We want to open a Youth Cafe called Branches, for young people aged 12 - 18 in Botley, Oxford. Currently there are no services for young people and there is no safe place for them to hang out and try to develop their talents and interests. The vision is that young people will come into the Café after school and at weekends and find a safe, welcoming and friendly atmosphere where they can socialise and be fed and watered. From there, they can get involved at different levels in the running of the Café as Young Volunteers and start to learn skills and develop interests. They might help out serving and waiting on tables, or they might start to train in the kitchen and gain work experience in catering or customer service. They can also be supported in developing their own ideas. As the staff team is led by qualified youth workers, those young people who need more support or have a higher level of need will be particularly encouraged and enabled to become active members. We believe that young people should be a valued and integrated part of our community, and given the opportunity to shine and show the positive contributions they can make, and be helped to find skilled safe local mentors to guide them.
We have a premises to work from and donations will contribute towards equipping the kitchen, furnishing the café area, and creating a well-resourced project room. We have already got some of the money from grant funders that we need to match, but also for all those essential things that don’t fit into usual funding bids (like washing up liquid!) and employing someone to keep it all operational.