Emma Pears
Founder and CEO of SELFA Children's Charity, based in Skipton. She is well known for her tireless work to ensure that children and young people in rural communities get access to the mental health services they need.
Emma is the Founder and CEO of SELFA Children’s Charity based in North Yorkshire, an organisation which supports over 600 children and families every year.
Over the last two decades she has campaigned on a range of issues including access to services for families living in rural communities and children and young people’s mental health. This is deeply rooted in her own experience as a parent of a child with mental health support needs and emotionally based school avoidance.
Originally from Belfast, Emma is a qualified life coach, a West Yorkshire Health Equity Fellow and a speaker on a wide range of lived experience leadership topics including imposter syndrome and systems leadership. In 2024 she won the Rank Memorial Award to research leadership in the social sector and was one of Big Issues top 100 Changemakers of 2025 in the ‘Communities and Equality’ category.
"As a spokesperson, I want to make sure that parents and carers are part of the conversation when it comes to children and young people’s mental health."
In the Media
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Emma Pears’ SELFA was featured on BBC Look North, supporting young people struggling with school attendance. Watch the video or read the article.
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Six members from our Spokesperson Network were selected as part of Big Issue’s Top 100 Changemakers for 2025: Lady Unchained, Emma Pears, Expert Citizens (Darren Murinas), Families in Harmony (Sharon McPherson and Johanna Bernard), My Life My Choice (Benjamin McCay) and JENGbA (Jan Cunliffe).
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Emma Pears was interviewed by BBC Radio Leeds for Children’s Mental Health Week to discuss Parental Mental Health and its overlooked impact on Children’s Mental Health.
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Emma Pears was interviewed in The Big Issue on how SELFA Children’s Charity are supporting families as poverty and the cost of living crisis hits rural areas in North Yorkshire.
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Emma Pears and the SELFA Youth Council were interviewed by BBC Radio York about supporting children’s mental health in rural areas.