Starbucks Fitzroy Street

The K9 Community Cafe is a non profit, unincorporated charitable group based in Ely,Cambridgeshire. We are run entirely by volunteers who form the steering group and board of trustees. We are a community drop-in café for people who like dogs.Some people bring their dogs along, some come on their own, with friends or with support workers. The dogs are the social glue that helps us all stick together and look out for each other . This provides a warm,welcoming place to be, social support, and friendly conversation (as well as cheap tea and coffee!!). The K9 Cafe acts as a hub for other support services and ideas for new projects. We are supported by our local pet store, a local dog trainer- and currently Starbucks. The main focus of the K9 Cafe is to support those who are socially isolated, experience anxiety or depression, have other mental health problems, or maybe just like to come and meet other dog lovers. We get people of all ages, skills and abilities including wheelchair users, adults with substantial learning difficulties, people who experience a lack of confidence and professional support workers. It has fast become a 'hub' for doggy advice and guidance, a great place to socialise your dog, and a lovely friendly welcoming place to 'just be'. It is now a regular part of some folks' calendar and they are lost without it. At the moment we meet once a week. Our cafe is run by our volunteers who are learning new skills as we go along, as well as meeting a range of people with different communication needs and growing and developing in themselves as they also help others. Please check out our website to learn more about our work and our other volunteering schemes.

Blue Smile is a Cambridgeshire children’s charity that provides counselling and therapy for pupils in schools between the ages of 3 and 13 during a critical window of opportunity for change. There is a growing mental health problem among our children and young people and this kind of targeted early intervention can help prevent later mental illness and associated behaviours. Without it, a vulnerable and disadvantaged child can grow up to become a troubled member of our community. We provide the kind of specialist support in schools which gives a vulnerable child the expert and consistent care they need. We call on highly trained paid and voluntary professionals to do this work and use school premises, so it is both a highly skilled and cost-effective intervention. £1 spent on therapeutic support now can literally save £100s later on by avoiding the costs of mental health facilities or youth offending institutes. Most importantly, these children deserve such professional care and support so they are helped to fulfil their true potential and to turn their lives around.

Three children in every UK classroom is struggling with mental health problems. We work throughout Cambridgeshire which, despite being a county associated with wealth and high achievement, has hidden pockets of deprivation that are among the worst in the UK and where children are most vulnerable. We work to alleviate a child's distress in order to prevent it spilling over into the classroom and then out into the community and to help the child build resilience, realise their potential, and to go on to lead a fulfilling and productive adult life. Early intervention is critical to our success, so we work with children aged between 3 and 13. We work mainly in primary schools, using an arts-based approach to therapeutic support, which is shown to be highly effective in helping children articulate their inner world and overcome their emotional pain. For a vulnerable child, such an experience of being understood and valued by a caring and consistent adult is quite literally life-changing.