Our Story & Values

We are youth workers bringing a voice of hope to people aged 10-25 during and after attending A&E because of self-harm, a suicide attempt or an emotional crisis.

Our Story.

At Emerge, we know that sometimes things can get overwhelming and you may find yourself needing to go to the hospital because you have hurt yourself on purpose, or are feeling strong urges to do so.

Emerge’s message is one of hope – our Founder and many of our team have struggled with depression, self-harm, anxiety, and eating disorders… but we have lived to tell the tale and that’s why we believe so passionately that you can too. We’re here to be with you during times of crisis. We understand how bad it can get, but we always carry a voice of hope.

We love this image of the bowl that’s been broken but, rather than being thrown out, it’s been pieced back together with seams of gold, creating something more beautiful and valuable than before.

This practise is called kintsugi, an ancient Japanese art form based on the belief that the cracks and marks in pottery are an important part of its history and are nothing to be ashamed of.

This idea really means a lot to us at Emerge Advocacy, and to our Founder personally…

“As a teenager, I struggled a lot too. I was self-harming and not eating. I didn’t want to go on.

But I found people to talk to who helped me, and eventually I started to recover. I decided to become a youth worker so that I could potentially be there for young people who needed help like I had.

Fast forward a few (like 20!) years, and I had the idea to set up Emerge, so that youth workers could go and meet young people in the places and at the times they might feel at rock bottom. To be there to listen, and just be a living, breathing example of the fact that there is hope; that just because we’ve been broken, doesn’t mean that we’re destined for the scrap heap. In fact, our lives can become more beautiful and more meaningful than ever.”

Joy

Founder

2016 - Emerge Begins

The first Emerge project opens at Royal Surrey Hospital with Joy and a small team of volunteers beginning to support young people, getting to know hospital staff and gaining experience.

2018 - Funding is Won

Emerge at St Peter’s hospital launches in April and other hospitals express an interest in having Emerge too. We develop our self-harm insight training into a package. We are nominated and win the Royal Surrey Patients’ Choice Award.

2020 - Queen's Award

Emerge Medway launches in April. During COVID, we switch to a remote support model and are busier than ever supporting young people. We grow our core team to support our growing charity. We are awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Our new project launches in Frimley in December.

2022 - Training Developed

We launch our new project in Wexham Park Hospital in Slough. We move into our own office base for the first time. We successfully receive funding for East Kent and recruit new senior leadership colleagues, Project Leads and Youth Support Workers. We are asked to bid for funds to expand into East Kent.

2024 - Preparing for Replication

We continue to work on our East Kent expansion. We are asked to bid and are successful in gaining funding to further explore national replication, launching a research project to scope this. We begin to develop our infrastructure and resources in preparation to mobilise projects run by churches as delivery partners.

2016 - Emerge Begins

The first Emerge project opens at Royal Surrey Hospital with Joy and a small team of volunteers beginning to support young people, getting to know hospital staff and gaining experience.

2017 - Charity is Established

We become a registered charity and gain funding to employ a youth worker alongside Joy. We share our model to explore setting up a project in St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, run by local charity East to West.

2018 - Funding is Won

Emerge at St Peter’s hospital launches in April and other hospitals express an interest in having Emerge too. We develop our self-harm insight training into a package. We are nominated and win the Royal Surrey Patients’ Choice Award.

2019 - Projects Open

We work with Medway Public Health to explore setting up a project. We enter and win the Cinnamon Network’s Project Lab competition, beginning work to replicate nationally. News about our work spreads further and we are approached by Frimley and Epsom hospitals about starting new projects.

2020 - Queen's Award

Emerge Medway launches in April. During COVID, we switch to a remote support model and are busier than ever supporting young people. We grow our core team to support our growing charity. We are awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Our new project launches in Frimley in December.

2021 - Infrastructure Grown

Our new project launches in Epsom in January. We assess our infrastructure and plan for growth, reviewing our leadership structure and internal processes. We launch projects in Darent Valley Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital. We secure funding and launch Emerge East Surrey in August, meaning there is now an Emerge project in every Surrey hospital.

