A nice warm cup of coffee, a slice of cake and a therapy session. Can cafes be the answer to helping those in need or crisis? During this seasonal period, not everyone has someone to see during Christmas and this can often be isolating. However, café and coffee shop owners are doing something about it. Many coffee shops, cafes and local eateries have started up several campaigns to help those in need.
Around the UK, a handful of cafes have decided to hold fortnightly sessions, letting anyone from the public come in and speak openly about what’s on their mind. With the company of like-minded people and a comfortable atmosphere, these safe zones have helped many from feeling loneliness. To facilitate these events, volunteers are used to encourage people to meet likeminded individuals and build lasting relationships. During a time like this, where anxiety and uncertainty are affecting a greater number of people, these ‘safe’ events are allowing many to talk openly and give time back to themselves, allowing them to help others and themselves.
Chatting amongst strangers can be difficult but the use of cafes has been designed to create a welcoming atmosphere, compared to the often ‘cold’ atmosphere of clinical facilities. Alongside these regular cafes are late night cafes, designed to help those in urgent need of help and advice. Having late night cafes can sometimes be the difference between life or death in serious situations.
Café from Crisis
Café from Crisis works to end homelessness through practical hospitality training whist serving fresh and socially conscious food and coffee in our bustling cafés.
Through technical training such as kitchen craft and barista skills, members can gain qualifications and confidence in a public facing environment where they are supported on their journey out of homelessness. Crisis provide trainees practical skills, refreshed confidence and industry knowledge to equip them for future opportunities. Meanwhile, every purchase made by customers is reinvested into the resolution of homelessness in the UK.
Crisis has partnered with Volcano Coffee Works to create an ethically sourced and unique coffee to be sold in cafés and shops across the UK. The partnership will also provide an extension of their retail and café traineeship that offers employment training and opportunities to their members to help them into work.
Crisis Coffee is sold in each of their own branded cafes, located in London and Oxford for now. Crisis hopes that with every purchase, a little good can be done whilst drinking a brew.
Find out more about Café for Crisis - https://www.crisis.org.uk/get-help/services/cafe-training-programme