PACT Initiatives
Prince Albert Community Trust  •  Est. 2013

Transforming lives,
one young person
at a time.

PACT empowers the youth of Prince Albert and Leeu Gamka through education, arts, skills and social enterprise, creating confident, capable people ready to shape their own future.

Journey to Jazz puppet parade
Journey to Jazz puppet parade  •  Arts & Culture Programme
100,000
Approx. children & youth impacted (direct & indirect) since 2015
8,153 km²
Prince Albert municipal region
56
Youth management team leading 4 community & enterprise sites
13
Years on the ground
The Pathways Framework

Learn. Earn.
Belong.

Every PACT project leads somewhere. We map our work to three pathways, Learn, Earn and Belong, and tag each programme with the pathways it travels. Some sit in one; many move through two, or all three. Together they paint a picture of where a young person is headed.

Learn Capability

Education, skills transfer and training, from early-childhood development through to school-leaver readiness. The groundwork everything else is built on.

Earn Independence

Social enterprise, hospitality and on-the-job training that turn skill into income, livelihood and real economic participation.

Belong Community

Arts, culture and creative expression that root young people in a community that holds them, and a place they help to shape.

PACT children learning music, ARCRO music programme
01
EducationLearn

From classroom to career

From early childhood development through to the world of work, PACT's education programmes give children access to the foundations they need, literacy, numeracy, digital skills and life skills that stretch far beyond the classroom. Music, reading, language and self-expression: building the whole child.

Learn more
02
Arts & Skills TrainingLearnBelong

The arts as social change

The arts are PACT's most powerful tool for transformation. Through music, performance, sound & lighting, media production, event management and hospitality, young people discover their voice and gain practical, market-ready skills. The 80-strong youth crew at Journey to Jazz is the flagship expression of this work, on-the-job training at world-class level.

Explore arts & skills
Puppet parade through the streets of Prince Albert
Hospitality academy, ONS cooking programme
03
Social EnterpriseEarn

Skills that build livelihoods

PACT, an NGO, operates a structured training-to-employment pipeline. Its flagship, the PACT Hospitality Academy, delivers accredited, industry-standard training in partnership with the Franschhoek Hospitality Academy. Graduates convert into paid roles across two PACT social enterprises, ONS (eatery, events, retail, salon) and the Showroom Theatre (front-of-house, café, sound, stage), which is the flagship venue at Journey to Jazz festival.

Learn more
Children waving Journey to Jazz flags, pure joy

"Prince Albert will never be the same. Hope revived in a time where there seemed to be no hope."

Renichia Mooneys, PACT Regional Manager
Born from PACT’s vision

PACT Initiatives

Three extraordinary projects, each with their own identity, their own audience and their own home. Visit them directly below.

Annual Festival  •  Prince Albert
Journey to Jazz

A bespoke, intimate festival at the foothills of the Swartberg Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jazz as a vehicle for social justice. World-class local and international artists, masterclasses, food, storytelling, art and nature-based activities. And at its heart: 80 PACT youth crew gaining on-the-job training across every aspect of festival production.

WhenAnnually in May
Venues6 across Prince Albert
ArtistsLocal & international
Theatre & Cinema
The Showroom Theatre

An iconic art-deco beacon of creativity at the heart of Prince Albert. A world-class theatre, cinema, gallery and seminar venue, now led by PACT as a centre of community transformation. Hi-tech sound and lighting. A Café Bar, and a platform for local and international talent, with PACT youth working in every role in front of house and behind the scenes.

Capacity140 seats
IncludesCafé & Academy
Festivals hosted p.a.11+
Social Enterprise
ONS

The PACT social enterprise at 34 Church Street. ONS is a Hospitality Academy, eatery, retail & salon and events space, with graduates training and working in every role. Every meal, booking and sale funds the Trust.

IncludesAcademy · Eatery · Retail & Salon · Events
TrainsHospitality Academy
Our Story

A letter. A community.
A movement.

In 2011, Ingrid Wolfaardt looked at the children of Prince Albert wandering the streets and wrote an open letter to the mayor. That act of civic courage triggered an in-depth investigation into what the community’s youth actually needed.

Two years later, the Prince Albert Community Trust was formed. A decade on, PACT has dramatically grown its footprint, launching programmes in education, wellbeing, arts, skills and micro-enterprise that have transformed thousands of lives across three Karoo communities (Prince Albert, Leeu-Gamka and Klaarstroom).

The open letter

Ingrid Wolfaardt writes to the Prince Albert mayor, sparking a community-wide investigation into youth welfare.

PACT is formed

The Trust is established, with Wolfaardt as founder and a board including community champions and the mayoral post.

