About us
— Our Vision
Urban Promise UK envisions a time when all children will thrive, breaking through barriers to opportunity and success, rising as leaders that restore their community.
— Our Mission
We will equip children and young people, through Christ, with the skills necessary for spiritual, academic and personal transformation.
— Our Values
We are guided by our SPIRIT values in everything we do. We are:
Servants
Partners
Innovative
Reliable
Inclusive
Transparent
— Our Faith
We are a non-denominational Christian organisation, guided by our faith to impact our community. We believe that Jesus welcomes everyone and we will do the same.
Our work is inspired by Isaiah 61:1-4 which calls us to be good news in the world and to REBUILD, RENEW, and RESTORE our city.
Our Story
The original UrbanPromise started in 1988 in Camden, NJ. Since then the model has proved to work across many cities in the USA, Africa and Latin America, with over 30 sites globally. All of UrbanPromise’s sites strive to achieve the same goal: to provide urban children and youth with the holistic support needed to succeed academically, grow spiritually, and develop into leaders who can bring positive change to their communities.
Urban Promise UK was founded in 2022 by Kelly and Luke Maxted. They first came across UrbanPromise when a team from UPWilmington visited their university. Inspired by the stories of the Wilmington Street Leaders and their own experiences of growing up in London the vision for UPUK took root. 10 years later Kelly and Luke returned to their vision and reached out to UrbanPromise. They joined the UrbanPromise International fellowship programme in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and served and studied in Camden, NJ, learning the UrbanPromise model. Armed with knowledge and training they returned to London in 2022 to start UPUK in Barking and Dagenham.
