Sometimes the best ideas come from the simplest places. For the Health and Wellbeing Café it was a combination of the offer of accommodation and permission for staff to go ahead and develop something which would help local agencies bring together people with a variety of needs and their carers, family members and friends, in an informal setting.
The initial idea is a great example of think yes in action. As Social Work Assistant Diane McLellan describes, the café developed organically to take advantage of an offer of one afternoon a week at the Salvation Army Café in Perth city centre. The idea for the weekly gathering then grew based on user feedback and experiences to become a regular feature of the Perth city calendar.
To ensure that this much-used resource returned to use as soon as possible after lockdown, Covid restriction measures were put into place with inductions and training on how to meet at the café safely provided to returning and new volunteers and visiting agencies.
Designing the café around a community of shared interest and needs has created a new way to bring volunteers, services and the public together in a relaxed environment, helping them all to offer support outwith the traditional ways of accessing services.
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