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Featured project: Cadence Cafe CIC

Cadence Cafe CIC's community room

Cadence Café CIC is a family-run community organisation and social enterprise in Tyldelsey, near Wigan. We met Cadence’s Youth Director, Kerry-Anne Bradford when we visited community projects all over the country to find out about the great work they do and spread the word about Just Act.

Cadence Café is a lively, thriving community hub in Tyldelsey – a small town situated just between Wigan and Manchester. The organisation runs gigs and events for young people, arts projects, a monthly community cinema and projects that give young people a helping hand to find employment, education or training. They also have a space upstairs where young local musicians can practise.

The family behind Cadence Café

Cadence is not just a community project, but a family project. Kerry-Anne told us how her step-dad set up the project two years ago. Kerry-Anne spent a lot of time in her university years volunteering and now having graduated is in charge of many of the day-to-day aspects of running the project, such as admin, HR, payroll, bookkeeping and bid-writing.

How would you describe the area?

"It's quite a working class area - I wouldn't say that it is full of poverty, but there's just no that much to do around here"Kerry-Anne told us: “It’s quite a working class area – I wouldn’t say that it is full of poverty, but there’s just not that much to do around here.”

This was one of the key motivations for starting the community project – as there was a lack of things for young people to do, there was a real need for a space for them to come and socialise. Anti-social behaviour was a real problem in the area, which the provision of creative activities can help to reduce. Kerry-Anne told us that the project was set up in order to give the community a place to go that they could be really proud of.

She also mentioned that unemployment is something of an issue nearby. Cadence runs a whole range of projects to help people get skills and experience to find employment.

Cadence Cafe CIC's community room

What’s the difference the project has made?

They also work a lot with young people who are not in employment, education or training (commonly known as ‘NEETs’). Kerry-Anne said that although this work can be a challenge, she finds it really rewarding.

Since Cadence Café’s inception two years ago, lots of the young people who have benefitted from their work are now in education again or have gone on into employment.

Kerry-Anne told us that one the most rewarding examples of working with young people was during education sessions that gave participants a project of their own to organise, such as a gig or an event. Kerry-Anne told us that as well as improving their skills, she was able to notice improvements in their attitude too.

"It's so rewarding to see you've made a difference in someone's life"“One girl was the worst one. She really tested our patience but now she is now so polite. It’s so rewarding to see you’ve made a real impact on someone’s life.”

Cadence Cafe CIC's community room

What’s coming up for Cadence Café?

We found out that locally, local authority budget cuts had left quite a big gap in day-care services. Kerry-Anne told us that 200 jobs had been lost, so they are about to start providing services to try and cover some of what was lost locally.

And another project on the go is working alongside others in the community to give the local high street a makeover. Kerry-Anne said that in a plan to increase spending locally, the community is looking to renovate the high street, giving each shop a matching sign and introduce illustrations on the shop-shutters.

You can find out more about Cadence Café CIC on their website, as well as keep updated with what they are up to with their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Featured project: Cadence Cafe CIC, 3.7 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

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