The Conviction
U-turn was founded in 1997 by Colleen Lewis on the belief that God made every person intrinsically valuable and filled with potential – and that no one should have to suffer the indignity of living on the street. Over nearly three decades, that conviction has matured into an evidence-based therapeutic approach: phased development that moves people from basic needs and drug or alcohol rehabilitation, through to work-readiness in real-world social enterprises, mostly Thrift Stores.
The Need
Walking someone out of homelessness takes more than a shelter bed. It takes a structured, multi-year pathway and, critically, real jobs at the end of it – work that is forgiving enough to employ someone rebuilding their life, yet substantial enough to sustain them once they graduate. Scaling that pathway, store by store, city by city, requires capital that a ministry's own operating budget cannot carry alone.
Denzil George's experience was typical of the barrier U-turn exists to address: more than twelve years of heroin addiction had, in his words, narrowed his opinion of his own ability to hold down any good job, leaving him moving from one seasonal position to the next with no real prospects.
The Programme
Over the past four years, Tree of Life Foundation has made available R4.6 million in impact loans from its DAF Impact Portfolio to fund the expansion of U-turn's Thrift Store network. To date, U-turn has drawn down R3.35 million of that facility – funding that has added eleven new stores, enlarged two existing ones, and created more than 70 work spaces for graduates re-entering the world of work.
That same Thrift Store backbone now anchors a wider wave of innovation: a collaboration with Mi-Change and the Citi Foundation to digitise voucher-based giving, a first e-commerce store backed by the Jobs Fund, and Living Roots – a wholesale indigenous-plant propagation and landscaping venture that is turning a once-small volunteer initiative into a genuine green-jobs pipeline for graduates.
The Impact
All U-turn graduates complete the programme sober, employed, and housed, and more than 80% maintain those outcomes long-term. For Anzio Olivari, who spent over a year on the streets in active addiction, the programme meant grounding himself spiritually and returning to the open labour market with new purpose. For Alistar Reynolds, it meant the difference between a cycle of incarceration and homelessness and a present role as manager and certified barista trainer at U-turn's Roeland Street store – and as a present father to his daughter. For Denzil George, it meant a coding learnership, mentorship from senior programmers, and a first line of code that changed the trajectory of his life.
With Tree of Life's support continuing to enable growth, U-turn plans one more store in Johannesburg, two in Pretoria, and three in Cape Town over the next six months – each one another doorway out of homelessness, funded by capital that keeps doing its work long after it is first lent.
