Who we are

We are a drug and alcohol free charity based in Sheffield’s canal basin, providing a home and support to adults who have experience homelessness since 2008. Known as Companions, we provide up to 18 vulnerable men and women with their own ensuite room in our Community, working with them to identify the problems that led to their becoming homeless, helping them overcome their struggles and providing the support they need to boost confidence and self-esteem.

Our aim is to assist them to recognize factors that have led to their becoming homeless and enable them to make a transformational change in their lives, working with partners to provide opportunities to enrich the project and equip individuals with the skills to reintegrate into wider society.

Who we support

Homeless people by nature are stigmatised, discriminated against and thought to be associated with criminality and substance abuse, based solely on their living status. Many are vulnerable, through life choices, relationship breakdowns, abuse and more, but all deserve every chance in life. 

They face health inequality, experiencing poorer physical and mental health than the average person, lacking confidence, self-esteem and basic life skills and many suffer from loneliness and isolation. 

They come from all walks of life and their reason for becoming homeless are equally diverse, but together they are a family, and it is through knowledge, experience and the effort of our Companions to achieve more in their lives that, as a Community, we are able to provide them with opportunities they would not otherwise have. 

Emmaus Sheffield works alongside several partners in preventing and relieving homelessness, many providing referrals for placements within our Community.

What we do

We work with our Companions offering four core services: accommodation, training, meaningful work and support.  We support those that are unemployed, homeless and socially excluded, improving mental and physical health and boosting their dignity, sense of self-esteem and self-respect.

All Companions are registered with a GP when they join the Community and are actively encouraged to seek medical advice for even minor problems. This will instil confidence in doctors and other medical staff, and also provides them with a pathway to access mental health services within the NHS. 

Companions have a safe environment and space to find themselves, daily support from staff, volunteers and trustees, training opportunities and access to quiet areas - a little quiet time can be hugely beneficial to an individual’s wellbeing. 

Training is an important part of Emmaus Sheffield, by providing a personalised training package for each Companion and encouraging them to take on new challenges, we try to equip the Companions with skills to allow them to make a fresh start and have a better chance of employment.

Within the social enterprise Companions work alongside volunteers and staff to run the charity shop, the café, the collection and delivery service, as well as working in the onsite workshop. This supports on the job training opportunities such as till skills, woodworking, warehouse, customer service, and retail skills. 

We also offer cooking sessions, financial guidance, literacy and numeracy, group activities and we provide access to external support from a number of partners that work closely with our Companions to support their health and well-being needs, as well as provide vocational training. Collaboration and partnership working is pivotal to success, as it allows us to utilise specialist skills not readily available.

Our social enterprise is not only a home and community to the vulnerable adults we support, but also a business that supports the local community. With the cost of living crisis still ongoing, and people in our local community struggling from day to day, more people are hunting out good deals when purchasing new items, and we have welcomed more customers through our doors this year.

We offer a free collection service to customers who wish to donate their unwanted items which in turn provides them with an efficient, friendly, hassle-free service that means their donations avoid landfill and go to a good cause.

Through the support of the people in the local community we have had some great donations allowing us to offer more items for sale, including products created in our workshop.

 Why we do it

We are the only charity in Sheffield that provides a long-term placement for formerly homeless people. We believe that providing a safe home is the first step to restoring their mental health, removing the obstacles in accessing services and restoring their dignity and self-belief. 

We encourage Companions to re-establish relationships with friends and families where possible, supporting them to overcome any issues that initially caused the relationship to breakdown. This helps to improve their sense of worth, and to regain their identity.

In 2023, Emmaus Sheffield helped 29 homeless adults over the course of the year and we hope to be able to help a similar number every year. We had 12 Companions move on from Emmaus Sheffield last year; three secured jobs and moved into rented accommodation, four moved in with family/friends, one moved into other supported accommodation, and four chose to move to other Emmaus Communities. Since opening our doors in 2008, Emmaus Sheffield have helped over 300 formerly homeless men and women, over 70% of whom have moved on with a positive outlook, returning to their family, independent living and work.

"Our Community has been full for almost 2 years and I feel this is a sad indictment of the times we live in. There are more people homeless now than ever before and perhaps as a society we need to ask why."

Graham Bostock CEO

Lloyd's story

Lloyd was a very disruptive teenager, both at school and at home.

Classed as a troublemaker at school, Lloyd was always at the bottom of the class and would mess around, but in reality, he was struggling to read and write. Expelled from school at 15, Lloyd got in with the wrong crowd, began committing petty crimes, and by the time he was 19, he was serving two years in prison for armed robbery.

Lloyd didn’t commit another crime after leaving prison, but for the next 20 years he drifted through life, working jobs for cash, sleeping on friends’ sofas, effectively putting his life on hold, ashamed of his past.

In 2019, Lloyd came across Emmaus Sheffield, and soon after joining the project, he was officially diagnosed with Dyslexia, which had a massive impact on him as it meant he could access specialised help when it was needed.  Four years later he gained his level 2 Health and Social Care qualification.

Lloyd left the project in 2023 to start his new life and new job as a Trainee Youth Worker in a local charity, but he still popped into Emmaus Sheffield on a regular basis for a chat and a cuppa, as well as cooking for the Companions.

Unfortunately life didn’t go Lloyd’s way, and in June 2024 he was told that charity he worked for was shutting their doors through lack of funding and he was losing his job. He has since moved back to Emmaus Sheffield, where he is learning to drive and looking into different training courses, to ensure he has all the skills and tools he needs to succeed next time.

“Emmaus Sheffield has always given me chances to ensure I am the better version of myself, this is a very unique place to live and work.  I know I have the right support and guidance to succeed.  I am back at Emmaus, this hasn’t upset me that I have taken a back step, sometimes things go wrong in life and you have to step backwards in order to move forwards.  I feel like I belong here at the moment and I am very grateful for them for giving me another chance.”

Why we need your support

As a homeless charity, potential donors commonly overlook us in favour of more appealing groups. When people think of homelessness, they tend to associate it with drink and drug use. Whilst this is sometimes true, it is not always the case. Homelessness is caused by many other factors, and the beneficiaries within our care are homeless for many different reasons. We work with each Companion to create individual support and training packages to enable them to overcome their past, face their problems and start to look forward.

We are raising funds to replace our Community car, a 17 year old Suzuki SX4. The current car is costing us more and more each year to maintain and is not as reliable as it once was.   We would like to replace it with a more environmentally friendly electric car, which will not only lower our ongoing maintenance costs, but by opting for an electric vehicle we will be contributing to reducing our carbon footprint, which is part of our environmental commitment and sustainability ethos.

The car is very important to the Community. It is used almost every day to to pick up shopping, people or medication, staff use it to take Companions to important appointments such as opening a bank account, looking at properties when they are ready to move on, or medical appointments. The car is also used for group days out, giving Companions time away from the social enterprise, and Companions are also able to use the car to go and visit friends and family.

By showing our trust in them to take the car out of the Community on their own, we help improve their self-worth and confidence. Having access to a car also gives them more independence. Improving their general wellbeing is an important part of the work we do with the Companions.

A few Companions are learning to drive or have recently passed their driving test. With a newer car, they may have the confidence to start driving it, gaining vital driving experience which would have a massive impact on their self-esteem and give them more options for future employment. It would also encourage more Companions to learn to drive, seeing the independence their friends have, and having the ability to more easily reconnect with their family or friends.