The MoreThan#MeerAs Project as a Strategy to Create Safe Healing Spaces for a Marginalised Community
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2708-9355/17653Keywords:
Community innovation project, community health and well-being, healing, Touws River, MoreThan#MeerAs ProjectAbstract
Marginalised communities in South Africa continue to face layered psychosocial challenges rooted in historical trauma and systemic inequalities. These intersecting hardships have profound implications for individual and collective well-being. Touws River, a small rural town in the Western Cape, exemplifies these dynamics, with high unemployment and social fragmentation following the collapse of its railway-based economy. paper aimed to explore how a community innovation project could serve as a strategy to create opportunities for participants to experience and develop a sense of community and unity by teaching participants that they are MoreThan#MeerAs their past and their self-perceived inadequacies. This qualitative study involved twenty-three participants. Data were collected using semi-structured focus group discussions. The findings suggest that the MoreThan#MeerAs project created a safe space for participants to share their experiences, feel heard, and be seen as a group. They expressed feeling unconditional acceptance for who they are and where they are. The MoreThan#MeerAs project guided, supported, and enabled participants to experience growth in themselves and each other as a team. The project changed the way participants perceive themselves and their community. This study demonstrates the potential for safe spaces to challenge perceptions about self, others, and their community, and act on new possibilities.
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