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Head Room cafe

Cafe’s Pay it Forward Scheme provides help for those in need

A community cafe in Golders Green provides free meals and drinks to those in need if customers pay for an additional item.

The purpose-led cafe, Head Room, uses its Pay it Forward Scheme to provide food and drink tokens for those who are unable to afford it. 

Customers pay for an extra item and leave a message for the receiver who can then discreetly take a token off the wall and hand it to the barista who will get their items for them.

Head of strategy for Jewish Care, Karen Wilson, said: “It felt like a nice thing to do, it’s nice for the person donating and for the recipient.

“We try to do it in a non-intrusive way, if possible.”

Head Room supports people with mental health issues through creating a community environment, where customers are able to discuss them with a mental health practitioner or a peer.

Wilson explained there is a clear link between people from poor socio-economic demographics having some likeliness of mental heath issues.

This can be the other way round as well, as people who struggle with mental illnesses may also struggle to keep a job or get support so this adds to the reasons why the scheme was implemented. 

The scheme was inspired by the Suspended Coffee Movement, a tradition which started in Italy.

Wilson said: “It very much fits with our ethos.

“Being there for people when they need it, without having to embarrass them by being able to ask for it.”

“The community programme doesn’t exist anywhere else, there is no other mental health cafe that does what we do.

“That fact that it is open to anybody and whenever we are open, there are people who are available to support others, is incredible and the fact we are outspoken about mental health on the high street in North West London, there isn’t anywhere like it in the country.”

Jami, a mental health charity for the Jewish community, opened the cafe in 2017 to provide a community feel for customers to not feel alone with shared workspaces as well as volunteer and professional peer support.

Wilson described the key theme of the cafe as being coffee and connection.

She said: “It’s not about just getting a coffee or having a warming space to go, it’s about providing a connection.”

The cafe helps in creating good mental health by having a free space where people can connect with others in different capacities, either for a one-to-one conversation or sitting in a group.

Their aim is to normalise issues surrounding mental health in a commercial way.

The cafe aims to be self-sustaining in the future as any income generated goes into the charity to provide the mental health services.

Wilson said: “It’s a nice, cool cafe on the high street to have a coffee, and meet with a mental health practitioner or a peer support worker.

“This is a good example of how a community looks after each other, and I think we lose that in today’s society so I think this is a really lovely example of how that spirit is lived locally.”

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