At the top are the thousands of web visitors that pop along to our website - but even more important that them are our members, who take up the largest chunk of our triangle! Our members drive everything we do, and as we're user-led all the way down the triangle, we all have some experience of self-injury and self-harm.

Next, you'll see our lovely volunteers who give their time and expertise for free so that we can provide our many web-based and real-life services.

The management committee is made up of the people who actually get to vote on new ideas and new projects - the buck stops with them, so they have to be really on the ball. The management committee members are volunteers too, and have personal experience of self-injury, or perhaps self-harm.

The owner is a mysterious chap who is also a volunteer, and also works hard to deliver our many services, especially training and conferences. He started raising awareness in 2001 and this is his latest and greatest awareness project.

FirstSigns (Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support) is an online, user-lead charity, founded in 2002 to raise awareness about self-injury and provide information and support to people of all ages affected by self-injury. We recognise self-injury is a way of coping with distressing experiences and difficult emotions, and we encourage people to reflect on the issues behind their self-injury, and to develop and explore alternative coping mechanisms.
FirstSigns is managed and lead by people with personal experience of self-injury, and we are non-judgemental, non-directional, and respectful of our members’ and visitors’ life experiences and perceptions. The FirstSigns website is the centre of our vibrant community, and provides access to all of our services, including our newsletter, book and training – www.firstsigns.org.uk