From humble beginnings to a thriving community
Since opening our doors in 2021, Educafe’s journey has been nothing short of remarkable. Founded as a post-COVID community initiative, we embarked with the support of West Berkshire Council aiming to simply foster connections amongst diverse communities. Our initial goal was to serve 20-30 people per week.
Fast forward to today and Educafe has blossomed into a vibrant hub for well over 1,000 regular members and approx 6.5k visits per year.
Thanks to our regular visitors, passionate volunteers, dedicated English learners and our extended family of supporters (plus the heartwarming presence of dozens of babies and toddlers) each week, our cafe is always buzzing.
We also offer activities outside the café including English language courses, wellbeing activities, workshops, community navigation and meet-ups.
Our growth and success is due to the hard work, generosity and innovation of our volunteers, partners and donors and the basic fact that humans need togetherness to feel happy, healthy and resilient.
As we write this in Summer 2023, we are certain that need will only increase for our services as the Cost of Living and other world events continue to impact on our everyday lives.
Our current funding runs out in March 2024. We need long-term funding to continue to run our weekly cafe at Newbury Library and to preserve and build on the valuable work we have done to bring our community closer to each other.
Playing the long game
It’s our dream to build a team to support Educafe in the long-term and eventually have dedicated space for our community to meet more regularly.
We would love to offer more low cost and free events, workshops, classes, meet-ups and an affordable community café on other weekdays. We hope by growing our team and aiming to secure premises, we will generate more income, not rely on handouts and be more sustainable for the longer term.
This crowdfunder will help to secure our future so we can continue to provide a safe space for everybody in our community to meet, get to know each other, feel valued, and cared for.
It’s our mission to make our West Berkshire community and every person - no matter what age or background - more connected, empowered and resilient.
We are committed to providing free and affordable wellbeing, education and community services that meet local need and benefit those who are vulnerable and who struggle the most in challenging times.
You can help secure Educafe’s future. Please support us however you can.