Why we do what we do

You don’t need a reason to help people, but we’re driven by our own experience and empathy for people who may feel alone or trapped with their self-injury.
What we do
We provide fantastic information for friends, parents, partners and teachers of people who hurt themselves, and compassionate guidance and inspiration for people who self-injure. We also support the work of professional healthcare workers at all levels, and provide training across the UK.
Where we work
LifeSIGNS is a virtual organisation, working across the whole of England and Wales, and proud that our information is also used in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire, and around the world, perhaps especially in America and Australia.
Who we are
LifeSIGNS is led and managed by people with personal experience of self-injury. Everyone at LifeSIGNS is an unpaid volunteer. We often recruit new volunteers of all ages from around the UK and the world. We are an inclusive organisation, and we’d like to reach diverse audiences.
When we started
Back in 2002, one guy approached his friends with an idea for an online charity, and immediately hand-built a website. Since then we’ve developed into an established organisation, and our founding director still helps set the goals of our work.
How we work
Our team members work from home – or anywhere with an Internet connection – to manage our social media channels and create our guidance pages, fact sheets, and books.

We come together throughout the week within our intranet (private online workspace) to plan and draft our work.

We have Trustees to oversee our mission, Directors to lead our organisation and ensure we’re working on our mission, and Managers to manage our social media channels and run our projects.

Everyone is an unpaid volunteer – fueled by personal experience and a commitment to break the stigma around mental and emotional health.

We do everything ‘in-house’ – we do everything ourselves to reduce costs and to make sure our work is the way we want it.

LifeSIGNS is entirely funded by sales of our self-injury awareness wristbands, our book, and donations from members and web visitors.