Friends, we need your help...

On the 8th July this year one of our beautiful young people lost her mum Portia. She passed away after a short but tough battle with illness

Our gorgeous Mercedes; who we have known for many years and more recently has been working intensively with us finding independence in her own unit, working and becoming a leader in our program has been left devastated.

At only 18 Mercedes dropped everything to be by her mums side, giving up her employment and putting her personal goals to the back.

We have been working with Mercedes to help her through this time, however for a variety of reasons Portia remains at the funeral home and Mercedes along with her family unable to say goodbye properly with no means or resources to pay for even the most basic goodbye. We cant even imagine the psychological impact this has on a child.

Emerge is still working closely to help Mercedes navigate the difficult process of saying goodbye to a loved one and helping her stay on track in her own life shes spending time with our Sunshine Coast program to commence her healing and working again in our social enterprise cafe, but we need your help to pay for the cost of a basic cremation and a small memorial to gather and say goodbye, an important part of the grieving process.

When you're a young person already overcoming significant challenges, a moment just like this one could be what sets you backwards, with our help and the help of our village we are committed to making sure Mercedes isn't left behind.

Your donation no matter how great or small will be managed by Emerge Youth to ensure it goes directly to the funeral home and if there are any remaining funds used to provide a small memorial ceremony to say goodbye to Mercedes mum.