Oladapo Omitogun is the team lead of Cathy, which stands for ‘Catch Them Young’. Cathy is a youth-led social enterprise involving a team of leading professionals, volunteers and social change agents who support and help underserved communities in Nigeria.
Also known as Cathy Youths Innovation Enterprise, the organisation runs community innovative projects, vocational and employability skills programmes, sex and moral education, career development and civic responsibility initiatives for the young generation to enable them have a secure and better future. Oladapo holds Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Tai Solarin University of Education and has five years of experience in social entrepreneurship, human rights and civil liberties.
He has assisted and supported over 100 businesses to improve their online campaign and brand positions.
The idea behind Cathy came up in Sango Otta, Ogun State, when Oladapo was with his best friend and project partner, Arogundade Kehinde Aminat.
“We were both discussing how the poor educational system in Nigeria has affected the unemployed youths and how most secondary school students and girls especially in Ota, Ogun State, drop out of school for factory jobs,” he tells Start-Up Digest.
The discussion generated ideas that led to the set-up of this outfit in November 2017.
“After the idea came up, we pitched and secured a partnership with the Ogun State Ministry of Education to train public secondary school students on vocational and entrepreneurial education,” he explains.
“We had some friends who came up to show interest in supporting our mission. We also got a drive from a Global Goodwill Ambassador, Jude Ediae, a well-rounded professional and humanitarian who also believed in what we were doing and prompted us to keep on moving,” he recalls, stating that this pushed the team into looking out for more partnerships and sponsorship support.
One of the key targets of Cathy is to empower young people with 21st century skills needed by the industry, to enable them get good jobs and become useful citizens.
Cathy targets the young, secondary school students, the unemployed and disengaged youths and the girl-child.
The entrepreneur says that one impressive thing about Cathy is that most of its support comes from the hearts of volunteers and social change ambassadors, as well individual organisations and community bodies.
Oladapo explains that the organisation has achieved so much despite not getting any external funding support.
Cathy has partnered with the Ogun State Ministry of Education to sensitise and train the young ones on vocational and entrepreneurial skills at underserved public secondary schools.
It has empowered over 500 public secondary school students on vocational, entrepreneurial, sex and moral education programmes. It has also trained 150 unemployed youths on employability, entrepreneurial and civic responsibility initiatives.
“Out of the 500 students we trained, 23 have started business, supporting their parents and 34 out of the unemployed youths have improved their confidence and interview skills,” he says.
He further states that those that have started their business also benefited from Cathy’s digital marketing class, learning ways to improve their business and ensure customer loyalty.
“We have also ensured a mentorship support system for the trained ones and we follow up with them,” he says.
He discloses that Cathy has run projects within Otta, Ipokia and Abeokuta communities of Ogun State, as well as Ajegunle, Ikorodu and Oshodi underserved communities of Lagos.
“We haven’t gotten any donor funds or grants from any international organisation, government or foundation yet,” he says.
He says that Cathy plans to partner and extend its activities beyond Lagos.
“Since the inception of the idea, we have seen interested volunteers from Anambra, Lagos, Oyo and Abuja, asking to work together with us,” he notes.
“Although we have done training programmes in Ikorodu and Ajegunle part of Lagos State, we are currently applying for grants and seeking publicity and sponsorship and will start extending our projects to the other states where we can effect change,” he discloses.
One of Cathy’s fortes is to improve the education system. Oladapo observes that he has seen cases of youths living in underserved communities who cannot afford to pay their education fees, adding, however, that part of what Cathy offers is a vocational and entrepreneurial programme that will build their self-reliance skills and reduce their dependence on white collar jobs.
The body runs career motivation and employability skill acquisition programmes with the help of experienced motivation and human capital development experts, he says, adding that they empower youths to complete self-assessments and then develop personal plans of action to reach short and long-term goals.
“We put them through towards mastering the skills the employers are looking for and create sound curriculum vitae (CV) that may bring them interview invites,” he explains.
“We also connect them to companies that need their skills and also teach them how to job hunt and obtain job interviews with employers.”
What is Cathy’s plan for 2019 and beyond?
“For the year 2019 and beyond, we will be putting more of our efforts on creating great social innovative ideas that can effect community change and improve the Nigeria educational system,” he responds.
“We intend to increase female participation in schools and in socio-economic activities,” he adds.
“We will be looking out for more volunteers and social change ambassadors interested in what we do. We will also be happy to receive partnership and support from individual sponsors, organisations, governments and international aids,” he says.
He further says that a lot needs to be done to establish social innovative projects that will help reduce and sensitise Nigerian youths to become great social change ambassadors and contribute towards nation building.
ODINAKA ANUDU
