Work is an integral part of community life here at Emmaus Norfolk & Waveney. Our social enterprises helps to generate the income to funds the work we do and we hope that one day soon we will be self-sustaining and completely self-funded, something every Emmaus community in the UK is working towards.
The social enterprise model offers more than just an income stream for us, however. Research conducted by Emmaus UK shows that 79% of people who have lived at Emmaus for a few months say that working and having something to do every day has been most beneficial part of their experience.
Every companion living with us here in our community volunteers 40 hours of their time each week in one of our social enterprise businesses. Through this they gain hands-on work experience, training and the skills they need so that, when they are ready to do so, they can return to the mainstream work.
Time spent working in our social enterprises also gives many of our companions a much needed confidence boost, structure and motivation, something many of our companions have struggled with before coming to live and work within our community.
Every Emmaus community around the UK has their own social enterprise model. For us here at Emmaus Norfolk & Waveney, ours is built around our shops in Norwich and Ditchingham. Through these shops we sell items that have been donated to us by our generous supporters, including clothing, books, homewear, furniture, white goods and more.
We run a successful furniture collection service and home clearance service and we sell items collected in our shops.
Visitors to our Ditchingham site can also enjoy a coffee and a piece of cake serviced by one of our companions in our on-site cafe, The Orchard Cafe.