Emmaus Hampshire Open Day on Friday 30th April

As Emmaus Hampshire approaches its first birthday, the Community is inviting people to an Open Day on Friday 30th April – a chance to see behind the scenes and meet Companions, staff and trustees.

The Community, which provides formerly homeless people with a place to live, work and rebuild their lives, welcomed its first Companions in March last year and first opened the doors to its shop in Bar End on 30th April.

One year on the Community is nearly full, with 20 Companions living and working there and a second shop in Eastleigh now open ahead of schedule.

Two of the Community’s original Companions are now members of staff – Sean Hewitt, our Support Worker and Facilities Manager and Stuart Carmichael our recently appointed Business Manager – both marvellous examples of how Emmaus can help to turn people’s lives around.

Many of the Companions living at Emmaus Hampshire are carrying out training and courses to broaden their opportunities within the Community and are acquiring additional skills and qualifications to help with job applications when they move on.

Emmaus Hampshire has now achieved its original fundraising target. Alison Thompson, Emmaus Hampshire’s Chair of Trustees, said: “Both of our shops are doing well and the proceeds are now making a significant impact on our progress towards financial self sufficiency.”

“This said, we are barely a year old and there is absolutely no room for complacency. We would not be rash enough to say we no longer need help; indeed it is in part due to the committed regular income from our Friends that makes us able to look forward to the future with confidence.”

Everyone is welcome to attend the Open Day, which will run from 11am-4pm with speeches from Alison Thompson and Sean Hewitt, who will talk about his journey from homelessness, to Emmaus Companion to Emmaus staff member, at midday and 3pm.

New Eastleigh shop open from 19th December 2009

A second Emmaus Hampshire shop will open on Leigh Road in Eastleigh on 19th December, giving the local community a new destination to shop for good quality, second-hand furniture and household goods.

The shop, which is in a prime position opposite Sainsburys and near the town’s popular market, will be open from Tuesday-Saturday from 10am-4pm.

Some of the Companions who live at the Community in Bar End in Winchester will be working at the shop and one of the Emmaus Hampshire vans will make regular deliveries to keep the shop supplied with new stock.

In addition to furniture, bric-a-brac, books, CDs and small electrical items, there are plans to sell clothes. Anyone wishing to donate items should call 0845 685 5126 from 10am-3.30pm on Wednesday-Saturday. See Donating Furniture for more information

Emmaus Hampshire one of the Mayor’s chosen charities

Emmaus Hampshire is delighted to have been chosen by the Mayor of Winchester, Councillor Dominick Hiscock, as one of the two Charities he is supporting with his fund-raising events during his year in office.  With Trinity Winchester as the other Charity Homelessness is very much the theme for the year.

The Emmaus Movement started in France 60 years ago. It arrived in England in 1992.  There are now around 400 Communities worldwide (19 in the UK) all of which are based on the same simple concept: ‘live / work’ establishments which provide a home and employment for homeless people. The work element revolves around the collection and sale of donated furniture and other household goods in the shop linked to the premises Within four years these small social enterprises aim to become self-sustaining financially.  More importantly they rehabilitate previously homeless people. The proliferation of successful Emmaus Communities worldwide is proof that the formula works. Every town in the UK should have one!

To live in an Emmaus Community, residents (known as Companions) must sign off primary state benefits and agree to work a 40-hour week. In return, each Companion receives a weekly allowance, and has a constructive and supportive environment within which to work and live. Opportunities are provided to develop personal and professional skills and, where possible, to work towards independent living.

Emmaus Hampshire – the County’s first Emmaus Community - started construction on its site at Bar End, Winchester on 3rd March 2008. Exactly a year later an Open Day, with Emmaus (UK)’s President Terry Waite in attendance, heralded the arrival of the first Companions. Currently there are 14 in residence.  The wonderfully generous initial supply of donated furniture and other household goods by local people made the opening of the Shop and Green Roof Café possible by the end of April.  We have been trading steadily since then but, as a business, it will be some time before Emmaus Hampshire will be ‘in the black’.  Ongoing fund-raising is therefore essential until this goal is achieved.

Emmaus Hampshire Community Shop now open

The Community Shop and Green Roof Café at Emmaus Hampshire’s Bar End site is now open.  Amongst the dozen Companions now living in the Community there are some with previous experience of running Emmaus shops and they have been at the centre of sorting through the wealth of donated goods received and preparing them for resale on the shop floor.  Helped by some volunteers they are also manning the Café.

Shop and Café are open from Wednesday to Sunday inclusive, 9:00am (10am on Sundays) to 4pm.  There is limited parking in front of the Community.  Alternatively the adjacent St Catherine’s Park & Ride offers ample overflow parking (free on Sundays).

The trading elements are a traditional feature of Emmaus Communities turning them into small social enterprises and generating the income needed to fund themselves and, in time, others in greater need.  However it will take a year or two to achieve financial self-sufficiency and so fund-raising continues apace to ensure that start-up costs can be covered.