Meet Ember: one of our Crisis Stabilisation Centre partners
As we prepare to open the Crisis Stabilisation Centre in Adelaide’s north, we are proud to be working alongside a variety of highly respected partners. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing a series of updates to introduce the organisations who will play a vital role in supporting this important new service.
Our partners bring together world recognised international leaders in peer-led mental health care for people experiencing high levels of distress, experts in multicultural care and support for refugee communities, and nationally recognised providers of alcohol and/or other drugs services, among others. We know that delivering high-quality, compassionate care requires strong collaboration, and we are committed to providing safe, inclusive and truly person-centred support for the community.
To begin, we are pleased to introduce one of our key partners, Ember Korowai Takitini, based in New Zealand (Aotearoa).
About Ember
Ember Korowai Takitini (Ember) is a connected group of five entities, bringing together service delivery, innovation, proprietary technology, and community housing. The group is united by a shared purpose to support people to live the lives they choose while challenging the systems that hold them back, with a vision for a society that better understands and responds to mental distress, addiction, and intellectual disability. Ember is committed to championing greater visibility and understanding of mental health and addictions.
With more than 15 years’ experience delivering similar services in New Zealand, Ember brings deep expertise and insight to the Crisis Stabilisation Centre.
As a thought partner to Sonder, Ember will play a key role in guiding the service implementation and contributing to governance. Their involvement will help ensure the service is strongly informed by the voice and wisdom of people with lived and living experience, is deeply trauma-informed, and supports recovery-oriented.
Ember’s experience
At its core, Ember blends professional expertise and lived experience to provide mental health, alcohol and other drug, and intellectual disability support services throughout New Zealand, spanning community, vocational, peer, and intellectual disability support.
Ember’s experience includes:
- Peer-led, home-like services designed as alternatives to hospital admission.
- Integrated models that bring together peer and clinical expertise to support people with diverse needs.
- Alcohol and/or other drugs recovery services grounded in hope, choice, autonomy and cultural safety.
- Crisis cafés and peer support in emergency settings, providing early, compassionate intervention.
- Accredited peer employment and training programs, building strong, skilled lived-experience workforces.
With almost 100% of its workforce having their own lived experience, Ember is internationally recognised for its human-rights-focused approach. Ember’s work has been acknowledged by the World Health Organisation and the Victorian Royal Commission as an international exemplar of best practice in peer-driven care. We are honoured to learn from Ember’s leadership as we bring this important service to our community.
To learn more about Ember, visit ember.org.nz.
We look forward to sharing more about our other partnerships in the coming weeks.