About Us

Emmaus Village Carlton has always had the intention of becoming an integral part of the wider community. In the seven years since we first opened we have achieved our core aim of establishing a home and work for 29 previously homeless people. Support for the project has been from a very diverse number of funding and grant making bodies including the Lottery, private donations, company donations and a huge number of private individuals. Not only have we succeeded in establishing our core Community and re-cycling business, we have also been fortunate in being able to carry out several local community projects. We are committed to developing a range of services for local people and organisations. We intend to re-furbish the old Chapel building as a Community Hall together with the Gardens, specifically designed for use by visitors and companions, including those with mobility restrictions. We are also in the process of refurbishing another building and have let out office space to several people and organisations, with we hope more to follow soon.

The Emmaus Movement

EVC is a member of the worldwide Federation of Emmaus Communities. The aim of Emmaus is to turn charity on its head. It not only offers homeless people the opportunity to help themselves, but to help others - it is the latter which allows the rediscovery of a sense of purpose in life.
The following is an extract from the account by Abbe Pierre of the birth of the Emmaus Movement in post-war France: ".. The first Companions? They came because they were broken or in despair. It was as simple as that. The first companion was a failed suicide. Twenty years earlier he had killed his father in a moment of desperate anger. Pardoned after twenty years of hard labour, he had returned to an unbearable family situation. He tried to kill himself. I was called to help. But when I spoke to him, I could tell that he was not listening. There was only one thought in his mind, and that was to try again and this time not to fail his suicide. That's when Emmaus was born. Because, without thinking, without premeditation, I did the opposite of charity. Instead of saying: "You are miserable, I will give you a roof over your head, work and money", circumstances made me do exactly the opposite. I could only say, because it was the truth: "You are desperately unhappy. And I have nothing to give you. I have already given away my own family fortune. As a Member of Parliament, I am not poor because I am paid a parliamentary allowance. But I have nothing but debts. All my money is spent before I even receive it, to repair the house and to lodge those in need. Look this is where I live, dividing my life between Parliament, my constituency in Lorraine and the reception and maintenance of my Hostel I am tired and can't respond to all these calls for help. But you, because you want to die, there is nothing holding you back. So please, wouldn't you like to help me to help others?"
That was the birth of Emmaus.
At a time of continued homelessness in this country and tragedy and destruction elsewhere in the world, Emmaus is as relevant today as ever.

Dom Gregory van der Kleij, OSB.

We are very sad to have to tell you of the death of Dom Gregory, Superior of the Monastery at Turvey in May 2005. Dom Gregory was the founder of Emmaus Village Carlton and this is his story about how the project became set up: "A homeless man, Chris, used to visit the monastery quite often and still does. We were thinking and thinking about setting up Emmaus and saw no way of doing so. Chris got a lift to somewhere from a businessman who listened to Chris describing Turvey. The result of their chat was a cheque for £20,000, for the monks to use as they wished. We all agreed where that money ought to go and our donor therefore added another £10,000." A large number of his friends became interested and together with the Monks raised enough money to start up the Community in December 2001. We have made incredible progress with the Emmaus project and are very grateful to Dom Gregory for his beginning it.