Emmaus Greenwich

Emmaus Greenwich provides formerly homeless people the opportunity to get off the streets and into a structured life within the Community in which to live, work and rebuild their lives. The Community offers a mutually supportive environment, where individual needs are recognised and help is offered to prepare for return to a life outside. Companions, as residents are known, are encouraged to use the skills they already have and are also given the opportunity develop new ones. The Community also provides Companions with the opportunity to take part in a range of social activities and to make new friends. They are given the support they need to enable them to regain control over their own lives and to help those less fortunate than themselves.

Our work is based around reclaiming, recycling and selling donated goods. These goods are either sold in our shops or given to individuals or families in need. Every Emmaus Community works to become financially self-supporting and to direct any surplus to those in greater need.

If you would like to be a part of Emmaus Greenwich, please do not hesitate to contact us. Above all, let others know what we are trying to do and encourage them to become involved too.

Emmaus Communities offer an alternative approach to homelessness by using a social enterprise model. Emmaus is a homelessness organisation with a difference. Here's why...

• Engaging in Community tasks and activities is essential to all Emmaus Communities. Companions give up income related benefits and engage in activities to develop the Community and make it financially self sufficient.
• The concept of Solidarity lies at the heart of the Emmaus Movement. This is about sharing and recognising the first principle of the Emmaus Universal Manifesto, ‘Serve those worse off than yourself before yourself. Serve the most needy first’ The ways in which Communities show Solidarity include sharing their surplus with others that have less, offering household goods at a discount or free to low income households and supporting other local community projects.
• Communities provide a supportive environment, enabling Companions to develop confidence, recover their self-respect and their independence. Emmaus Companions, unlike other residents of homelessness organisations, can remain in an Emmaus Community for as long as they need. There is no finite limit on length of stay: Companions remain in a Community for as long as they need. Personal development objectives are regularly reviewed by the Companions themselves, in association with the Community Leader.