Our Theory of Change
Helping Children Catch the Wind
At Up 'n Away, we believe that, like kites, children need the right conditions to rise.
With the right environment — filled with colour, calm, and care — every child can catch the wind and soar.
1. The Challenge: Stuck on the Ground
Many of the children we support face powerful headwinds that can hold them down before they’ve had a chance to rise. These include poverty, limited access to enriching experiences, poor mental health, social isolation, and a shortage of positive role models.
Together, these factors can leave children feeling unseen and unsupported. The result is often low self-esteem, restricted aspirations, and a gradual disengagement from school and wider society.
Without strong winds of encouragement, these children struggle to lift off, held down not by a lack of potential, but by the harsh circumstances around them.
At Up ’N Away, we see these struggles clearly not as stopping points, but as the very winds we harness to help each child rise, reconnect, and begin to soar.
2. What We Do: Creating Lift
We exist to break down the barriers that hold children back and to lift them toward brighter horizons. We firmly believe that every child has the potential to soar when given the right support. Our mission is to catch those gusts of adversity and turn them into strength, offering opportunities that help children rise with confidence, purpose, and joy.
Through vibrant, uplifting programmes including skills-building workshops, creative and physical activities, mentoring, and social events, we help children discover their inner lift. Every session is thoughtfully designed to be culturally sensitive, child-centred, and rooted in care.
We don’t just support the child, we connect with families and communities too, creating a steady, guiding breeze that helps each child stay aloft, no matter the challenges they face.
3. The Change: Rising Confidence and Joy
Children feel calmer, happier, and more open in transformed spaces.
Practitioners report greater engagement, reduced stress, and more positive interactions.
Children begin to associate these spaces with safety, belonging, and freedom to express themselves.
The Vision: A Sky Full of Potential
As a result, the children we support begin to grow in confidence, improve their emotional wellbeing, build positive peer relationships, and engage more fully in learning and life. They feel less isolated and more hopeful about their future. In the long term, our work helps children “catch the wind” to rise beyond their current limitations, develop resilience and purpose, and contribute positively to their communities. By investing in these children today, we are helping to shape a more inclusive and compassionate society tomorrow.
Each project is shaped with intention: to spark wonder, invite curiosity,
and create a sense of lift in children’s emotional and mental wellbeing.
"There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children."
Nelson Mandela