Contact us: 082 344 4231
Email: admin@kidswhocancommunity.co.za
MEET OUR TEAM
Ensuring quality and professional facilitation
All our facilitators have completed an intensive Training Workshop with
Michelle Schoon, the founder of KIDS WHO CAN COMMUNITY, who has had eight years experience teaching the program. We are mothers, teachers, counsellors, psychologists and life coaches who are passionate about empowering children and teenagers.
WESTERN CAPE
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MICHELLE SCHOON
Founder, Kids Who Can & Girls Who Can Facilitator and Programme Trainer
Michelle is happily married and has 3 wonderful sons aged 15, 20 and 22. She loves children and is passionate about assisting them in dealing with life’s challenges. On leaving school, she wasn’t sure if she should study art or teaching but opted for Graphic Design, ending up working in both the publishing and advertising industry for 22 years. Although she enjoyed this creative field her yearning to teach children became stronger after having her own children and in 2010 when her oldest son, then 10, had a few emotional challenges, her life purpose became apparent...
She founded KIDS WHO CAN in 2011 and has been facilitating KIDS WHO CAN, GIRLS WHO CAN and BOYS WHO CAN courses ever since. Michelle also facilitates all the facilitator training workshops for Kids Who Can Community.
Through the group work, it became apparent that some children required more individual help in the form of therapy. She completed a counselling course at Hope House Counselling Centre as well as a Play Therapy course with Rhinda Blom. She has been a volunteer play therapist at Hope House for 5 years and runs her own practice from home.
To further extend her work with children, she completed Level 1, 2 and 3 training for the Protective Behaviours programme - an internationally acclaimed preventative abuse programme - and incorporates this into all the programmes.
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ANDREA POWELL
Girls Who Can & Kids Who Can Facilitator
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After completing her BSocSci at UCT in 1989 and then traveling and working around the world, Andrea spent more than 20 years in journalism, during which time she studied counselling psychology and communication at the South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP).
Andrea is a qualified counsellor and play therapist who has a private practice in Green Point, Cape Town, and is also the school counsellor at Prestwich Primary in the same neighbourhood.
Andrea is both a Girls Who Can and Kids Who Can facilitator and feels she has a gift to share with the world, helping young people flourish, given the modern day stresses they often struggle to cope with.
SIMCHA VAN BEL
Kids Who Can Facilitator
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Following completion of her undergraduate Degree in Psychology and her Msc (Forensic Psych) in the UK, Simcha Van Bel-Du Plooy moved to South Africa, She has lived in Cape Town for 13 years with her husband and is mom to one resilient little girl. She has been working with children and families from a variety of backgrounds with developmental delays, emotional-social challenges, and learning problems within school, home and therapeutic settings.
She is currently registered with the HPCSA as a Counsellor and Psychometrist and is in private practice in Claremont and the surrounding areas. She is also accredited through FAMAC (Family Mediators of the Cape) as a Mediator and has completed a Diploma in Transformational Coaching through the BWRT (Brain Working recursive Therapy) institute in the UK.
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Simcha completed her Kids Who Can training and is currently facilitating groups in the Southern Suburbs.
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ZOË DOUGLAS
Kids Who Can Facilitator
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Zoë lives in Somerset West and has 2 beautiful daughters aged 15 and 13 years.
After completing her Honours in Psychology in 2000 she went on to do her PGCE in Guidance and English to qualify as a High School teacher. She is a Registered Trauma Counsellor with the HPCSA as well as a Level 2 TRE Provider. In 2018 Zoë completed her Level 1 training as an ISHTA Yoga Instructor.
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Zoë has 10 years’ experience teaching in a high school environment and 7 years’ experience as a School Counsellor. She completed her Beginner and Advanced Play Therapy training through Dr Hannie Schoeman and in 2012 opened her own practice based in Somerset West.
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Working mainly with children and parents, Zoë is in private practice and affiliated with schools in the area. She has been running Social Emotional Development Groups in certain schools for the past 7 years as well as seeing children for individual therapy and intervention.
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She completed her KWC training in March 2019 and is very excited to have such an amazing programme to work and guide from.
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Zoë is passionate about facilitating children in how to identify and manage their feelings in a healthy way. The group dynamic allows a safe place to explore new behaviours and orientations and teachings which, in turn, can be taken outside of the group into the classroom, home or play-ground with confidence. If children are able to learn and practise these skills at an early age they are much more likely to reach their full potential in all areas of their worlds.
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MATT SWINDALE
Boys Who Can Facilitator
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Matt Swindale has a BEd degree in intermediate and senior phase and has just left his teaching post at Kommetjie Primary where he worked as an assistant teacher for 7 years and more recently as the head teacher for the Grade 7 class.
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Alongside his teaching career, Matt has been a Boys Who Can facilitator for six years now, having attended the facilitator training course and has run courses and workshops both in schools and as an extra-mural. He has also mentored our Boys Who Can facilitators who were running groups in our local communities, Ocean View and Masiphumulele.
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Matt will be spending more time facilitating our boy's groups as well as running his own NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) practice.
MPUMALANGA​
TANIA HODSDON-HOARE
Kids Who Can, Girls Who Can and Boys Who Can Facilitator and Trainer - Online and Nelspruit In-person
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Tania is married with two girls aged 11 and 15 years and resides in Nelspruit. She has been teaching for 24 years and worked abroad in London and Toronto. Tania was an owner/principal of a Montessori School for 12 years and she is currently the Centre Head and Lecturer for Montessori Centre South Africa in Nelspruit. Tania has also run Louise Hay workshops for children.
After going through a challenging time with her own daughter, she searched for courses to empower children and came across Kids Who Can Community. She realised that there is a big need for children to learn skills from a young age in
order to handle the pressures of today's world.
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Tania facilitates courses and workshops for all the age groups in Kids Who Can Community, Mpumalanga and she is also our programme trainer there.
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GAUTENG/NEW ZEALAND
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GENEVIEVE COLES
Kids Who Can, Girls Who Can and Boys Who Can Facilitator
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Genevieve is happily married and has 1 beautiful daughter who is 20 years old. After leaving school she completed her degree at Wits Technikon in Fashion Design. She pursued a career in fashion but after the birth of her daughter she felt she had a calling to study teaching. She completed her ECD training at Play with a purpose and then continued her studies and completed her degree in Education. She has completed short courses on child enrichment in understanding on how children need guidance and support.
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She has always been passionate about helping children and understanding the hardships they go through even more so when her daughter went through a challenging time.
She has a special interest in the social and emotional development of children. She is passionate about supporting children and facilitating in the way they identify and manage their feelings. She recently completed her Kids Who Can training and will be facilitating all of our programmes: Kids Who Can, Girls Who Can and Boys Who Can.