Up2Us

🌍 Today is global

This day marks the end of self-care month, which takes place to show the importance of practicing self-care in order to have a healthy and balanced life.

It’s often something that gets overlooked during times of stress and difficulty. But over time this adds to stress and difficulty because our minds and bodies are no longer equipped to manage it.

🚰 The expression ‘filling your cup’ comes from the idea that you need to nourish yourself before going out in the world and giving to others.

Self-care day is your reminder to fill your cup. Do things you enjoy, that help you relax, and that help you feel good mental and physically.

Need some inspiration? Here’s a handy check-list of ideas 👆

Could you be our next CEO of board member?

Up2Us is based in East Kilbride and work in surrounding areas to support young people who have had a difficult start in life to have better life experiences.

It’s an exciting time to work with Up2Us as we endeavor to expand our free “Time for Change” project which supports young women, caught up in the Criminal Justice System. We’re also building a therapeutic centre named by young people as the “The Ace Space”.

By visiting our link in bio, you will find recruitment packs which tell you everything you need to know about Up2Us.

For more information and to apply, head to our bio.

Could you take on the role of Chief Executive Officer with a leading children’s charity?

Up2Us is looking for an experienced and progressive leader driven to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people.

The charity has been delivering residential care and community prevention in West Scotland for 14 years to support children and young people affected by childhood trauma. We seek a confident, energetic and visionary Chief Executive Officer to lead our organisation into its next phase of growth and impact.

Hours: Full-time
Salary: £65,000 – £72,000
Location: East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire

Apply before the closing date on 22nd July.

To download the recruitment pack and apply, visit: https://buff.ly/4d1ePeA

When we’re in a bad place in life it can be hard to see a way out. That’s why building trusting relationships with support workers can change lives.

Weekly one-to-one support allows young people time to talk through any issues holding them back and build up habits that will help them to create a better life for themselves.

We work with young people in the community so they can build a network which will help them thrive in the long-term. Whether that’s social groups, getting a job, or accessing different services - our workers will support young people to build up the relationships they need.

Could you take on the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with a leading children’s charity?

Up2Us is looking for an experienced and progressive leader driven to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people.

The charity has been delivering residential care and community prevention in West Scotland for 14 years to support children and young people affected by childhood trauma. We seek a confident, energetic and visionary Chief Executive Officer to lead our organisation into its next phase of growth and impact.

Hours: Full-time
Salary: £65,000 – £72,000
Location: East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire

Apply before the closing date on 22nd July.

To download the recruitment pack and apply, visit: https://buff.ly/4cxEsDR

Shout out to Chris from the Up2Us Residential team who took on the 2024 👊

Fancy taking on the Tough Mudder challenge in 2025? You can register your interest now on their website.

There’s also lots of challenge events still to happen in Scotland for 2024. Visit for ideas and to set up your Up2Us fundraising page.

Pride may be over, but our support for the LGBTQI+ community never ends 🏳️‍🌈

We believe all young people have the right to be valued, respected and celebrated for who they are ❤️💛💚💙

Support in Scotland:

Up2Us supports which is all about understanding the harm of alcohol on our health and wellbeing, and its harm on wider society.

Visit (Alcohol Change UK) to learn more.

There’s still time to apply to be on our board!⏱️ Applications will close on Sunday 30 June.

We’re looking for people with a breadth of insight, experience and perspective to volunteer their time on our board.

It’s an exciting time to work with Up2Us as we endeavor to expand our free “Time for Change” project which supports young women, caught up in the Criminal Justice System. We're also building a therapeutic centre named by young people as the “The Ace Space".

We're especially keen to hear from people with experience in:
- Children and young people's care and support services
- Finance/Fundraising
- Human Resources
- Communications/ Digital Technologies

If you have skills that make a good match and can give a small amount of time each month to help young people achieve better life chances, better life experiences and better wellbeing, we want to hear from you. The board meet online on last Tuesday of each month (4.00pm-5pm).

For more information and to apply, visit: https://goodmoves.org/vacancy/a4sP1000000OCxhIAG

Let’s go Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿⚽️

We’ll be supporting the Scotland football team tonight in their second game of the Euro tournament against Switzerland.

