Mission Statement

The UCSA exists as part of the Body of Christ to glorify God and by the power of the Holy Spirit to:
• develop new leadership that impacts by exhibiting Christian leadership values through serving in mentoring relationships;
• build a new generation that actively strives towards reconciliation in Christ and mutual understanding in the reality our diverse society;
• bring new life by sharing the Gospel of Christ, leading the youth to faith commitments and nurturing his disciples;
• establish a new culture by letting the Kingdom of God come to the hearts and lives of those who journey with us through life.

The UCSA:

The Uniting Christian Students' Association of South Africa is a non-racial, inter-denominational, non-profit, autonomous Christian organisation with a close to 110 years' history of working in schools and tertiary institutions.

UCSA strives to be relevant to the needs of young people and to create life-transforming experiences for them. Many of these experiences help children and young people acquire important life skills and can best be facilitated in situations where they are isolated from other demands on their attention. Outdoor centres with well planned programmes and trained facilitators are among the most effective tools UCSA uses in achieving this goal.

UCSA has 11 outdoor centres with accommodation for a total of 2058 children or young people, more than 90 full-time and part-time staff and more than 100 young volunteers doing a gap year of service after leaving school. Many teachers and youth workers commit time and energy to voluntary work in UCSA. UCSA reaches about 500 000 children and young people annually through its programmes and activities.

UCSA is also a founder member of the Extreme Life Educational Trust (IT475/2002). The aims of the trust are to serve education in South Africa by developing quality learning support material for the compulsory learning area Life Orientation in schools, providing training for Life Orientation facilitators and providing experiential learning opportunities for learners at outdoor centres. The trust is registered at the Department of Social Development and donations to the trust are tax deductible.

UCSA faces the challenge of presenting programmes and projects that are affordable for children and young people from all socio-economic levels. Fundraising therefore is essential for most of the projects. This is especially true for the Life Orientation (Life Skills) and other community projects which aim to render a service to learners from needy communities who are unable to pay for this service.

For more information about UCSA, see Appendix E of the proposal or visit www.vcsv.co.za