At Emmaus, we offer more than a roof for the people we support, we provide training, skills building opportunities and most importantly, a community.
We also create meaningful volunteer roles for people who may otherwise feel lonely or isolated, giving them the chance to connect with others.
Our volunteer Heather, comes in to the Dales shop each week to sort donations and chat with customers and staff, building her confidence and giving her new skills. Heather’s monthly blogs are a way for her to share her experiences and observations while volunteering with us. Have a read below of her latest blog all about our Give a Little Christmas campaign:
Heather’s Christmas Blog
This Christmas, Emmaus Suffolk’s “Giving Tree” is once again standing proudly at the Royal Oak. Indeed, for the first time, you’ll also find identical ones at the charity’s other retail sites as well. Every time a donation is made to their “Give a little Christmas” campaign, a token will be added to one of these trees. As well as brightening the trees, the tokens represent how your money will enable Emmaus Suffolk to help people in the local community who are struggling this Christmas. The idea is that your kind donation will contribute towards providing some “Christmas cheer”. E.g. £4 will ensure a homeless person in Suffolk receives a hot meal this festive season.
“A little Christmas” can also be given in other ways, including giving some of your time to the charity as a volunteer. I find that volunteering at Emmaus Suffolk gives me the chance to learn new skills, such as using the till at the Dales shop and helping to grow veg in the shop’s allotment. Also, to be around other people and be part of something. I really enjoy writing a monthly blog about my volunteering and the charity’s latest news, too. I’m a very quiet, serious person and since I express myself better in writing, the blog helps me to convey my interests and sense of humour. Reading and reviewing books for the blog has helped me get back into reading again more as well.
Another way to “give a little Christmas” is to donate something you no longer use, as it might be useful to someone else and this saves it ending up in landfill. It might even turn out to be just what a customer’s looking for while they’re Christmas-present-shopping! (E.g. if you know a keen guitarist, there was an acoustic guitar on sale the other day, along with a guide to learning guitar chords.) Equally, buying such “pre-loved” items from Emmaus Suffolk’s shops helps the charity to continue supporting vulnerable people.
Emmaus Suffolk’s hubs are warm spaces where you can enjoy a free cuppa, meet new people, play board games and receive support from the hub coordinators + support workers. At the “Singing for the Soul” hub sessions, you can even sing popular songs with others, to help lift your spirits. (And at this time of year, there’s bound to be plenty of fun Christmassy songs in the repertoire!) Some talented ladies at one of the hubs bring their knitting, to knit cosy items for sale in the Dales shop. Their fantastic hats, scarves + gloves, etc, will bring comfort to all ages this Christmas, particularly to children.
Seeing the wonderful displays of donated items at the Dales shop gives me a smile, too. Just last Friday, there were some fun Christmas jumpers, cute snow globes and a children’s Rudolph costume! When staff member Tania asked me to dust the cuddly toys in the shop’s front window, cleaning up all those sweet, fluffy faces certainly brought out my inner child! For those with actual children, the Royal Oak provides hot meals and Kids n’ Carers hubs for babies and toddlers.
The Royal Oak’s upper floor also provides accommodation for “companions”, who volunteer at Emmaus Suffolk and receive training and support towards finding paid work. These are people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness. This initiative definitely lives up to Emmaus International’s motto: “Serve those worse off than yourself before yourself. Serve the neediest first”, especially as some former companions have gone on to become employed by Emmaus Suffolk.
“Serve the neediest first” reminds me of seeing an edition of “A Christmas Carol” on display in the Dales shop last week. (As Scrooge can certainly be said to have learnt to “give a little Christmas”.) Appropriately, Charles Dickens wrote that novel to bring public attention to the struggles of vulnerable people in society. Unlike Scrooge at the beginning, the Dales shop’s resident dog Moley absolutely keeps Christmas in his heart “all the year”.
Moley wants you to know that making a small donation to one of the “Giving Trees” will make a world of difference to someone this Christmas, as would helping in other ways. He hopes you’ll join him and the Emmaus Suffolk team in giving “a little Christmas” once again this winter, in any way you can.