Up2Us staff made the most of the team reaching the Euros on Friday and went out together to watch the game. The score didn’t go our way but we had a fun night!

We did it!! 🏃‍♀️💪

That’s a wrap on the Women’s 10k Glasgow 🏆

Congratulations to all our runners who smashed the race and raised a fantastic amount for Up2Us in the process.

Millie, one of our runners, said “It was a great experience taking part in the Women’s Glasgow 10km and hearing the crowds cheering for everyone running. I’m glad we were able to run to raise money for Up2Us and I hope we sign up for more events like this. Thank you to everyone who donated to the Up2Us Just Giving page!”

There’s still time to donate if you want to show support to Up2Us and the Women’s 10k team 💜 (link in bio 🔗)

The countdown is on! ⏱️

Just 4 days until the Up2Us team take on the and in Glasgow on Sunday 16th June 🏃‍♀️

All to raise money for Up2Us so that we can continue to support to young people with nowhere else to go.

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/up2us10k?utm_medium=campaign&utm_content=campaign%2Fup2us10k&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

We're supporting Carers Week 2024 to put carers on the map. With a general election this year, it's important to highlight the increasing pressures carers face and campaign for recognition and support.

Some of those challenges include being able to live independently, health and well-being, financial challenges, and more.

As a Health and Social Care provider, we support many carers and their families facing challenges:
- We provide 3 houses, and 1 independent flat in rural settings, offering a calm and peaceful environment to recover from trauma.
- We support families in difficulty to build strengths and resilience to prevent them from being separated from each other in the care system
- We help young people to live independently who may have experienced challenges in the past, including care, which make this difficult

If you think we could support someone you're working with, please email [email protected]

Not long until Sunday 16 June when the Up2Us team will be taking on the Womens 10k and Mens 10k in Glasgow!

Raising money for Up2Us to support children and young people to have better life chances, better life experiences and better wellbeing.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. If you are able to give a small donation to support our team, we greatly appreciate it!

Up2Us is looking for people with a breadth of insight, experience and perspective to join our board of trustees. Please help us find the right person by sharing on your page!

It's an exciting time to work with Up2Us as we endeavor to expand our free “Time for Change” project which supports young women, caught up in the Criminal Justice System. We're also building a therapeutic centre named by young people as the “The Ace Space".

We're especially keen to hear from people with experience in:
- Children and young people's care and support services
- Finance/Fundraising
- Human Resources
- Communications/ Digital Technologies

If you have skills that make a good match and can give a small amount of time each month to help young people achieve better life chances, better life experiences and better wellbeing, we want to hear from you. The board meet online on last Tuesday of each month (4.00pm-5pm).

For more information and to apply, visit: https://goodmoves.org/vacancy/a4sP1000000OCxhIAG/board-trustee

If you need cheering up today.. have a look at our photos from a recent trip to Barnhill Farm 🐑

The Up2Us team will be taking part in the and in Glasgow on Sunday 16th June 🏃‍♀️

If you’ve been looking for a summer challenge to get those steps in, look no further! We’ve registered as a charity so you can sign up to run and represent Up2Us 💜

Don’t fancy running? You can donate to our team! Every penny will go towards supporting the lives of the young people we work with in West Scotland.

Find our JustGiving Fundraising Campaign page in our bio 🔗

It is your right to love who you love 🌈

This International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, Up2Us stands by the LGBTQIA+ community.

This day highlights injustices faced by the LGBTQIA+ community around the world. Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic attacks have increased in the UK in recent years, along with vital services of support being cut. Discrimination isn’t always a physical or verbal attack. It can also be restrictions in healthcare, education and benefits.

If you feel safe to, it’s important to challenge homophobia, biphobia and transphobia when you see it.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 For young people in Scotland, visit for support.

We were lucky enough to see some piglets on a recent trip to Barnhill farm 🐷

Our community services give young people the chance to build a close relationship with their support worker and grow their confidence by visiting different places in their local community.

If you want to know more about our community services, email [email protected] 📧

It’s the start of and this year the theme is..

