Member Article

Volunteering Supports Ending Homelessness

Providing opportunities to work in the retail trade Goldcrest House have developed a volunteering partnership with the homeless charity Emmaus.

Goldcrest House service user Phillip Priestley is the first person to benefit from the arrangement where he supports the charity through offering his skills and expertise by preparing donated goods for display and sale in the Goole charity shop.

Phillip gained his volunteering position through his own merits after attending an interview with the shop manager. Molly Coleman Emmaus shop manager says: “We were really impressed with Phillip’s eagerness to contribute. His previous experience working for Autism Plus and Scope were a definite plus for us, we had no hesitation in welcoming Phillip into our team.”

Phillip says: “I enjoy going to work, I enjoy the rapport, its loads of fun, and hopefully this is the first step to enabling me to find paid work in the future.”

Ralph Parish, registered manager at Goldcrest House says: “This is a huge step for Phillip, for which we thank Emmaus. We now hope to see Phillip realise his hopes and dreams of developing his retail experience and working towards gaining paid employment.”

Based on Boothferry Road Goldcrest House is a centre of excellence dedicated to addressing the individual needs of adults over 18 affected by Autistic Spectrum Disorder and learning difficulties. It provides residential care, supported living, long and short term respite care, day services and outreach to meet the varied needs of those who access the service 52 weeks a year; its aim is to be the UK’s quality service of choice.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Goldcrest House .