The idea
We all want healthy, safe places in which to live and work and to meet each other, and where children grow up safe from harm and knowing we’re there for them. Especially now.
Before lockdown we were running a lovely busy café and community hub two days a week in Tonbridge High Street. As we emerge from the crisis, safe and welcoming places like Angel Café are needed more than ever and we’ve found a new home thanks to the lovely people of St John’s, Hildenborough.
With a range of activities and support, from crafts to play therapy to social prescribing, Angel Café is a true 'place of welcome'. Everyone can come, relax, enjoy and be supported. A place where friendships are made and people are valued and all can play their part; where together we can make Kent an even safer, healthier, more fulfilling place in which to live, work and grow.
Angel Café looks and smells like a café – and it is – but we are so much more than that. We look forward to welcoming you!
What we'll deliver
- Create a new community hub and playspace for Hildenborough;
- Provide access to family services and support;
- Promote community involvement, peer learning and volunteering.
Why it's a great idea
Angel Café will bring immediate benefits to the community of Hildenborough as a place to meet and where parents and carers will be welcome, and their young children will have safe spaces to play and build healthy relationships. The wider community, such as many of those who visited us in Tonbridge before lockdown, will come and bring friends, family members and neighbours.
Angel Café is a ‘trauma-informed café’ with professional support on hand, such as play therapists, early years and parenting specialists, to provide a supportive, nurturing environment. As we emerge from this most difficult year, we are aware (and the evidence suggests this is so) that we all need a sense of community and the resilience and healing this brings.
We'd love to see more Angel Cafés, and will look to support other communities to set up their own versions. We hope therefore that Hildenborough will become a meeting place and a hub for innovators, change makers and future community leaders.
Steps to get it done
- Install a high quality fresh coffee machine and other kitchen equipment;
- Subject to lifting of Covid restrictions, café opened to the community;
- Set up and equip safe play/learning spaces indoors and outdoors.
Angel Café is a project of Angel Lane CIC, a not-for-profit community organisation and social action project based in Tonbridge. Angel Lane offers services and support for children and families, and we provide training and workshops for organisations and professionals working across Kent and Medway.
We are also part of the 70/30 Campaign, a UK-wide network of individuals, organisations and elected representatives working together to reduce child abuse, neglect and other adverse childhood experiences.
