Give people the one missing piece, a boat, a sewing machine, a place on a training course.
With that gap closed, people start earning, building skills and steady income of their own.
Self-reliant and secure, no longer on the receiving end, many go on to support others in their community.
Boats, rickshaws and sewing machines, the tools people need to start earning, handed over through trusted local partners.
Courses like construction training, run with partner organisations, that turn into real employment.
Zakat funds channelled specifically into tools and training that help someone become self-sufficient.
Step Up's model mirrors one of the most rigorously evaluated anti-poverty interventions anywhere: BRAC's Ultra-Poor Graduation approach, a productive asset plus training and coaching for the poorest households.
In the UK, the barrier isn't usually a missing asset, it's a missing opportunity, after over a decade of youth service cuts hit the most deprived areas hardest.
Local authority youth service spending in England has fallen by roughly 73% in real terms since 2010, and more than 760 youth centres have closed.
Young people in England's 10% most deprived areas have half the access to youth services of those in the 10% most affluent postcodes, a genuine postcode lottery.
StreetGames' "Safe, Fit & Well" programme, run with Mental Health First Aid-trained coaches in deprived UK areas, saw the share of young participants with high wellbeing rise from 11% to 74% in its strongest site.
A Loughborough University evidence review found well-run sport programmes reduce risk factors linked to youth offending, especially where they build trusted adult relationships.
These are the actual items Step Up funds, with typical costs drawn from equivalent livelihood programmes.
