At Good Work Foundation, our commitment to empowering women is woven into the fabric of who we are. With women making up 80% of our staff and holding strong leadership across the organisation, we have built a culture where female leadership thrives. Alongside this, we recognised the need to create an equally intentional space for the men of GWF to grow, connect, and lead with purpose. That is how the Men's Forum was born.
Where it all began
The Men's Forum was established in 2020, during one of the most challenging seasons many of us have ever faced. The arrival of COVID-19 brought with it a wave of uncertainty, isolation, and anxiety, and the mental health impact on the young men in our organisation became impossible to ignore.
"We started a group in 2020, and I think it was triggered by the mental health challenges that most of the young men were facing within the organisation," shares Fumani Mathumbu (New Special Projects Manager at GWF), who leads the initiative. "It became very apparent because of COVID. Many of the young men were facing a lot of mental health issues. So we wanted to create a space where young men, and all of us as men, can have a safe space to chat."
What began as a response to a mental health crisis quickly grew into something much bigger.
A holistic vision for manhood in South Africa
As the forum evolved, so did its purpose. Fumani and the team came to see that supporting men well means seeing the whole man.
"We realised at a later stage that there's actually a holistic view to this whole thing. You can't just look at the mental health part of it only. It's the fatherhood, it's the manhood, the elements that also make up a man. So we wanted to be intentional about spending time together as men to support each other."
Today, the Men's Forum is a space where the men of GWF and surrounding communities gather to reflect on what it means to be a man, a father, a leader, and a contributor to the community. It is a space to ask honest questions, to design the lives they want, and to consider how they want to be seen by their families, their communities, and the young people who look up to them.
Fumani speaks of the powerful idea of "social fatherhood," a term drawn from the Father's Matter programme run by Heartlines.
"There are many young people that we interact with that may not be biologically our children. We look at ourselves as social fathers."
What the forum looks like in practice
The Men's Forum takes a hybrid approach, with online sessions and in-person gatherings every month. Some sessions are reserved for GWF men, creating a close-knit brotherhood within the organisation. Others, like the Father's Matter sessions, open the doors wider to welcome partners, community members, and the broader GWF ecosystem.
The Men’s Forum is also active beyond the meeting room. The men have spent time at local crèches doing cleaning and painting, contributing their hands and hearts to the spaces where young children grow. They have started playing soccer together and with teams from the South African Police Service and other organisations, building physical health, brotherhood, and collaboration on the field.
"We're trying to support physical health now through the soccer games that we play. It's more about physical health, but again, creating that brotherhood and engaging with different people from different parts of the community. We play against the police, we play against different organisations, just to create that collaboration and a place where men can be a force for good," Fumani explains.
Vision boarding: designing the life we want
Last month the Men's Forum gathered for a vision boarding session, a practice that sits close to the heart of Good Work Foundation CEO Kate Groch, who has long championed the power of putting dreams onto paper.
Kate said: “What made this session particularly meaningful this year, was that many of the team had taken part in the same exercise last year too. Revisiting those earlier vision boards created an opportunity to reflect on our individual growth, to see what had changed, what had become even more important, and what still mattered most.”
Vision boarding invites each man to pause, reflect, and visualise the future he wants to build. It is an act of intention. A declaration of hope. A reminder that the lives we lead are shaped by the dreams we dare to picture.
For the men of GWF, this exercise carries a special weight. To design a life with intention is to model that same possibility for every young person who walks through our campus gates.
A powerful fathers matter Ambassadors Conference
Recently, the Men's Forum proudly hosted the Father's Matter Ambassadors Conference at the Hazyview Digital Learning Campus. It was a gathering rich with reflection, connection, and shared purpose.
"The Fathers Matter Ambassadors Conference was powerful," says Fumani. "Proud to have hosted such an impactful gathering at HDLC."
These conversations are shaping a generation of men who are intentional about fatherhood, present in their communities, and committed to being role models for the next generation.
Looking Ahead
The Men's Forum continues to grow in depth and reach. From its early roots as a mental health support space, it has blossomed into a movement of brotherhood, fatherhood, and community impact. The men of GWF and surrounding communities are showing up for themselves, for one another, and for the communities they call home.
