What do you do?
Emmanuel House is an open access Support Centre for homeless people and Vulnerable adults, we provide support and advice as well as practical help and services to help people make positive changes. We’re open all year round, 7 days a week at different times and we have support sessions and other activities for people when the main drop in centre is closed. These include an art group that helps to improve mental health and well-being, a gardening group and a streetwise opera session! All social inclusion activities that help to give people new experiences or take their mind away from the situation they’re going through.
We also have our very own Charity shop located on the corner of Goose gate with high fashion at low prices. The Charity Shop is run entirely by volunteers meaning all money raised goes directly to delivering services.
We’ve read on your website that you get quite a lot of visitors that need help and support, how do you help them?
Yes, we have around 70 people in the centre each day and often more during the winter or cold damp weather. We have support workers on hand to advise them about the different services that can help them with any issues or needs they have from health problems to housing or job seeking. We also provide essential services that many of us take for granted such as hot showers, laundry facilities and a change of clothing. We also run the Nottingham Winter Shelter from November through to April which is hosted in churches across Nottingham and provided pop up accommodation for those who would otherwise be left rough sleeping
What kind of support do you offer?
Throughout the year we provide support, advice, and advocacy alongside essential survival services such as hot food and drinks, toilets and showers, laundry facilities, clothes store and a safe and welcoming place for people to come and rest. Our centre provides the only open access support to homeless and vulnerable adults within the city. The people who access our services come from a wide range of backgrounds and often have multiple and complex needs. We offer support and advice on a wide range of issues that can include reconnection with family and resettlement into the community. Our aims are to empower people to make positive changes through giving them the opportunity to learn new skills and coping mechanisms, this includes an allotment group, music and singing sessions with the Streetwise Opera and an art group amongst other activities and trips. We offer support in a wide range of areas and appreciate everyone’s support to be able to continue to support those people in need and to meet the increased demand for services.
What do you supply to help those in need?
We offer a wide variety of help to people from providing practical items they may need such as new underwear and clean dry socks through to support finding a home. We provide advice on a range of issues from housing to health. We also offer subsidised food including breakfasts and lunches, hot drinks, a clothing store, showers, access to the internet and support needed to meet individual needs.
Being in involved in something like this must be very rewarding, how would you encourage others to get involve and raise awareness of what you do at Emmanuel House?
Claire a volunteer who manages the charity shop says:
“ I would tell people how fun it is!”
There are so many ways people can get involved by volunteering at the centre, making a regular donation or doing sponsored or fundraising events within their own community or workplace. We even have group volunteering days and people can also help raise our profile by following us on social media and attending our events. A donation of as little as £5.00 can provide someone with access to a hot shower with toiletries and towels. A donation of £15.00 can give a person a warm welcome and a safe place to rest. A donation of £100 can pay for an entire weeks grocery shopping to help us run the kitchen and help provide cooked meals for 70 plus people each day. £1000 would sponsor a day of running Emmanuel House and pay for support and advice to people in need helping them to make positive changes. We’re reliant on goodwill and donations to be able to deliver services and really appreciate any support. We can accept donations of food and clothing to our centre which help us to subsidise the food and keep the clothes store well stocked, other items are also sold in our charity shop which is run entirely by volunteers and helps to fund our work. Another way people can help is by shopping through the easy fundraising website.– it doesn’t cost you a penny extra! And you can join for free.
What’s an average day like?
Very busy in the centre with around 70 people dropping in for a friendly welcome, many come in for a shower and a hot breakfast and will spend time talking to the support workers and getting help to find out what options they have for securing accommodation or accessing other support they need. Many customers pop in the charity shop browsing for bargains and one off finds. We are keen to encourage more people to drop into the shop and see what we have to offer and are planning a regular discount afternoon for Students which will be taking place on a Wednesday afternoon. Often we will have a huge discount sale on for the week and currently, all items are only £1.00
Tell us what about the charity shop you have? What’s it like in there?
Our Charity shop is light and airy, we have a large arrangement of clothing and accessories due to all the fantastic donations that we receive from people on a regular basis. We are proud to remain atypical and still be great value. The Emmanuel House charity shop is definitely somewhere to purchase a bargain! Look out for our window displays as you go the past and come in to see what we have on offer, from fancy dress to summer dresses you are sure to find something that you like!
What you do at Emmanuel House is amazing and helping out those that need it, what keeps you motivated to keep helping those in need?
Working as a team at Emmanuel House is amazing because of all the great people that you meet both in the support centre and the charity shop. It’s a very friendly team made up of nearly 200 volunteers and about 26 staff. Everyone involved wants to help out those in need and make a positive difference to the lives of others. The charity shop is run only by volunteers so all money raised goes directly towards supporting those who need to access the support centre.
How did Emmanuel House get involved with such a great cause?
Emmanuel House was originally founded in 1976 by Father Roger Killen who saw people in Nottingham that needed a place to go to where they would be welcome. He put together a team of volunteers and set up Emmanuel House to meet those people’s needs. We’re still heavily reliant on the support of volunteers and goodwill to this day and throughout this year we are celebrating our 40th birthday!
Do you have any projects coming up or fundraisers to get other involved?
Last year we supported almost 1500 individual people to transform their lives by making positive changes. We work in partnership with many organisations and act as a host venue for other support projects to engage with people. The Homeless health team is based with us Monday to Friday to see people who may otherwise remain invisible to them. As you will know homelessness has increased over the past 12 months with the official number of people who had been rough sleeping in Nottingham increasing from 13 last year up to 38 this year and with more increased and complex needs this is set to continue rising.
If you would like to get involved with helping this wonderful cause, you can keep updated with Emmanuel House via their social pages:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Website
Emmanuel House is currently in urgent need of 4 seasons sleeping bags to provide to the men and women who are rough sleeping. If you can donate towards this, it would help those that need it most! See how you can help here
We would like to say a special thank you to Emmanuel House for sparing their time to do this showcase and tell us about what they do and how they keep working hard for such a good cause!
