The story of Take Charge!

Built with young people. Grounded in evidence. Made for real life.

Take Charge! grew from a simple problem: children experiencing fatigue needed something designed for them, not another adult factsheet.

Why Take Charge! started

Children and young people with disability can experience fatigue that affects school, friendships, rehabilitation, family life and the things they want to do.

But available information is often static, written for adults, diagnosis-specific or difficult for children with disability to access and use. We wanted to create something different: a resource designed around how children and young people actually learn, communicate and live.

Listening first

Before building anything, we listened.

Young people, parents and clinicians helped us understand what was missing, what fatigue really looks like in everyday life and what a useful resource would need to do.

ListenExperiences, needs and priorities.
ExploreEvidence and existing resources.
Co-designLanguage, activities and ideas.
PrototypeBuild things people can react to.
TestAccessibility, usability and usefulness.
ImproveIterate and evaluate.
Three kinds of knowledge

Take Charge! sits where evidence, experience and clinical expertise meet.

Research evidence

What research tells us about fatigue, self-management and developmentally responsive digital intervention.

Lived experience

What children, young people and families say fatigue is actually like — and what they wish other people understood.

Clinical expertise

How fatigue shows up in real care, rehabilitation, school and everyday life.

Meet the co-design team

Many people are behind Take Charge!

Approved photos, names, roles and short first-person statements will appear here.

Young people

Young-person partners

“The part of Take Charge! I helped shape…”

Families

Parent & carer partners

Everyday context, family impact and communication.

Clinical

Clinicians

Paediatric rehabilitation and implementation expertise.

Research + design

Researchers & designers

Evidence, evaluation, accessibility and product development.

From ideas to a digital experience

Take Charge! combines short animations, lived-experience videos, interactive reflection and My Power Bank because information alone is not enough. The aim is to help a young person recognise themselves in the content and leave with something useful.

Where we are now

Take Charge! is being developed and evaluated.

We are testing accessibility, usability, acceptability and perceived usefulness, and learning how it can best fit into healthcare, home and school contexts.

Explore the research →

Partners and supporters

Partner and funder logos will appear here with acknowledgements.

Partner logo
Partner logo
Funder logo
Funder logo