StreetInvest operates under the description of street children from the UN Human Rights report from 2011 where they are referred to as ‘street-connected’ and ‘is understood as a child for whom the street is a central reference point- one which plays a significant role in his/her everyday life and identity’ . Street Invest recognises this as including children that live and work on the street, but also children and young people who migrate between 'home' and the street.

StreetInvest believes that responses should be child-centred and rights based.  Organizations should work where the child is, respect the child’s existing circumstances and relationships, listen to their views about their own needs and see the child neither as a victim nor a criminal but as a positive agent of their own change. 

The organization believes that the street worker, as a responsible and trustworthy adult in the street child’s life, is the first point of contact to a safer life, with enhanced capabilities to improve their well-being and strengthen relationships with family & community. To be able to bring those child-centred and rights based responses, the street worker needs before anything else to build a relationship of trust with the child.