Environmentally Friendly & Cost Effective Support From ACO

A car park may not be the first thing you would imagine a homelessness charity needing, but when the homelessness charity depends on its social enterprises for their funding it becomes a little clearer.

The need

At Emmaus, homeless people find a place where they can enjoy companionship and support. All Companions (residents) work full-time with the onsite Shops and Bistro providing a commercial setting where skills can be learnt in a friendly atmosphere. CRASH has been working with Emmaus Village Carlton, Bedfordshire for many years on various schemes the most recent being The Dovecote Project. This was an innovative development which created six additional bed spaces along with a refurbished Shopping Mall experience and History of Emmaus Learning Zone.

“The old building was so cold we had to work in our coats, gloves and hats. The customers would pick up on how cold it was and wouldn’t stay for any length of time to look around, which was bad for business,” explained one Companion. He continued, “The new furniture shop is so important to us all. It will also give us much more space to display all the wonderful furniture we get donated by our loyal customers, and no more leaky roof!”

The solution

Now all customers have new parking spaces too which will go a long way to helping relieve the current pressure on the main car park which becomes very busy especially at lunch times throughout the week. The use of permeable gravel filled “GroundGuard” parking bays and porous paving has made the new car park construction both environmentally friendly and cost effective because no drainage was required.

How patrons helped

This project was made possible through the generosity of CRASH Patron ACO Technologies. CRASH supporter Aggregate Industries donated kerbing that finished the project to a high standard.

Before & After:

The social impact

The support received has resulted in a saving of £9,500 for Emmaus.

“Working with ACO and Aggregate Industries was very encouraging. Assistance was given throughout the project and additional and appropriate help was forthcoming as and when necessary, even when material changes had to take place. Overall the help given by both companies was considerable. CRASH’s support with this project, to provide much needed additional car parking spaces at Emmaus Village Carlton, has been superb. Their interface with their Patrons from inception to completion was excellent, complimented by the valuable assistance given to the project by the Patrons themselves, as and when required. Thank you.”

John Creasy

Emmaus Village Carlton