E:merge are Prepared To Save Lives

About E:merge

E:merge is a young people’s charity that has delivered youth work for nearly 20 years in some of the most segregated, deprived and broken wards of Bradford. Their goal is to reach the most marginalised and enable them to become a part of a community within which they can thrive, develop and reach their potential. Motivated by Christian faith and values to inspire, empower and build resilience in young people of all faiths or none.

E:merge works with local primary and secondary schools in the Bradford area providing mentoring and other training support such as CPR and basic first aid training, team building, life skills etc. The team have also delivered a first aid skills course to fifteen young people in a community centre who raised funds for a defibrillator. They heard about the course after reading about the House of Commons launch in the Telegraph & Argus.

The Challenge

E:merge contacted us to work together to help train team members in basic first aid skills quickly and conveniently through the use of our free first aid course.

All the 16 youth workers at E:merge are trained first aiders and Sam Kirkby, the organisation’s Community and Schools Youth Worker, is responsible for training and professional development for the team and he saw the ‘Prepared to Save a Life’ course as an ideal opportunity to refresh the team’s skills.

Sam opted to roll the course out to his team as mandatory training as part of their professional development and gave them time to do it within their working hours with a deadline of one month to complete it. A couple of team members completed the course at home in their own time on mobile devices. Sam briefed his team at a staff meeting and followed this up with regular email updates and reminders.

The Solution

Virtual College’s free online course offered an ideal way for the team to complete the training at their own speed in between their other work duties and Sam was able to track their progress on the learning management system and send out reminders. Virtual College provided Sam with a colourful poster which he used to track progress so that a competitive element between the team members was established.

The Results

Sam made the pledge for his 16 youth workers on behalf of E:merge on the Virtual College website on 20 December 2018. By 23 January 2019, he had 80% of them completed and E:merge were classed as a ‘fully prepared to save a life’ organisation (ie 80% of pledgees completed being the measure).

Feedback from the team is that they all enjoyed the course and found it a useful refresher for their first aid training. All members of the team have now got a printed copy of their certificate in their personnel files.