About Us

Empowering Children and Families (ECAF) follows a community interest not-for-profit model. It provides social intervention and educational programmes to support children and families. Its flagship service is First Aid for Mental Health, an accredited training programme, that raises awareness of mental health, provides the tools to detect early signs of mental distress, teaches how to respond and how to seek self and professional help. 

ECAF has collaborated with various UK/USA-based community and civic groups and has delivered training across the UK and Ireland and programmes in the USA. ECAF has also been active in Jamaica with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

In Jamaica, ECAF has worked with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, providing training for 17 members of the Medical Services Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in 2020. In 2019 ECAF’s director Trudy King was invited to participate in the annual National Health Research Conference hosted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness Jamaica, where in addition to making a presentation on her work to the Honourable Dr. Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health and other senior health officials and stakeholders, she also won the prize for the Most Impactful Abstract Presentation for her abstract paper entitled, "The benefits of First Aid for Mental Health for youths and professionals, as a means of early intervention, prevention, treatment and de-stigmatization of Mental Illness in Jamaica”. This advocated for changes to workplace policies and school curriculum to include mental health awareness training and to have first aiders for mental health in school and workplaces, as they do regular first aiders. 

ECAF’s First Aid for Mental Health training is accredited by First Aid Awards UK and The Royal College of Physicians London.