Wellbeing café opens in Emmer Green

A café with a difference is set to open soon in Emmer Green.
Located at Caversham’s Grace Church, in Peppard Road, it is the Light on the Hill Café, a wellbeing café, which offers a safe, shared space where you can find a warm welcome, peace and connection. It is a drop-in group for adults (18plus) needing support with their emotional wellbeing and to help folk who may be feeling socially isolated.

“There is a growing awareness of the need for mental health support” said the pastor of Grace Church, Keith Saynor. “Our wellbeing can be affected by a number of reasons – it may be social isolation, suffering a bereavement or a divorce, being in chronic pain or simply because of the pressures and stresses of life in the 21st century. Building up friendship and links with others is a great way to combat the isolation we can feel during difficult times.”

After a trial opening in June, the Light on the Hill Café will open every Wednesday (term time) from 7.30 – 9.00pm from 14th September. It offers coffee, cake and chat, plus a range of craft and hobby activities – or simply some peace in a special quiet area which is available for prayer or reflection.

Grace Church are partnering with Renew Wellbeing for this project, a national charity which helps churches to open safe spaces, providing resources and support, volunteer training, and networking with other similar spaces. A Renew Wellbeing statement comments, “To work in partnership helps us to
build a national network of safe spaces so that other organisations such as local mental health teams can confidently signpost people to a Renew space in the knowledge that it will be a safe place where it’s OK not to be OK.”