Case Study

Emmaus St Albans

Emmaus St Albans has been in operation since 2001, providing accommodation and jobs for around 25 formerly homeless people.  The work of the community involves preparing donated household items for reuse, raising an annual income of £160,000 and making it financially self-sustaining.  This success encouraged the idea of expanding into a more general wood recycling service. For this to take shape however, external assistance was required.

REalliance CIC - the delivery partner for a free Capacity Building Programme for Third Sector Organisations supported by the Waste & Resources Action Programme supplied the solution.  Providing Emmaus with specialist staff expertise allowed the new wood recycling project to be realised.

This partnership resulted in a significant increase in the number of contacts for collections and a 55 per cent sales growth within three months.  In the first two years of operation the business is expecting to collect and recycle or reuse around 270 tonnes of wood and another 50 tonnes of furniture.

Emmaus St Albans Community Leader, David Bex, concludes: “Without the support provided to us by REalliance CIC, we could not have got our new wood recycling project up and running as successfully - or as quickly - as we have.”