Emmaus Salford is a charity that supports people who have experienced homelessness. Our work is centered around a residential community, where people who have experienced homelessness come to make it their home for as long as they need it to be.
People who join our community, known as companions, pledge their commitment to improving their mental well-being and helping others by working to the best of their ability in our social enterprises and with the running of the community itself. Their daily work is an important part of the Emmaus ethos because it gives people a focus each day, an opportunity for personal development, and allows companions to directly contribute to the success of our charity. Whilst at Emmaus Salford, people can access individual support, training and personal development to gain the skills and resilience needed to move forward positively in their lives.
Emmaus Salford is working towards self-sufficiency. The majority of our income is raised via our two Salford charity shops which sell a wide range of donated furniture, household items, electrical items, clothes, books, entertainment and bric-a-brac.
Alongside our charity shops we also run Lucie’s Pantry social supermarket, Welcome Wednesdays, a weekly event at St. James and All Souls Parish, Salford, to reduce social exclusion and loneliness, and a School Uniform Hub. These three additional solidarity services are run by companions and benefit Salford residents who face financial hardship and may be at risk of homelessness themselves.
Members of the Emmaus Salford community also undertake other acts of solidarity – helping people and groups less fortunate than ourselves.
For companions, this has a huge impact on their confidence and self-worth. Solidarity actions make a difference to someone else’s life and add value to the lives of people around them.
As part of our ongoing solidarity work, we recently opened The People’s Pods to help support people who are sleeping rough. Run in partnership with Salford City Council and the A Bed Every Night programme, the pods provide people with a warm and safe place to stay on a temporary basis and access further support from outreach workers.
Here at Emmaus Salford we are working with partners to be an active and integral part of the local community. As a Salford charity we are always keen to work with individuals, groups and organisations with similar goals and who share our ethos.
Emmaus Salford is an independent charity that, along with other communities in the UK, makes up the Emmaus UK federation. We are part of Emmaus International, a movement that includes work being undertaken by more than 410 Emmaus groups in 41 countries across the world.