U-TURN

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

U-turn is a Christian non-profit organisation that equips people with skills and work opportunities to overcome homelessness. U-turn works with unemployed, dependent and addicted individuals and walks a journey with them to lasting employment, independence and sobriety. Six months after graduating from the programme, more than 80% of participants remain employed and sober. The programme is designed by Occupational Therapists and includes initial assistance, substance abuse rehabilitation, skills training and work experience in one of U-turn’s social enterprises.

www.homeless.org.za

JON HOPKINS

2020 FELLOW

Chief Business Development Officer |  U-TURN

Jon is the Chief Business Development Officer at U-turn in Cape Town, South Africa, responsible for all of U-turn’s social enterprises and turning U-turn’s replication dreams into reality. Before moving to South Africa in 2016, Jon spent a decade working in the field of HIV, sexual and reproductive health and gender for an international non-profit and the UN. He recently completed his MBA at Stellenbosch Business School and loves putting the theory he learnt into practice at U-turn.

SAM VOS

2020 FELLOW

FOUNDER & CEO  |  LUCEO SOLUTIONS

Sam Vos is the founder of Luceo Solutions, a consultancy to help organisations systematise how they create value. He is passionate about doing business in developmental ways that ensure inclusive growth. Upon graduating with a degree in Industrial Engineering from Stellenbosch University, he moved to London and spent six years working as a project manager at Schroders Asset Management. At the end of 2004, Sam returned to South Africa with his wife and young family. In 2005 he joined U-turn Homeless Ministry. He built the organisation up from a soup kitchen with four staff to a multi-site, multi-business, industry-leading institution with more than 80 staff members. During his 15 years at U-turn, Sam founded a retail division in U-turn as a social enterprise that provides training and work opportunities and maintained an annual growth rate of 27% per annum. The retail division has continued to grow and flourish, now comprising multiple sorting facilities, over ten stores and a reputation as one of the best charity retail operations in Cape Town. Sam formally handed the organisation over in Apr 2021. Sam is married to Jane, and together they have two boys.