2022 - Training Developed

We launch our new project in Wexham Park Hospital in Slough. We move into our own office base for the first time. We successfully receive funding for East Kent and recruit new senior leadership colleagues, Project Leads and Youth Support Workers. We are asked to bid for funds to expand into East Kent.

2023 - Sharing Learning

We are successful in funding for East Kent and recruit new senior leadership colleagues, Project Leads and Youth Support Workers. We run insight workshops for parents and professionals and speak at two national conferences. We are finalists in the BBC Making a Difference Awards.

2024 - Preparing for Replication

We continue to work on our East Kent expansion. We are asked to bid and are successful in gaining funding to further explore national replication, launching a research project to scope this. We begin to develop our infrastructure and resources in preparation to mobilise projects run by churches as delivery partners.

2017 - Charity is Established

We become a registered charity and gain funding to employ a youth worker alongside Joy. We share our model to explore setting up a project in St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, run by local charity East to West.

2019 - Projects Open

We work with Medway Public Health to explore setting up a project. We enter and win the Cinnamon Network’s Project Lab competition, beginning work to replicate nationally. News about our work spreads further and we are approached by Frimley and Epsom hospitals about starting new projects.

2021 - Infrastructure Grows

Our new project launches in Epsom in January. We assess our infrastructure and plan for growth, reviewing our leadership structure and internal processes. We launch projects in Darent Valley Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital. We secure funding and launch Emerge East Surrey in August, meaning there is now an Emerge project in every Surrey hospital.

2023 - Sharing Learning

We are successful in funding for East Kent and recruit new senior leadership colleagues, Project Leads and Youth Support Workers. We run insight workshops for parents and professionals and speak at two national conferences. We are finalists in the BBC Making a Difference Awards.

Our Values.

As a Christian charity, we are motivated by our faith – our source of hope and strength which we draw upon in our day to day work with young people. We exist to support young people of all faiths and none, providing care and compassion indiscriminately.

Emerge is a charity which is run with the support of local churches. We also link with other services and professionals for the best outcomes.

At Emerge, being a Christian charity is about more than holding a set of values. It is something that is expressed through our life together as a team.

For example, when one of our team is supporting a young person, another team member will be their ‘Backstop’, which means that as well as helping them with things like safeguarding and lone working, they will be praying for the interaction. Once the member has finished seeing the young person, they debrief with their Backstop who will pray for them personally. In our staff team we start our working days with a short devotional time, which many of us take turns to lead, as we find this gives us the focus and inspiration we need to be our best selves in all we do.

Our identity gives us natural links through local church networks where we find people with pastoral experience and caring attitudes – who make great volunteers by supporting young people, baking cakes for hospital staff, or joining our Backstop team.

We never direct our conversations with young people towards things to do with faith. We simply let them know that we’re a Christian charity and leave it there. We always empower young people to guide conversations and have no agenda to bring except to enable young people to know that they are not alone and that their lives and futures matter, that hope is real.

However, spirituality is a key part of wellbeing for everyone and we are well placed to help young people explore what spirituality looks like for them. We often find that young people want to talk about their own faith and spiritual needs, and that they feel comfortable to do this with us, knowing that we are people who will understand an hold space for this.

Learn more about what our hope-filled support looks like…

It is important that our identity as a Christian charity adds to the overall positive experience for the young people we support. So we asked them…

What difference (if any) did it make that Emerge is a Christian faith based charity?

“Emerge being a Christian charity did not and doesn’t affect
my opinion in any way – it just helps that they cared for me.”

“It’s been a help to those struggling and allowed me to work out who I am. Being able to talk about my faith has helped in the sessions.”

“None. No views were pushed upon me, and I didn’t feel that Christianity was the focus.”
“None – they are really helpful. They just listen and play games with you. They want you to know how loved you are and how much you matter.”
“Due to my background of trauma in an organisation that’s incorrectly called Christian, I was hesitant. But [the Emerge Youth Support Worker’s] ability to talk openly and respectfully about views and show a positive picture of a spiritual and ethical way of living really helped me – I’m very grateful.”