Gang structures offer belonging, income, and identity. Just Planting Seeds offers the same — through feeding, mentorship, exposure, and rugby. We intervene before the streets do.
Manenberg is one of Cape Town's most gang-affected communities. Gang structures recruit at eleven. Firearms are part of street life by the time many of our learners are ten. This is not a backdrop — it is the daily reality JPS works against.
We do not pretend the streets aren't there. We give children a different place to be, and people who keep showing up.
"We do not extract learners from their reality. We equip them to navigate it differently."
JPS Programme Statement
Just Planting Seeds is a youth development NPC founded in 2021 by Jason Poleman, who grew up in Manenberg and built JPS to serve the community he comes from. We work with 95+ learners across nine partner schools, ages six to eighteen — feeding them, mentoring them, exposing them to opportunities, and using rugby as the hook that draws them in.
We do not pull children out of their world. We give them a different place to be in the hours that matter most, people who keep showing up, and a way through that doesn't require them to leave home.
How we workNutrition is the entry point.
A meal before training, a meal before matches, a meal before workshops. Hunger interferes with concentration, behaviour, and emotional regulation — so we take it off the table before we ask anything of a young person.
A safe place when home isn't one.
Consistent, structured contact with adults who chose to come back. Coaching, mentorship, after-school sessions four days a week, and the kind of accountability that gangs offer but with a different ending.
You can't dream of what you've never seen.
Our School Holiday Club provides young people with safe, meaningful, and enriching experiences during the school holidays. Through museum visits, sunrise and sunset hikes up Table Mountain, movie days, team-building activities, and life skills workshops, we expose learners to opportunities and environments beyond their everyday realities.
These experiences are designed to build confidence, strengthen relationships, encourage leadership, and help young people believe in their potential while creating positive memories and a strong sense of belonging within the Just Planting Seeds community.
The honest conversations that aren't happening anywhere else.
Holiday programmes during the windows when gang recruitment intensifies in December, June to July, and March. Workshops on emotional regulation, conflict, and identity. The structured alternative to the streets when school is out.
Alongside these programmes, we engage parents, schools, and community leaders to strengthen support systems around young people. By building strong partnerships and providing consistent mentorship, we help ensure that children receive guidance, supervision, and encouragement throughout the year, not only during school terms. This approach creates a network of stable role models, reinforces positive behaviour, and promotes accountability, giving learners people the structure and support they need to make responsible choices and stay focused on their goals.
Zayaan Majiet, Sherezaan Fortune, Azra Landor and Madinyah Joseph were selected for the Springboks
"It proves that with dedication and support, anything is possible." — Capt. Ian Bennett, Manenberg SAPS
Australian Women's Sevens Olympian Maddison Levi purchased boots for our girls' squad and invited friend and Springbok captain Siya Kolisi to spend the morning with our learners.
Back-to-back Rugby Tens champions. Winners in 2025 and again in 2026, taking the U16 division and the mixed play division with both the U13 and U16 squads.
Both age groups, both finals, both wins. The depth of the programme, on display.
One of multiple tournament wins in the 2025 season. The trophy stays with us. The lessons travel.
Every name below is a learner who came through the programme and earned selection at provincial or national level. This is what the pathway looks like when it works.
"Resilient individuals contributing positively to their families and community."
Founder · Head Coach · Built JPS from his own story
Jason grew up in Manenberg. Raised in the same environment our learners navigate daily — exposed to gang violence, substance abuse, and limited opportunities. Rugby provided a structured alternative: discipline, accountability, positive role models, and a path beyond his immediate environment.
That path took him semi-professionally across three continents. He returned with the resilience, decision-making skills, and credibility required to build something Manenberg actually needed. Just Planting Seeds is the result — not a sporting academy, but a holistic development platform rooted in lived experience.
In partnership and proud association with
Monthly or annual funding contributing to the core programme — coaching, facilitation, mentorship, and day-to-day delivery.
Direct funding for the meals served before training, matches, workshops, and camps. Nutrition is the entry point to all development at JPS.
Fund or provide in-kind transport for learners to and from training, matches, off-site activities, and tournaments.
Sponsor a specific camp, workshop series, or holiday programme. Direct, measurable, time-boxed impact.
Provide sporting kit, team apparel, school stationery, or workshop resources. Tangible support that lands directly in learners' hands.
Whether you want to partner with us, donate, send a learner our way, or just understand the work better — we'd love to hear from you. We reply to every message.
Thank you for reaching out. We'll get back to you within a couple of working days.
