What is the Create2Grow Program?

Our Approach

The Create2Grow program is a fun and flexible eight-week arts-based adventure designed for children with mild learning or developmental challenges between the ages 8 and 12 years-old in under-resourced communities. In 2023, in De Doorns, Western Cape, the program showed fantastic results: kids not only improved in their performance of daily activities, but they also became more creative and engaged during groups.

Parents and caregivers found the program extremely valuable and practical, suggesting it’s a great fit for schools in similar communities. Our goal to make sure this program both effective and easy to implement was achieved, and the data shows us that Create2Grow has the potential to make a real difference in children’s lives.

The program helps children feel more confident and connected, improving their ability to learn, make friends, and handle everyday tasks. It focuses on developing a range of essential skills, including visual perception, fine motor skills, social interaction, executive functioning, and emotional intelligence, all while encouraging children to take an active role in their own growth and success.

Overall, the groups are designed to offer children a safe and creative space characterized by nurturing interactions, where participants have the opportunity to achieve.

A place where process is valued over product.

Children and adults participating in a craft activity, decorating and attempting to pop water balloons made from newspaper and paint or glue, surrounded by newspapers, trays, and supplies.

Resources Needed

Consent to work with children from primary caregivers
Create2Grow manual and resources
A playful attitude!
Two nurturing and accepting facilitators
Work space for 8 children

Person holding a clear plastic storage box with items including sponges, colorful fabric or tools, and a "Create2Grow" label.

Plastic container filled with a variety of items including an analogue clock box, crayons, a black weighted sack, a manual titled 'Create2Grow Program Intervention Manual,' disposable cups, and some recycled cardboard rolls.

Plastic box labeled 'Create2Grow' containing various items including colored chalk, games, and small accessories, with additional images detailing contents like a colour coded analogue clock to demonstrate time division.

Your Low-Cost Therapy Solution

What makes Create2Grow resource-effective?

In low-resource settings, there are a myriad of factors hindering families’ access to quality paediatric interventions for children with learning and developmental differences. According to van Zyl C., et al. (2021), the factors that characterise a low-resource setting are multi-faceted:

Circular diagram titled "Low-resource settings" with sections labeled underdeveloped infrastructure, limited knowledge, financial shortages, restricted social support, human resource limitations, suboptimal healthcare, and research challenges. Source: van Zyl C, et al., 2021.

Create2Grow is a feasible therapy solution for low-resource settings as it:

Context conscious: Create2Grow has been refined according to caregivers’ perspectives regarding feasibility and value through research and community interactions.

Saves time: The program makes use of group therapy, thereby ensuring that more children benefit from therapeutic support without the high costs and time demands of individual sessions.
Makes use of existing systems: Create2Grow decentralises occupational therapy by empowering teachers, parents, and community members, who are socially skilled and motivated, to lead these groups as a supportive intervention.
Saves costs: Create2Grow reduces therapy costs to R18.00 per child per group if the initial Create2Grow Box is refilled twice for three groups (24 children).
Saves the environment: The program fosters resourcefulness and initiative amongst children by teaching them to repurpose recycled materials!