Emmaus Bolton provides a home, family and work for formerly homeless people.
Unlike a hostel, the support companions receive is not time limited and can for for as long as it takes to rebuild their lives.
Our recycling business helps us to be self sustainable.
Emmaus Communities enable people to move on from homelessness, providing work and a home in a supportive, family environment. Companions, as residents are known, work full time collecting renovating and reselling donated furniture.
This work supports the Community financially and enables residents to develop skills and rebuild their self-respect.
People become homeless for many different reasons but relationship breakdown, bereavement, addiction or abuse have often played a part. Emmaus Companions come from many different backgrounds but share a commitment to rebuilding their lives and participating in the life and work of Communities.
There are currently 23 Communities open in the UK and more in development (known as Emmaus Groups). In addition, the Emmaus UK Federation is part of an international Movement with more than 300 projects in over 40 countries worldwide.
‘We are a Community, somewhere where we are united and together’
Emmaus offers a home in a Community, where people can live and work, sharing a life together, but retaining their own dignity and independence. At Emmaus, everyone is accepted for who they are now, not judged on what they might have been in the past.
There are no rules about how long a Companion (as those who live and work in Emmaus Communities are known) may stay, provided they abide by the principles of Emmaus and the spirit of the Community.
Being a Community is not just a matter of living together; it requires commitment. All Companions must respect each other and contribute to the well-being of the Community. They must agree to abide by the rules, for example not bringing alcohol or drugs into the Community.
Emmaus is a secular organisation which is not linked to any religious faith or denomination; Companions of any faith, or none, are welcome.
Working in a Community
‘We are not beggars. We are not a welfare organisation. We are workers with a job to do.’
The work is an integral part of Community life. The business side of the Community helps to generate the revenue which will make a Community self-sustaining.
Any surplus created by the business is used to help those who have less.
Sharing (or solidarity) is central to the Emmaus ethos and may take many forms. It may be an established Community helping out a new Community just starting. Or it may be that the Companions support the local night shelter or send money to Emmaus International to help projects overseas.
The main business activity for Emmaus Communities is collecting donated goods and selling them in the Community shop. Companions work in all aspects of the business, doing a variety of tasks such as:
• driving the van to collect/deliver items;
• refurbishing items in the workshop;
• sorting donated items;
• working in the customer café (in some Communities);
• serving customers in the shop.
Just as importantly, there is the work within the Community, for example:
• preparing meals;
• house cleaning;
• maintaining the grounds (on some Community sites this can be a full time
job).