Offering Support to Those Who Need It Most: Our Latest Charity Update

Emmanuel House is an incredible charity that offers vital support to people who need it most. We are delighted to be showing our support to Emmanuel House Support Centre again this year.

We have been supporting Emmanuel House for a number of years, via monetary donations, food donations, and last year our CEO, Dan Smith, CMO, Alex Broxson, and Communications Lead, Anna Murphy, visited Emmanuel House at the centre. They were so moved by the support that Emmanuel House provides, that they arranged for Retail Assist to sponsor the centre for a day. After all of 2020’s challenges, here at Retail Assist, we’ve decided to continue our support and donate £1,500 to their winter appeal.

Rosie Needham-Smith, Marketing and Fundraising Officer for Emmanuel House, said: “Thank you so much to everyone at Retail Assist. These contributions make all the difference to Emmanuel House – we couldn’t do it without you. We really hope to be able to welcome you back to the centre at some point this year!”

Emmanuel House’s winter appeal is one of their most important fundraising events and it is used to sustain the running of the charity all year round. However, last year was a big challenge for many charities and Emmanuel House reported they could be at risk of a £70,000 shortfall as a result of the pandemic. With sources of income and community funding having been drastically reduced, it came at a time when more and more adults were facing homelessness, and with numbers of vulnerable and isolated adults across Nottingham increasing.

Alex said: “In December 2019, we got to visit Emmanuel House’s charity centre, so we’ve seen first-hand the amazing and critical work that they do. Last year, we sponsored Emmanuel House for the day and once again we would like to support this charity at this crucial time. Instead of a client event this year, we have chosen to donate to Emmanuel House on behalf of our customers and colleagues.”

If you would like to support Emmanuel House, you can donate via their Virgin Money Giving page here.

This year, Emmanuel House commissioned a short film based on the lived experiences of Nottingham’s homeless people. The finished short film, Lone, raises awareness of the work Emmanuel House does to help those who are homeless, rough sleeping, in crisis or at risk of homelessness. Lone follows Gemma, a young woman who becomes homeless after the relationships around her break down – something that could happen to any one of us.

Rosie said: “I’d really recommend watching our short film, Lone. It’s based on the lived experiences of homelessness and is the perfect way to show how we help our service users.”

Watch Lone here.

Image credit: Emmanuel House