Movement: moving for your mental health 🚴‍♀️🏊‍♂️⛹️🕺

Movement is one of the most important things we can do for our mental health. Our bodies and minds are connected, so looking after ourselves physically can help reduce problems with our mental health.

Here are 5 ways that movement can help our mental health:

1. Releases endorphins and helps relieve stress
2. Allows us to take a break from everyday challenges and responsibilities
3. Helps emotions move through our bodies
4. Provides an outlet for self expression
5. Strengthens the connection we have with our bodies

Visit for tips on how to get moving 🤸‍♂️

A group of our staff completed the KiltWalk to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust () a charity special to Up2Us.

We wanted to show our appreciation to this charity and raise money as a thank you for their support and all the work they do for young people living with cancer 💛

Together our staff raised over £1000 and we would like to thank everyone who sponsored and encouraged the team!

Special thanks to Wendy Hunt from our Residential Team who organised the walk, and to the staff and young people for cheering our team on as they crossed the finish line👏

When we carry our problems in our heads they get bigger. Talking to someone about your problems can help take the weight off your shoulders and show you a different perspective.

One young person who works with Up2Us said..

“When I’ve spent time with Up2Us I feel less stressed after it. Because if I’ve had a build up of something, I’ve got somebody that I can just offload to.”

Don’t underestimate the power of talking to someone! If you’re having a hard time, reach out ❤️‍🩹

Trip to the farm 🐏🐮

For people living in the city it can be hard to picture what rural life is really like, and that’s why young people love to visit the National Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride.

Getting to explore life in the country and get up close to some of the animals 🐷

What might be an everyday activity for people living in the country, is a new experience for the young people we work with.

Visit the website to plan your trip🚜

🌏🐚♻️

Recently we took a young person rock pooling in Seamill where we found lots of crabs 🦀 This young person loves to find things outside they can take home like shells and rocks.

🐚 crafting tip: if you’re not sure what to do with the shells, find a flat wooden frame and glue them along the side 🖼️

When visiting the seaside, we often see bits of plastic washed up that shouldn’t be there. This is one of the biggest issues impacted sea life today. Remember to look after the Earth so that we can all enjoy it!

For more resources on and how you can get involved to protect our planet, visit: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2024/

April is and we want to show autistic young people that they are loved and accepted 💜

Autism is a hidden disability. You won’t know someone is autistic by the way they look, but it’s important to show understanding if someone shows some behavioural signs of autism.

We can support autistic people with things they may find difficult like communication, eye contact, interacting with others or sensory overloads from the world around them.

No two autistic people are the same, so if you meet an autistic person or someone in your life is autistic get to know them and their unique experience of the world.

If you want to find out more about autism or you’re looking for support in Scotland, visit and

In a recent team meeting, we discussed the Core Assurance Checklist ✔️

The Core Assurance Checklist is a self-evaluation list to ensure we’re maintaining standards set out by the Care Inspectorate.

Examples of this include..

How are we doing?
✔️ Robust evidence
✔️ Be objective
✔️ Remove bias

How do we know?
✔️ Questionnaires
✔️ Performance data
✔️ Speak to professionals

What are we going to do now?
✔️ What’s working well
✔️ Where can we improve

When working with Up2Us, you have the assurance that we are always upholding high standards of care for young people, and always have the young persons best interests at heart 💜

The community team had a great time taking young people to the Transport Museum 🚂🚍

It’s not just cars and buses - they have over 3000 historical objects on display! Skateboards, paintings, prams and much more. There’s something for any young person to take an interest in.

It’s important that trans people - especially young trans people - know that they are loved, supported and accepted as they are ❤️💛💚💙🧡💜

If you’re not sure how to support young trans people, visit 🏳️‍🌈

Today is Parent Mental Health Day which acknowledges the challenges faced by parents which have a negative impact on their mental health.

Created by Stem4, they report that 8 in 10 parents/carers say pressures often leave them feeling overwhelmed and isolated. This year they are highlighting the importance of and you can find resources on their websites with tips on how to improve family relationships and how to support parents/carers in your life.

Find out more: https://stem4.org.uk/parentmentalhealthday/