St Andrews Church Netherton launches weekly Wellbeing Cafe

St Andrews church in Netherton launched a weekly Wellbeing café last month to provide a safe and warm space for anyone looking for more support or to connect with others.  

The café is intended to be very informal. Those visiting can help themselves to free tea, coffee, squash and biscuits. They can do a jigsaw or a craft activity such as crochet either by themselves or with others. Volunteers are on hand to chat or offer a listening ear. There is also a separate prayer space available for those who appreciate this kind of support. This follows the format recommended by the Renew Wellbeing charity.

The café was launched following a successful pilot that took place over the six weeks of the school summer holidays and 9K of funding being secured from the local council to redecorate and provide renewal heating for the space, and to purchase a coffee machine. The café now takes place from 1-3pm on Friday afternoons and is visited by an average of 8-12 people.

Rich Hackett said:

“We’re pleased to be able to offer this space to those in our community who need it. They may be people experiencing loneliness, depression, anxiety or grief. All are welcome to come and join in with the activities and the prayer or tell us what we can pray for later, but equally they can just come and sit, enjoy a warm drink and just ‘be’.”