Community Cafe
The Foxton Centre is Preston’s main provider of daytime services to rough sleepers and other homeless and vulnerable adults …
The Community Café offers people a comfortable, safe space in which they can get a nutritious and affordable meal, socialise and take advantage of a variety of organised activities, such as accredited life skills training, arts and crafts projects and social activities.
Clients are also able to access support within the Café from a team of community social workers, project workers and students, who work with small case loads, offering intensive daily support to people with complex needs.
The Community Cafe has seen changes over the past 12 months including new courses being introduced, extended activities and service users increased involvement in the organising and running of events.
Currently, the Community Cafe offers AQA accredited courses in the following subjects:
- Cook and Eat – Learning to identify inexpensive healthy meals, budget for a recipe and cook in a safe and hygienic manner.
- IT Course – Service users learn basic computer skills, including opening and creating word documents, accessing and searching the internet, creating and sending e-mails, opening and creating power point documents, and using publisher to design cards/newsletters.
- Greenfingers Allotment – AQAs are available for being involved in all aspects of seeding, planting, growing, digging, weeding, crop rotation etc.
- Alcohol Awareness Course – this course is primarily linked with the Wet Garden and encourages people to look at and assess their own drinking habits and behavior. It also allows people to look at the role of alcohol in a wider context.
There are AQAs available for being involved in different aspects of the Community Cafe also. The Service User Committee has taken on a role for organising and managing community events and trips which has been accredited using AQA units.
Volunteers also have an opportunity to gain AQA accredited qualifications through volunteering in the kitchen and learning basic food safety and hygiene.
Some of the delicious meals made at the Community Cafe: Rosemary focaccia, Murgh Hyderabadi curry with rice and naan, forest fruit meringue.
