What happens when we listen? Lessons from a growing conversation on Teen Wellbeing

Across South Africa, organisations working with teens are facing a common reality: young people are carrying increasing emotional, social, and psychological weight, while the systems intended to support them are often struggling to keep pace.

This year, the Zero Dropout Campaign is hosting a series of learning exchanges as part of a national listening and learning journey on teen wellbeing. Bringing together practitioners, educators, youth workers, mental health professionals, community organisations, and advocates, these conversations are helping us better understand what young people need to thrive, and what is standing in the way.

Our first Learning Exchange was recently hosted at the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town. Using our Hanging by a Thread exhibition as a catalyst for dialogue, participants reflected on the realities they encounter every day: anxiety, trauma, social isolation, economic hardship, school disengagement, and the growing demand for psychosocial support.

One message has emerged consistently during the Exchange: Teen wellbeing is not a side issue. It sits at the heart of young people’s ability to learn, build relationships, develop agency, and imagine a positive future.

Our partners also highlighted the extraordinary role played by community organisations, after-school programmes, sports initiatives, arts organisations, faith communities, and families. These spaces often provide the relationships, belonging, safety, and encouragement that help young people navigate difficult circumstances.

At the same time, many practitioners describe feeling stretched beyond their capacity. Youth workers, educators, coaches, and mentors are increasingly responding to complex mental health and social challenges without the resources, training, or support they need. The conversations have surfaced a growing recognition that supporting young people also requires supporting the people who support them.

Yet despite the challenges, the exchanges have been characterised by something equally important: Hope. Participants have repeatedly expressed a desire for greater collaboration, stronger connections across the sector, and more opportunities to learn from one another. There is a clear appetite for building a more visible, coordinated ecosystem of care around South Africa’s teens.

These learning exchanges are not intended to produce quick answers. Rather, they are creating space to listen deeply, surface shared experiences, challenge assumptions, and identify opportunities for collective action for teen wellbeing.

Join the conversation in Johannesburg

If you work with teens, we invite you to join us at our upcoming Gauteng Learning Exchange and help shape a growing national dialogue on teen wellbeing. Together, we will explore what young people are experiencing, what is working, where the gaps remain, and how we can strengthen the systems of support around them.

Your experience, insights, and questions are an important part of this conversation, and we look forward to seeing you on 2 July.

If you have any questions, please contact Prea Naidoo at prea@zerodropout.co.za or 083 796 5187.