The Blue Flamingo Café is a place to meet new people and old friends, have a chat, and enjoy a brew in a dementia-friendly community space. We provide refreshments including a light lunch and a selection of biscuits and cakes. Always available are resources from our lending library which include a wide range of jigsaws, puzzles, memory aids, books, and games.
Founded in November 2021 by Erin Singleton, the idea for the Café was born from her personal experience in caring for loved ones living with dementia.
When considering how to design the Café, Erin used her experience as a guide when establishing the Café. In addition to being a place that offered stimulation to those with dementia, she wanted it to be a hub where their carers could meet in a familiar and friendly space to share challenges and advice with others facing the same situation. She wanted it to be a place where visitors could feel that they were part of a community. It was important to Erin that people who visited the café could interact with their loved ones in a meaningful way that they couldn’t do at home, even if that was just for an hour on any given day. These small moments can have a long-lasting impact and over time, this contributes to overall positive mental health.
The Blue Flamingo Café is 100% volunteer-led.
Our aim is to provide a safe and friendly environment which promotes community and wellbeing. Although originally designed specifically as a place for those with dementia and their carers to get together to chat and enjoy activities with others who are in the same situation, it is open to anyone who is looking to be part of a community, especially those interested in promoting positive mental health.
Dementia is a challenging condition, both for those who have the disease and those who help care for them. The life of a carer can be isolating and lonely. Finding a place that caters to someone with dementia and has the wellbeing of their carers at heart can be very difficult. Our goal is to grow the Café into something larger, so that we can offer more sessions here in Ashton and branch out into different communities throughout Preston. Figures from the 2019/20 Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicate that there are 11,408 known cases of dementia across Lancashire. These numbers are significantly higher than the rate for England. * These figures demonstrate the importance for organisations like ours to continue the work they do within the community.