www.emmaus-southwales.org.uk
Emmaus is a homelessness charity providing more than just a bed for the night to people who have experienced homelessness and social exclusion.
We provide a home for as long as someone needs it and meaningful work in our social enterprise. Living in a stable environment with the opportunity to work helps our Companions, as residents are known, to regain lost self-esteem and the confidence to get back on their feet.
In 2016 we opened an Emmaus Community in South Wales. There are currently 27 Emmaus Communities open across the UK, but this is the first and only one in Wales! The Emmaus South Wales Community can accommodate 24 formerly homeless and jobless people, called Companions, who will come off benefits (except housing benefit) and take up full-time work in the Community's Social Enterprise.
Companions can stay for as long as they need and get support to gain extra qualifications for when they are ready to find their own accommodation and look for work.
We've already set up seven shops which operate as charity shops, which provide work opportunities for the companions and also the funding to keep our Community going.
Bridgend AM and First Minister Carwyn Jones was delighted to open the first Emmaus community in Wales on the 22nd of January 2016. The Community also had a visit from Emmaus' Royal Patron HRH The Duchess of Cornwall in July, 2016.