Welcome to Emmaus Sheffield!

Whilst the idea of setting up an Emmaus community in Sheffield was first mooted as early as 1991, it didn’t come together as a solid group until 1998 with Martin Davies as chair. It became a company limited by guarantee in January 2000 and is an independent charity affiliated to Emmaus UK. We currently have a strong group of trustees with good, varied skills and solid experience in issues of homelessness.

The group has identified a couple of potential sites for Emmaus Sheffield over the past few years, however it was not until last year that a real possibility was found, that being Sipelia Works.

You can read more at www.emmaus-sheffield.org.uk.

The Site

The building is an old steel and cutlery works, typical of Sheffield. The advantages of the building are that it is close to the city centre yet remote from residential areas. There is great potential for passing trade for a shop and café, due to its position. We hope to also take advantage of the history of the site by opening up a small heritage centre. We anticipate that the core business of the community will be refurbishment and recycling of furniture, but clearly the site has several other potential means to be self-sufficient. We gained planning permission in April and, in March 2006, finally purchased the building. Building work is now underway to create a shop area and en suite facilities for our first 7 companions who, we anticipate, will be joining our community in early 2008. We are now able to accept furniture and household items and we have a van which has been donated by South Yorkshire Police which is now taxed and insured and ready to go!