Group checks in for a chat

YOU won’t find a commercial coffee machine or barista making your drink at the Long Gully Neighbourhood Centre’s Chatty Café, but you will find smiling faces and a chair waiting for you.

The Chatty Café Scheme is a global initiative aiming to connect communities in hospitality or other social venues by designating a table where strangers can sit together and talk.

It was launched at the Long Gully site a few weeks ago and community development worker Kerry Parry said it was helping people rebuild their self-confidence when they need it most.

“A lot of people are pretty shellshocked with COVID, social isolation is such a big deal for most people, and I think we’re all a little bit nervous about re-entering society and mingling again,” she said.

“What we wanted to be able to do was encourage people to come and gather together in a safe way and, particularly because many cafes still haven’t opened up their full space for people to sit and have coffee together, we thought it was an ideal opportunity to say ‘okay, let’s have our own Chatty Café here’.

“That’s what we want to be able to do is provide a safe place for people to gather and connect with other people just tentatively, just a tiny little step.”

Under current COVID-19 restrictions, the Chatty Café space can hold 12 patrons at its scheduled session every Tuesday morning from 10am to 12pm.

“We get pretty close to that each time,” Ms Parry said. “At this stage, we’ve not had to turn anybody away, which has been great.”

The new initiative is an extension of offerings the centre has made to its community throughout the pandemic, like their New Beginnings newsletter which Ms Parry said helped regulars stay in touch.

“For us, it’s about helping people understand that they all have a place, everybody’s welcome at the table,” she said.

“We want their self-esteem to grow, we want them to be able to say ‘hey, I belong. I can connect in here and it doesn’t matter who I am or what my past has been, I’m welcome here because this is a neighbourhood centre’.”