Who we are

Polly Newall, Founder and Director

Polly is half-Australian, half-British and was lucky to grow up in lots of different countries. More recently, she spent over 14 years living and working with various NGOs across Europe, Africa and Asia before returning to London in 2018. This included stints in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Tanzania and Switzerland.

A qualified primary school teacher and driven by her passion for human rights and justice, her areas of expertise include:

·       Working with children to equip them with confidence, skills and tools to support their learning; manage emotions; and nurture friendships
·       Conducting participatory research and evaluations
·       Facilitating community engagement processes
·       Managing complex projects and programmes (with budgets of £2m+)
·       Providing training and capacity building support to organisations   

When she came back to the UK, she worked at GambleAware, managing a large portfolio of research and evaluation projects. Her role involved working with diverse stakeholders, including people with lived experience of gambling-related harms, policy‑makers and researchers.

Later, she joined Mind on the Time to Change Global mental health anti-stigma programme until it ended in 2020. She was responsible for the delivery of key components of the programme. In addition, she provided capacity-building support to local partners in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and India.

When the programme finished, she went back into consulting. She founded Roots to Change in 2022, in part to access funding for a piece of research but mainly to formalise her consultancy.

In 2022, she also went back into the classroom and is enjoying working with children again and supporting all aspects of their learning and well-being.