The UPside Timeline
January 2019
A seed is planted
At the beginning of Southside Church the seed was already planted to “be the hands and feet of Jesus” in our community with a focus on social justice. Monique Jonkman (now ALNGside Programme Manger) arrived with Ps Grant Stevenson at the start of Southside Church. Chantal Philander (now Upside Advocay & Development Director) was offering training courses.
May 2020
Southside Social Justice
The following year Southside Church launched their Social Justice initiatives. Facilitatting Courageous Conversations about optics such as Gender Based Violence and Racsism.
January 2021
Southside Legacy Foundation
The second year of COVID lockdowns saw the idea behind social justice start to take shape. At this point Neal Bresler (now UPside Executive Director) began to lay the foundation (pun intended!) for a more formal structure to support the social justice initiative. The desire from Southside Church was for the fruit of this ministry to leave a lasting legacy.
September 2021
Birth of a new vision along with a new name
The weekend of 30 Sept to 2 Oct was a milestone in the life of Upside. Ian Thomson (now board member and IRONside Programme Manager), Chantal Philander and Neal Bresler took some time to pray into and contemplate on the direction that this initiative should take. It was also during this weekend that a new name was selected to reflect this new vision.
February 2022
UPside Community Services NPC
UPside is officially launched at Southside Church. Along with its three programmes; ALONGside, ONside and IRONside.