What we did at our Cafe of Hope

There was lots of animated discussion around tables as around 30 of us met on Weds 18th October for our Cafe of Hope, with copious amounts of cake!

Here’s what people said about the event on the feedback forms:

We started the evening celebrating all the great things that are already happening with a display round the room, a powerpoint slideshow on the screen, and then watching a new video entitled ‘Horsforth Stories of Hope’ which you can see by clicking on the button below:

Discussion Time in two rounds

Everyone could choose which themed discussion table to go to for the second round, which helped people to get together around the themes closest to their hearts.

The main ideas from the themed tables were:

Hope for Children and Families

• A Family Club for parents and children – low cost activities like table tennis – maybe Sunday afternoon/early evening (avoid sports!)?
• Have joint kid’s activities, pooling resources
• Keep up the good work with Open the Book!
• Get children involved in other projects e.g. food pantry
• Adopt a grandparent!
• Signpost to each others’ events, put adverts in health visitor packs?

Hope for Young People

• Need a longer term plan – start with the children whilst younger and build continuity through to teenage years
• Build a team to pray and work together
• Option to have a paid worker? / work with Kidsklub?
• Maybe start with a monthly youth event?
• Look at the big picture, how to make connections and build on: family worship, youth choir, youth groups already running, uniformed groups, football/sports and schools work

Hope for people in later life

• MHA Communities – 600 members and activities every day, based at Central Methodist – need better communication about the good things they do?
• Care Homes: already providing short services at Bedford Court every 6 weeks (rota between churches), will be approaching new home Horsforth Manor to offer something similar so will need more input from churches and volunteers/musicians
• Natter benches – 2 at present, but would be good to have more, and in places where people are more likely to stop and chat
• Anyone wishing to befriend older people/visit can do probably do so through MHA or through churches

Hope for people seeking sanctuary

• Social events for those seeking sanctuary – relaxed concerts, local musicians (or more participatory like a ceilidh), St Margaret’s willing to host on Fridays
• Volunteers to help with languages
• Doing ore to help local people understand what it is like to be a refugee
• Donations of clothes and essentials – even greater demand as the number of men in the hotel is doubling (sharing rooms)!

Hope for people struggling to make ends meet

• Community Food Pantry – plans underway for joint project starting at St Margaret’s and then moving to St James’ when building is ready
• Will need help with funding / goodwill / volunteers / communication through HCT
• Community Cafe to run alongside pantry
• There is a big need to communicate well about the Food Pantry at the right time – how it works, what the plans are, the benefits etc
• Debt is a big problem – signposting to agencies and advice – a team of people could be trained and be available at different connecting spaces e.g. toddler groups / food pantry / cafes / MHA etc.

‘Other’ themes: included Climate/Green issues, Communication across the town, Working with the Town Council

• Climate/green issues: decarbonising, sustainability, raising awareness; St Margaret’s have a group working on these issues, could other churches learn from them / have an environmental lead in each church?
• An area on the HCT website for climate/green matters? Renew links with Climate Action worker now there is a new person in post
• Communications: some feel Facebook is declining in usefulness, what else can be used – need a diverse approach, build on what is already there, both online and physical – library/Farmer’s market/shops/through schools and Children’s centre/MHA/community cafe etc
• This meeting clashed with another one at the Town Council – try to make better links in future (works well in some ways already, need to enhance)

Here are some other ideas we didn’t get chance to discuss in detail..

We prayed in our groups, then finished with a blessing standing in a circle and the discussions didn’t stop there…

Weren’t at the meeting but would like to link up with others on an idea?

If there is anything here that resonates with you or you have another idea, do email Rhoda at rhoda@horsforthchaplaincy.org and we will try to link you with others that are involved in that area