At Emerge, we invest in strong girls, girls who we know will rock the boat and fight for a better future. Emerge works with girls who have survived abuse, often in their own families, and have had the courage to speak out, to work to protect their younger sisters, and to create a safe reality for their own children. What if these courageous and resilient young women had the skills, resources and networks to enact their own visions of change? At Emerge, we believe this is the best investment we can make.

Emerge operates with a philosophy that we call Collaborative Capital Creation, which lies between traditional non-profit models of service delivery and micro-finance. Rather than receiving a hand-out or a loan, girls participate in the process of generating their own financial capital while also learning how to leverage this capital.This means that girls have ownership in the process but do not have to take on the risk of repayment, which is challenging for individuals with few support systems. Through our programs, girls not only generate capital but also increase their business acumen, leadership, and confidence. They build a network of support and mentors, and prepare for their lives as adults with in-depth knowledge of reproductive health,  job readiness, and money management. Finally, they gain critical skills to map-out and enact their visions of change for their communities.

Emerge believes that for its impact to be sustainable long-term, programs and support systems offered to participants must be run, supported, and evaluated by local individuals who understand the culture and needs on the ground. As such, Emerge Global has adopted a model of working with local implementing partners to implement Emerge curricula. The first of such partners is Emerge Lanka Foundation, our sister entity in Sri Lanka. Similarly, Emerge aims to partner with other organizations on the ground to increase the impact of its work.