What if your unwanted coffee table could give someone a second chance at life? That’s the power behind Emmaüs France, and this French community with over 70 years of fighting poverty is proving that solidarity never goes out of style.

A Movement Born from Crisis

In 1949, as France was struggling through a severe housing crisis, a man known to his parishioners as ‘Abbé Pierre’ (Father Pierre) founded Les Compagnons d’Emmaüs, an ‘association for solidarity in the fight against poverty’. Selling furniture and objects which had been donated, Emmaüs employed people in need to build homes for those who had lost their own.

Born Henri-Antoine Grouès in Lyon in 1912, the man who would become Abbé Pierre studied with the Jesuits and Capuchins as a young man before being ordained as a Catholic priest in 1938, turning his back on a wealthy family inheritance. During World War II, he played an active part in the résistance, taking on different identities to evade the Gestapo. As ‘Abbé Pierre’, he escaped to Spain before making his way to Algiers, where he met General de Gaulle. He kept this new name until his death in 2007.

As an MP in the Meurthe-et-Moselle in eastern France, Abbé Pierre met a suicidal former convict and had the idea to invite him to help build temporary homes for the homeless anywhere he could find land. The first Emmaüs community was born, taking its name from the biblical town in the Gospel of Luke, where two men saw the resurrected Jesus and regained hope.

The Call That Changed Everything

Five years later, in 1954, as the housing crisis hit its peak in France, the Compagnons d’Emmaüs couldn’t build their refuge homes fast enough. Abbé Pierre took to the waves of Radio Luxembourg to launch his now famous ‘insurrection de bonté‘ (uprising of kindness). “My friends, please help…” he began, creating a wave of solidarity from the French population, who flooded the phone lines with donations and turned up to lend a helping hand for free. Soon the government followed suit, contributing funds to help open emergency refuges for those without a roof. Each one would display a sign that read: “Those who are suffering, whoever you may be, come in, sleep, eat, and regain hope, for we love you.”

Slowly the organisation grew more branches, and other charitable organisations joined the ‘Mouvement Emmaüs’. These included the ‘Relais’, shops selling donated items and employing victims of poverty and exclusion to repair and prepare goods for sale, with funds raised going towards building houses. From the roots of the movement in one French town, today Emmaüs has sprouted a widespread network throughout France, and even has members in 41 other countries worldwide.

Adapting to the 21st Century

Unfortunately, homelessness and poverty haven’t gone away since Emmaüs was founded, and its communities are still needed as much as on the day it was created. The world has changed but its problems remain, and on the same pillars of solidarity, unconditional help, active autonomy and sustainable development, Emmaüs is constantly adapting to modernise the community and continue to provide a structure for those in need.

In 2016, the trend for second-hand item websites like Vinted and Leboncoin threatened the association’s shops. But instead of seeing defeat, the idea was born to create Label Emmaüs, the first ever non-profit multi-seller website. The site now lists almost 2 million items which have been donated, reconditioned or recycled, and a logistics platform was opened in Paris in 2018 to help support the demand, giving books that aren’t selling in the Foundation’s bricks and mortar shops a second chance, and renting furniture out to film studios. This year a second platform was opened in the Lot-et-Garonne in southwest France, Label Plateforme 47, housing office furniture donated by businesses.

The Digital Revolution Continues

More recently, 2021 saw the launch of Trëmma, a play on the accented ‘u’ in Emmaüs, confirming the organisation’s place in the 21st century. Taking the idea of donating items to sell online one step further, Trëmma is a participative financing platform which allows people to not only donate items but also decide where the money from their sale will go. Sellers first list their items in a few clicks, as they would on other platforms. Then they choose which initiative they want to benefit from the sale, with projects such as helping refugees gain access to education or the day-to-day maintenance of a farm created for women who have recently left the penitentiary system.

The fact that this digital transition has been so successful is an example of how shopping online can be virtuous. “We are a cooperative without dividends or distant shareholders,” says Maud Sarda, co-founder and manager of Label Emmaüs. “There are no robots in the warehouses, just a bunch of people who simply needed a helping hand to reveal how talented they are. Nothing is new, only second-hand. For five years this alternative method has shown a 100% yearly growth…economics CAN rhyme with solidarity and eco-responsibility!”

The Future: ïkos in Bordeaux

This spirit of always building on past experience, of never giving up in the face of adversity, means that new branches are constantly being added to the initial Emmaüs family tree. The most exciting example of this is being built in Nouvelle-Aquitaine at Bordeaux, where a new project called ïkos hopes to reunite many of the members of the Emmaüs Movement under one roof.

Expected to open in 2026 or 2027, the monumental site at La Jallère will be a 15,000 square metre centre bringing together the people who sort and sell or recycle textiles (Le Relais), a zone for second-hand books (Le Livre Vert), a recycling area for small appliances (R3), sports equipment (Recyclerie Sportive), another to recycle unusable items into decorative objects (Atelier D’éco Solidaire), a depot for materials to be used on building sites (Soli’Bât) and a network of shops where second-hand objects can find a new life.

Food waste will also be tackled through a depot for unsold ingredients turned into jams (Echange Nord Sud), while toys will find a second life after having received a little love from the on-site staff (Replay!). The huge warehouse space will also house Envie Gironde, helping those who have been excluded to reintegrate into the workplace. This ambitious project is expected to create over 200 jobs, more than half of them in insertion programmes for people facing exclusion.

How You Can Make a Difference

Every single new project to spring from the Emmaüs fountain honours its founder’s fighting spirit, and the organisation’s success at tackling competition by going online shows the world that there is always hope to change the status quo.

Abbé Pierre spent the rest of his life fighting for those facing exclusion and poverty, living by the Universal Manifesto of the Emmaüs community: ‘serve those in need first’. You too can help to make a difference by joining the Emmaüs community as they continue this vital mission. Whether you donate unwanted items, shop at Emmaüs stores, volunteer your time, or simply spread the word about their work, every action helps give someone a second chance. Visit your local Emmaüs branch, explore their online platforms like Label Emmaüs or Trëmma, or attend one of their solidarity sales. In supporting Emmaüs, you’re not just clearing out your home, you’re helping to build homes, create jobs, and restore hope for those who need it most.