A new lease of life for an old barracks supporting homeless people and the wider community.
Homelessness
London
Dec 2015
Dulux Team Transforms South Lambeth Charity
Emmaus Lambeth provides a home and meaningful work for up to 54 formerly homeless people, known as ‘companions’. All companions agree to sign off of Job Seekers Allowance and work as volunteers in the Community’s social enterprise. By living in this Emmaus Community, and volunteering in one of its seven shops, formerly homeless people have the chance to gain some stability and support, and take the opportunity to find a positive way to move on with their life.
Emmaus Lambeth houses 27 of its companions at their West Norwood premise. From here they also manage a furniture warehouse and a number of shops on West Norwood High Street selling donated, recycled goods.
Each of the Companions has a role in one of these social enterprises and running the community. Within the property there are kitchen facilities and a communal lounge. As part of this there is a ‘night kitchen’. This acts as a server point for the main kitchen during lunch and dinner times, and a self-service kitchen for companions and staff at breakfast and other times of the day
The need
Companions (former homeless people) at Emmaus Lambeth have superb new kitchen facilities thanks to the generosity and great team work of Dulux Trade, 8Build and Howdens.
Working together with CRASH and the companions Howdens re-designed the space and supplied new kitchen units and 8build took on remodelling of the space then fitted the kitchen units and sourced and laid new flooring.
All that was left to complete the project was some painting and decorating.
The solution
A team of Dulux Trade volunteers spent the day decorating the space after consulting the companions on the colour scheme.
How patrons helped
Marketing Manager Duncan Lochhead, led and recruited the team of volunteers to get the project finished.
Volunteers from Dulux decorating
The newly painted dining area
The completed kitchen
The social impact
The Dulux Trade Marketing team is really grateful to CRASH for linking us with the remarkable people at Emmaus and helping with the organization of the project It gave us the opportunity to step out of our daily routines, connect with the companions, and do something practical to transform the house’s communal living spaces.
Marketing Manager at Dulux
The companions kindly prepared lunch for all of the volunteers who were pleased to have got to the opportunity to meet, chat and learn so much more about the work of Emmaus. Overall they felt that they had a great team-building day and felt proud to have contributed to a great cause.
