I started working as the Stroud Shop Manager in November 2023 and everyone here was so helpful and supportive. We have a good volunteer and companion team, and everyone works together really well.
My varied career history, before Emmaus Gloucestershire, hopefully brought transferrable skills to the team. My last position was as a support worker for adults with learning difficulties, and I have also worked in charity retail management, as an estate agent, and as a barber and hairdresser.
Discovering Emmaus
I think being homeless is a horrible position to find yourself in and I have always tried to support street homeless individuals by donating clothes, food, or giving them money to help them in some small way. I knew that I really wanted to help people who were experiencing homelessness, but I didn’t know a lot about Emmaus until I was interviewed to join the community team.
When I researched Emmaus, I thought it was so amazing – giving people a home, work experience and a reason to get up in the morning. It’s not just that either, companions are given the support and opportunity to break down barriers and gain new skills and qualifications. Some have got help with driving lessons, counselling, all sorts! At my interview, I heard about Emmaus in more depth, and I thought just, wow it’s amazing. If I didn’t get the job, I would have applied to be a volunteer.
Generous donations
We’re very lucky with donations, people give generously, and we get a lot of good items. We try to fit as much as we can into the shop whilst making it visually appealing too. Saturday is our busiest trading day and we are always really stocked up for the weekend. Our window display is constantly being refreshed, which I think has drawn in people who haven’t come in before, and we always get a lot of compliments about the shop looking nice. We also get a lot of regulars coming in and they always say that the Emmaus cause is so amazing.
Volunteers
We are very lucky with our amazing volunteers; we have people helping in different areas and we also have a few students on work placement through Ruskin Mill College. We always try to have an awareness of people’s different needs and what they want to achieve by volunteering. Some of the volunteers have very specialised things they like to do, like sorting DVDs, and we’ll accommodate them with what they want to do.
We are currently looking for volunteers to join our team. Whether it’s helping on the till, cleaning, scanning books, or offering specialist advice on donations, we are grateful for anything that volunteers are able to do to support our charity. We have volunteer applications in the shop for anyone who wants to stop by.