The PACT Arts & Education Centre opens

PACT’s headquarters in Rondomskrik opens as a safe cultural and educational hub for the community.

NPO status achieved

PACT formally registers as a non-profit organisation and public benefit organisation.

Journey to Jazz launches

The inaugural festival brings world-class music and 80 PACT youth crew to Prince Albert and puts it on the global arts map.

The Showroom

PACT takes stewardship of The Showroom Theatre, a flagship venue for community transformation and showcasing emerging and professional local and international talent.

My colleague Diane and I had an extraordinary time at the Journey to Jazz festival in Prince Albert. Well done to PACT, its founder Ingrid Wolfaardt, Brenda Sisane, the fantastic young leaders of PACT, Prince Albert village and all collaborators. The music!

Professor Thuli Madonsela
PACT Patron · Former Public Protector of South Africa

Our Mission

PACT serves as a change agent, making a lasting impact by empowering the youth of the greater Prince Albert area while fighting to transform the status quo of inequality embedded in our society.

Our Vision

Confident and capable young people, built through accredited education, structured arts training and social enterprise, from early childhood to the world of work.

Youth & Community

Voices from the ground

All stories

PACT staan op twee pilare, gemeenskap en jeug. Hulle verstaan jong mense in die Karoo se lewens. As ek na myself kyk, my selfvertroue het verbeter, en ek kan nou sonder probleme met mense kommunikeer, my leierskapsvaardighede het baie gegroei. Jeug kry keuses by PACT: dwelms en alkohol, of leer en vorentoe gaan in die lewe. Ek kies die lewe. Een dag sal ek graag my eie besigheid wil hê en ander wil help. Iets wat ek by PACT geleer het: moenie huiwer om te vra nie.

DJ
Duwayne Jaftha
SA Tourism School graduate · Prince Albert

Vir my is dit als oor persoonlike ontwikkeling en werkskepping by PACT. Ek was ’n skaam mens maar het geleer om meer uit my gemaksone uit te kom, en my selfvertroue het ook baie verbeter. Die opleiding en geleenthede wat ek deur PACT ontvang het, help my op die lang termyn om nie net werk te kry nie, maar om eendag ’n besigheid van my eie te bedryf.

LP
Lee-Vonia Plaatjies
EPWP · Heritage Development

My name is Diego Carolus. I am an intern at the PACT project in Leeu-Gamka. In a small place like Leeu-Gamka, there are not always clubs, facilities or classes, that’s why projects like these matter. They bring opportunities and strengthen children. Sport teaches discipline and teamwork, art builds creativity, and together they give hope to our kids. Once a child builds these skills and believes in themselves, no one can take it away from them. Projects like these show why it is important to invest in small towns.

DC
Diego Carolus
Intern · PACT Leeu-Gamka
Latest News

Stories from Prince Albert

All news
May 2026

Journey to Jazz 2026, the fourth edition

Kronkeldraai, the Journey to Jazz festival publication, tells the story of the fourth edition: the line-up, the 80-strong youth crew who ran it, and a weekend that once again put Prince Albert on the global arts map.

Read the publication
December 2025

PACT Hospitality Academy launches

The Franschhoek Hospitality Academy partners with PACT to establish PACTHA, a new Prince Albert campus bringing premium, accredited hospitality training to Karoo youth. The pilot cohort begins in February 2026.

Read the article
The Showroom Theatre, Prince Albert
Coming soon

The Showroom, a year on Church Street

Placeholder for the Showroom’s story, a look back at a season of theatre, film, music and conversation at PACT’s art-deco landmark. Full story to follow.

Read more
In Partnership With
Prince Albert Municipality
Western Cape Government
Wesgro
South African Police Service
Ninety One
Pro Helvetia · Swiss Arts Council
Artesis Plantijn University College Antwerp
UY Prosum
ARCO Prince Albert
STAND · Sustaining Teams and Dance Foundation
NATI · Nasionale Afrikaanse Teater-Inisiatief
Kaleidoscope Chamber Music Festival
Gamka Klassiek
Leefees Prince Albert
Prince Albert Open Studios
Hoëveld Great Karoo Prince Albert
Leeu Gamka Primêre Skool
Gay's Guernsey Dairy
Swartberg Hotel
Prins-Kem Pharmacy
Moonsport
Prince Albert Cycles
Qhubeka
Fruitworks
Crownfruit
Partner logo
ARCO-PACT Strings Project
National Arts Council · an Agency of the Department of Sport, Arts & Culture
Department of Sport, Arts and Culture · Mzansi Golden Economy
Prince Albert Primary School