The department’s current challenge reflects an important shift in how public infrastructure is viewed. Instead of creating new facilities, it seeks to strengthen the public institutions that already exist by integrating GBVF information into places that communities regularly visit.
Learning from ambition
The department entered the 2025 100-Day Challenge with an ambitious goal of establishing GBVF information corners in all 185 public libraries across the Free State. While the vision was compelling, budget limitations prevented full implementation.
Rather than abandoning the idea, the department used the experience to reconsider what could realistically be achieved within a 100-day implementation cycle. This year’s challenge reduces the scale while preserving the long-term vision. The department has committed to establishing functional GBVF corners in 15 libraries, with three libraries in each of the province’s five districts.
This reflects one of the central principles of the 100-Day Challenge methodology. Success is not determined by the size of an ambition but by identifying a goal that can be achieved, measured and expanded over time.
Importantly, the department intends to use successive 100-day cycles to gradually extend the model across the provincial library network while aligning implementation with its Annual Performance Plan.
Building ownership from within the department
Many 100-Day Challenges depend on collaboration across multiple sectors. In contrast, this initiative focuses on strengthening collaboration within the department itself.
The implementation team consists of the departmental GBVF coordinator, the Head of Library Services, district library managers and library managers responsible for individual facilities. Rather than relying on external facilitators, each library manager is being equipped to become the custodian of their own GBVF corner by receiving training on the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF, referral pathways and available support services.
This approach recognises that implementation becomes more sustainable when responsibility is embedded within existing institutional roles instead of being dependent on short-term projects.
Libraries as community knowledge hubs
The GBVF corners will provide books, educational material, referral information and resources explaining available services and the National Strategic Plan on GBVF. Material will be available in both English and Sesotho where appropriate, recognising the linguistic context of many communities served by the libraries.
However, the department does not view the corners simply as information displays. Library managers are incorporating GBVF awareness into existing programmes already taking place within libraries. As community members attend reading sessions, spelling competitions and other educational activities, they will also encounter discussions about GBVF, reporting mechanisms and available support. The intention is to position GBVF awareness within the normal functioning of community life rather than limiting engagement to standalone awareness campaigns.
The department is also considering how these spaces can become more accessible by exploring Braille resources and voice-assisted information for visually impaired library users.
Measuring implementation before measuring impact
An important insight emerging from the department is the distinction between implementation and impact. During the current 100-day cycle, success will be measured by whether 15 functional GBVF corners have been established and are operating as intended. Only once this institutional foundation exists does the department intend to develop additional indicators that assess how communities engage with these spaces and whether they influence awareness, referrals or help-seeking behaviour.
This sequencing reflects an understanding that meaningful social outcomes depend on functioning systems. Before measuring behavioural change, the structures that enable that change must first be established.
By using public libraries as accessible information hubs, the department is demonstrating how existing government infrastructure can contribute to the provincial response to GBVF. Rather than treating libraries solely as places for books, the 100-Day Challenge is positioning them as public spaces that connect communities with knowledge, support and services that go beyond literacy alone.
Free State Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.