WHO WE ARE

 

Standing in the Gap is an Early Intervention mental health charity, helping pre-school and primary school children manage big emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger and grief.

 

Our Vision:

For every child to be emotionally healthy and able to flourish

Our Mission:

To support children and families by providing the tools to

build emotional well-being and good child mental health.

Our Aims:

  • Enable children and families to learn about normal development and behaviour using resources to promote emotional well-being and good child mental health.

  • Run evidence based facilitated workshops for parents and children to help them understand and manage big emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger and grief and key transitions such as starting or changing school.

  • Explain the science behind emotions using our fun mental and physical elves.

Our Values:

Our values are integral to how we work: We support and promote emotional well being and good child mental health in a safe and professional environment through empowering partnerships and by acting with kindness and understanding.

Our Ethos:

The founder / Clinical Director and trustees of Standing in the Gap are very much motivated by their Christian faith; we want to use the biblical principles of helping and supporting those in need.

In our case that’s children under the age of 12 and their families. Running a small charity is hard work, all our trustees are volunteers and they do this because we feel, as Christians, Jesus wants us to love others and support those who need it. There is currently a huge need within children for mental health support and this is where we want to be effective.

We do:

· require our trustees to be Christian (of any denomination) and willing to pray about the work we do as a charity.

· Work and support any family of any faith or none.

· Live out our values:

o To be safe and professional: we do follow the NICE guidelines and ensure all our intervention are evidence based and age appropriate.

o To work in partnership with families, schools and professionals: we cannot improve child mental health alone we need to work with others.

o Acting with kindness and understanding: we understand that child mental health is emotive and that as parents we often feel guilty that somehow its all our fault. We don’t aim to blame or judge families but instead work with kindness and understanding. Parenting is tough and we all need support at times.

o Link with local churches and encourage them to pray for our work- as a small charity working in an area of huge need we need prayer as we don’t want to burn out or be overwhelmed when meeting our mission or vision.

We do not:

· Push our beliefs onto anyone.

· Use Christian language or bible stories at all in our talks, workshops or support programmes.

· Exclude any children or families from our support on account of their race or religion.

Our Christian faith is like the oven that bakes the food. The food is the different projects, talks, workshops and support we offer. If we were a commercial kitchen our food would need to meet strict food standards to be safe and edible for everyone- we apply the same principle to our projects they are professional, evidence based and safe. Our oven is the team who keep the wheels on behind the scenes- our trustees and Clinical Director.