Emmaus Cambridge homeless charity still 'relevant' 30 years on

A homelessness charity that was the first of its kind in the UK when it started 30 years ago is still "relevant and needed", its founder said.

Emmaus Cambridge was founded in 1991 by businessman Selwyn Image after working at an Emmaus community in France.

The charity provides accommodation, work and training to homeless people, with no time limit on the support.

Mr Image said after volunteering at the charity in Paris he "knew we had to try starting one here".

Emmaus now has 29 communities across the UK, with the Cambridge branch able to provide support for up to 44 people, known by the charity as "companions".

The idea for the charity began when Mr Image volunteered in a night shelter in the early 1990s and spoke to a homeless man who was using the shelter.

Mr Image said the man told him he wanted his "self-respect back", and did not want handouts.

He said he then remembered the Emmaus community in Paris, where he had worked as a student in the 1960s, and began setting one up near Cambridge.

Mr Image acquired the site at Landbeach in March 1991, which consisted of two derelict buildings in a field.

Volunteers got it ready and the first companions moved into caravans later that year.

Mr Image said: "Today, 75 years after its foundation in France and 30 years here in the UK, the unique Emmaus offering of providing meaningful work, a supportive environment and the opportunity to recover self-respect are still as relevant and needed as then."

Ian grew up in Darlington and went to university in Bradford, but dropped out after a year because of mental health issues.

He said he spent the next five years in psychiatric hospitals, and after working in office jobs in the 1970s, he became homeless in the 1980s.

After spending time with different homeless organisations in various parts of the country, in 1997 he "had nowhere to go".

"I referred myself to Emmaus and was accepted straight away at the Cambridge community," he said.

"I spent six months there to begin with, left for two and half years to work, and returned to Emmaus Mossley before transferring back to Cambridge - where I've been ever since."

The 73-year-old sorts the bric-a-brac donations and gets them ready to sell in the second-hand shop, and has his own self-contained flat within the community building.

"My health is holding up, my mental health issues are more or less gone, and I would like to hopefully finish out the rest of my days at Emmaus Cambridge," he said.

The Emmaus charity was started in Paris in 1949 by Henri-Antoine Grouès, an MP and Catholic priest, after he asked a homeless man to help build homes for the homeless mothers who came to him looking for support.

The site at Landbeach has a cafe and collects and sells people's surplus goods in its charity shop and online - a model which has been replicated across the UK.

Chief executive of Emmaus Cambridge, Diane Docherty, said it was a "very special place to work".

"From its very humble beginnings Emmaus Cambridge is now a thriving community and social enterprise, our ethos of 'helping those less fortunate than ourselves' has spanned the last 30 years," she added.

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