Sompting Community Church Connect Café gives local people in the community support to enable them to improve their quality of life. The aim is to reach out to people to build friendships, help and support them; this allows people to re-connect with their community after periods of recent lockdowns, all over a free cup of tea.
Connect Café is run by volunteers from Sompting Community Church. Sompting Foodbank runs in conjunction with the Connect Café, and this creates a lively, friendly environment with people from a variety of backgrounds attending.
They used a grant from Sompting Big Local Action Fund to move to a larger premise to allow the sessions to continue during the pandemic when rules allowed.
By moving the sessions from the Sompting Big Local Hub to the Harriet Johnson Centre, it has allowed the Connect Café to stay open even when COVID restrictions have been tightened due to the outside space available.
On average 35 people attend the Connect Café every week, with 90% from Sompting. One of those who attends Connect Café say ‘Connect has helped me get through lockdown by having somewhere to go. Everyone at Connect is friendly and makes you feel welcome. It has been a lifeline’. Another has commented that he has say access to the Harriet Johnson centre for his wheelchair and by being able to get there he gets to know what is happening in his area and gets him out and about.
Connect Café is looking to expand and are seeking new volunteers to build on success of the project.
Connect Cafe runs Tuesday Morning from 10.30am at the Harriet Johnson Centre.
Grand Awarded
Average number of Attendees
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Percentage of attendee who are Sompting residents
