Starbucks Borough, 223/227 High Street

We are seeking your support for the 'Dragon Cafe' which started in October 2012 and is a pop up community cafe in Southwark and meets currently at St Peter's Crypt, Liverpool Grove off the Walworth Road, SE17 2HH. It is open every Monday from midday until 7.00pm at night as an innovative, creative space for improving wellbeing, a menu of free activities designed to promote creativity and connectedness, and offering good value vegetarian, nutritious food. Each month a theme is pursued by our freelance curators and a programme of new activities is created together with our regular and much used sessions of Tai Chi, yoga, massage, gardening, singing and dancing. The work of local artists, in keeping with the theme, are shown on the walls of the Dragon Cafe which occupies a large space divided into two, giving us a quiet room and an active room. On average 150 people come through our doors every Monday, the majority of whom have poor mental health. We run the Dragon Cafe each Monday with part time staff and a team of volunteers on rota from a pool of volunteers. The volunteers are drawn from the cafe patrons, as well as other networks, local community mental health teams and South Bank University. The weekly programme adapts and innovates continuously. It pops up once a week to engage, connect and inspire people to help them with their onward journey of recovery through the week and beyond. The Dragon Cafe has creativity at its heart. We train our part time staff and team of volunteers in Mindful Working & Reflective Practice which enables them to support people with mental health issues. Each new person is introduced to the activities and services in the Café and is walked through the two big rooms (one a designated quiet space) meeting the staff, regulars and volunteers. This process allows for observation of their wellbeing as well as a suggested matching of their interests with the arts activities.

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