success includes the ADC Centre Manager, Maso Nduna, Madoda Mkalipi, and Prof Jacqui Akhurst, who won the award in 2018. The entire team deserves congratulations for their outstanding work.