Make a difference – how schools can work with Emmanuel House

We see tremendous value in raising awareness and educating younger people on the issues surrounding homelessness whilst providing opportunities for children to express their feelings on the subject. In our experience, young people respond very well to information on this topic and many have taken great initiatives to raise awareness and funds for those experiencing homelessness in Nottingham.

We are pleased to offer a flexible schools project designed to raise awareness and educate younger people on the issues surrounding homelessness. This is a pilot project currently running with a small number of local schools. The ‘Make a Difference’ project outline involves opportunities for research, reading and writing, as well as artwork that can be displayed in classrooms or at our support centre in Hockley.

Getting started

To kick things off, we offer an introductory Zoom session with Denis Tully, CEO at Emmanuel House. Key points include:

  • What homelessness means
  • How it can happen
  • What people need
  • The vital services provided by Emmanuel House.

We also explain how everyone can make a difference and support our work.

We recognise that schools are a busy place and follow up work can be tailored by teachers for the appropriate level of abilities and learning. We provide a ‘Teachers cue sheet’ to support the key learning points covered.

Get creative and get social

Classes or groups are invited to brainstorm fundraising ideas and carry out any fun practical activities as directed by their teachers, within the time frame and resources available.

We will keep in touch throughout the project and offer any support needed with follow up work or fundraising.

On completion of the project we love to celebrate the work undertaken by schools with a thank you letter and certificate. We hope to display work created by schools in our centre for staff, volunteers and beneficiaries to see and we regularly publish news stories to profile and celebrate our amazing supporters.

A visit to the school can be arranged and we welcome visits from our supporters in accordance with government guidelines. Once normal circumstances resume at the centre we are very happy to show (over 18) visitors around and explain more about our work.

Case study: Horsendale Primary School

The Year 2 Dragonfly class at Horsendale Primary recently completed a project with us and raised an amazing £735! Following their introductory Zoom assembly, the class organised their own fundraising activities, which included sponsored chores and an online ‘Family Fun Night’ hosted by their teacher, Mr Jordan. Their follow-up work also involved creating special pieces of writing for display in their classroom, which can now be seen on display at the support centre.

Their teacher Mr Jordan said: “This project has been a fantastic experience. I have been really impressed by the maturity of the children in discussing this topic. They have been full of great ideas and have led on the sponsored chores activities. I have been a teacher for 14 years and I’ve never seen such a huge response to a project.”


Case study: Rise Park Primary School

Earlier this year a Year 3 class at Rise Park Primary School started a project with us as part of their ‘Facing Challenges’ topic.

Their teacher Mrs Scholten said: “Thanks once again… The children loved it and really learnt a lot from you! Both teaching assistants who were in school had so many positive things to say about the workshop.”

If schools are interested in finding out more about Emmanuel House’s schools project they can contact gill@emmanuelhouse.org.uk.


Case study: Nottingham High School cooks meals for our night shelter

Video credit: Nottingham High School.

Nottingham High School‘s Year 10 students recently cooked 30 meals for the guests in our night shelter. Led by Mrs Stafford, Head of Food and Nutrition, they spent their morning making meat and vegetarian pies and cheesecakes.

It was a pleasure for our Year 10 Food and Nutrition students to work with such a worthwhile local charity and we started the session by watching your clip ‘Lone’ to set the context for the activity. I think our students then appreciated what they had got and got a flavour of some of the stories behind the people and their personal situations. We then had a very busy morning with our students working in teams to mass produce a selection of traditional steak, cottage and vegetable pies followed by some mini summer fruit cheesecakes to be served that day for lunch and dinner at the Night Shelter in Nottingham.

This was a really great lesson in life for our students and the opportunity to really make a difference to others and give something back to others not as fortunate as themselves. We have really enjoyed working with Emmanuel House on this community project and we really look forward to supporting you again in future projects in the Autumn term as the winter draws in.

Mrs Stafford, Head of Food & Nutrition

Everything we do contributes to helping people out of homelessness or preventing homelessness in the first place. Providing food contributes to that aspiration and receiving meals such as these is an incredible gesture of support.


If pupils, parents or teachers would like to fundraise for Emmanuel House or make food for our service users, please email rosie.needhamsmith@emmanuelhouse.org.uk