Our mission and values
In conflict, schools are destroyed, occupied by armed groups and used to shelter displaced people. Where learning continues, students and teachers can be targets of violence. For many, continuing to learn is just not possible.
When children and families are forced to flee their homes, they miss out on more education as they make dangerous journeys trying to find a place of safety.
For refugees arriving in the UK, education is a priority: it’s how lives begin to be rebuilt and hope for the future is rekindled. But getting back into and progressing in education is fraught with challenge.
We want things to be different.
Valuing the individual
We honour and respect everyone we work with – young people, colleagues and other professionals.
We do our best to listen deeply as we work, valuing everyone's story and experience.
We practice self-care within our team – doing our best to work from a place of rest and peace.
We believe that each person is precious and should be treated with kindness and dignity.
A foundation of hope
We have a deeply held belief in hope – in good times and in bad, and invest in education as a practical demonstration of our belief in the potential for hopeful futures.
We respect and support the hopes that the young people we work with have for their lives. We believe in the importance of bearing witness to challenges and pain, even, and especially, when there are no answers.
We also share and celebrate joy, even in the small things.
Changing the landscape
Our work is rooted with individual young people and groups of young people, but we also know structural change is needed.
Together with the young people we work with and have worked with, we conduct research, make policy recommendations, and train others – in the hope that one day our work will no longer be needed.