We recently spoke to the wonderful people over at Power To Change for their monthly podcast. Power To Change is an independent trust that supports community driven businesses. They believed in our project right from the start, and in turn gave Cafe INDIE the chance to support a multitude of other people and projects in turn. There’s so many things that go on behind the scenes here that people don’t always see. I think they say it best in their own words: “the term “cafe” doesn’t really do justice to the range of things that go on”.
Here at INDIE we’ve always done our best to be a room of requirement of sorts. To simply be whatever people need us to be, to do our best to listen and lend a helping hand. Whether that’s community groups looking for a place to meet, to homeless folks looking for respite from the cold, local artists looking to share their work and meet like-minded people, to people that just feel lost and are looking for guidance. We pride ourselves in welcoming people from all walks of life, from many different backgrounds, because we can all learn from each other. We can draw from each other’s experiences to improve our local community in a way that benefits everyone. It’s why we’re a co-operative; we’re run by our members so that everyone gets a say.
There’s a place for everyone here at Cafe INDIE, but our main focus has always been developing young people. It’s such an important time in our lives, that helps define who we are, so we always offer a welcoming and understanding atmosphere to anyone that walks through that door. It doesn’t matter if they’re struggling with their health, their confidence, if they’re looking to learn new skills or simply see a friendly face; everyone has their voice heard. We’ll always make time. The more people believe in the work we do here, the more we can help young people believe in themselves.
In the podcast you can hear mentions of just a few of our success stories. Young people that we have helped overcome obstacles, grow in confidence, and find support from ourselves and each other. Some have used their own experiences to go on and help others in turn, some have used the skills they developed to work and contribute to the local area. All will hopefully take on our ideals of working towards the wider community.