Filey woman’s story in Archbishop’s book

Filey-born Emily Finch has recently received top recognition for her charitable work with her project “The Bus Stop” in the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu’s latest book “Agape Love Stories”.

The Bus Stop project involves a double-decker bus which has been lovingly converted into a comfortable and welcoming space which helps to build relationships between young people and the community with local churches.

The idea of this bus conversion had been with Emily since her teenage years, but started to turn into reality when she was on a work placement as part of her youth work degree.

Emily was working with local churches who were experiencing difficulties in reaching out to the youth and the community – often due to a lack of resources. This struggle, witnessed first-hand, was the driving force behind Emily establishing her charity to help build relationships beyond the church’s four walls.

Emily explained, in her story in the Archbishop’s book, that “it felt like nothing exciting ever happened in Filey – perhaps this could be a way of making church fun”.

Emily’s vision began to be implemented after buying an unused double-decker from a church in York. After a few awkward conversations with her parents about putting her life savings into a bus needing refurbishment and a full respray, The Bus Stop charity was founded in March 2015 by Emily, aged just 23.

The bus, now fully painted in a vibrant purple and refurbished thanks to generous donations, tours around schools and communities in Yorkshire, whilst still working alongside local churches to build these community links. The bus has multiple roles, such as acting as a community cafe, hosting evening drop-in sessions, mobile youth clubs around Yorkshire and church communities events, as well as being used as a prayer space for local schools.