Discover Emmett’s Genies
Emmett’s Genies was founded to help bring some Magic into the lives of children with critical or life-limiting conditions. We work with our wish granting partners to enhance the experiences of these children and their families.
Emmett’s Story inspires our charity
Meet Emmett, the little boy that started us off on this magical journey…
Who we are
Part of our ethos, whilst feasible, is that Emmett’s Genies should be run entirely by volunteers with no paid staff. Our Trustees, Ambassadors and Volunteers work together as one team to promote, reach out and deliver various EG events, activities and services.
Amy Scullard
David Chang
Graham Pettit
Zoe Scullard
Joe Purnell
Gemma Hall
Tim Haines
Rachel Millington & Tim Raidl
Emmett O’Farrell
Overview
The ultimate aim of EG is to create or operate a purpose built physical ‘Wish Village’ in England that will offer unique stays for respite, fun and creation of lasting memories for our beneficiary children, being those with critical or life-limiting conditions.
The only ‘Wish Village’ facility exclusively focussed on these children that we are aware exists presently, is a non-profit resort entitled ‘Give Kids the World’, based in Florida.
Another significant difference with EG is that from the outset our charity plans to evolve through bringing aspects and experiences of the ‘Wish Village’ to the beneficiaries.
At the outset of our charity, we put together and delivered ‘boredom busting’ packs, which also contain opportunities for the beneficiary children to draw or describe the types of accommodation, activities, characters etc. that they might imagine experiencing or meeting in the eventual physical wish village.
Our next step was to design and hold events, involving overnight accommodation and leisure facilities, where we try to give beneficiary children a unique ‘Year in a Day’ experience (such as celebrating Easter; Summer Holiday (pool) party; Halloween & Christmas Day), which they might otherwise not have been able to enjoy.
In parallel, we plan to gradually create a Virtual (‘on-line’) Wish Village, built and changed over time from the varied imagination, skills and input of these Wish Children, their families and friends aligned with that of our volunteers, empathetic organisations and other contributors of all types. As a starting point we are trying to purchase Virtual Reality headsets with appropriate apps that bring to our beneficiary children both ‘escapism’ and ways of experiencing the world and activities that might seem impossible to them given their medical prognosis.
By offering participation and technology-driven imagination-based opportunities to our beneficiary Wish Children, many of whom spend much time undergoing medical treatment and staying in medical facilities, EG hopes to:
- create pleasure, confidence and hope
- relieve boredom, reduce anxiety and boost mood
- unearth the power of positive thinking, having a sense of purpose and making a valued contribution
We envisage that the EG cloud-based Virtual Wish Village might eventually offer various secure ‘zones’ where we bring to these Wish Children and their families access to selected and bespoke content that helps them to:
- create and store their happy memories
- express the different elements of their imagination and see these “come to life”
- relax and enjoy playing suitable games via carefully selected apps or undergo fun experiences (potentially including using virtual and augmented reality) as well as participate in other relaxation and sensory activities such as music, drawing, visualisation and reading
To make this all happen, we work with our NHS, Hospice and other Charity partners. However, EG requires a range of volunteers who can contribute their time, knowledge, skills and other resources. Volunteers may include talented teenagers and undergraduates for example to help EG build, adapt or test suitable apps etc. and convert expertise and imagination into virtual and ultimately physical facilities.
As part of EG’s sustainability through the 21st century, we see co-design as a vital element in keeping up to date with fast changing technology and trends whilst remaining relevant to the mind-set of the children we hope to continually support, and the appropriateness of the eventual but ever changeable physical Wish Village.
In the words of Einstein, EG believes that “imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution” and our charity looks forward with excitement to harnessing this imagination towards the creation of its wish village.