THE LEARNING TRUST

  
A major part of the work of The Learning Trust is to incubate emerging after-school programmes with excellent potential but without the necessary resources or access to mainstream funders. TLT makes small multi-year grants to these promising initiatives that offer academic,arts, sports and psychosocial support to young people in the hours after school. In addition, the grants are accompanied with capacity development and resilience building, tailored to the needs of individual organisations.

Over the last 12 years, they have supported over 200initiatives, directly reaching the lives of many children living in densely populated urban disadvantaged communities in SA.Together with the Claude Leon Foundation, TLT supports the development of several embryonic, community-based education organisations in South Africa. The Claude Leon Foundation has committed, on average, R3 million per yearstarting in 2011, and continues to fund up to 25 organisations per annum.

The Learning Trust fosters partnerships and works steadily towards building a sector that attractsmore funders, thereby creating a community of investors in the space. By undertaking joint projects, ensuring the involvement of schools and education departments, and measuring the impact of the sector, TLT and its partners are improving education outcomes for children from marginalised communities. Several partnership opportunities exist through: conduiting funding to smaller grantee organisations, underwriting of operational costs, research on the impact of after-school, and accessing public funding to create employment opportunities in the sector.