Following a grant application by Joanne, service manager at Matson House, the CareTech Foundation was delighted to donate £1,000 to The Friendship Café through their family and friends grant.
The Friendship Café provides youth & community based activities, focusing mainly but not exclusively on young people, children and families in the inner city and surrounding areas of Gloucester.
Since April 2011, the Café has also managed the St. James City Farm and now runs a variety of activities, including archery, karate, and sewing classes. It also provides horse-riding lessons, which the service users at Matson House enjoy.
The grant supported the Friendship café’s developments for additional resources to their city farm project and to the café. When Joanne submitted her application, the team was in the process of trying to build a café to allow more individuals to drop in to meet others – helping to reduce social isolation. The café, situated in a multi-cultural area of Gloucester, ensures that everyone is welcome and included.
Joanne said;
‘It has been an amazing resource not only for the local community but for our service users also.’
When hearing about the grant, Imran, Co-ordinator and volunteer riding instructor, told the Foundation;
‘We are really grateful for this grant – it couldn’t have come at a better time! We are on the verge of opening a community coffee shop based at our centre; something that we feel is really needed in the community. We have been planning and working on this for a long time, thanks to help from lots of different organisations, and in our final stages we realised that we are going over budget. This grant will go towards some last pieces of kit that we needed.’
Jonathan Freeman, Chief Executive of the CareTech Foundation responded:
‘The Friendship Café is a fantastic project and exactly the sort of thing we love to support. I know the activities it offers are making a real difference to young people in care and to the wider community.’